For years, I have argued that the battle between the Right and the Left in this country is one-sided. Only the Right and the Republicans are battling. Democrats have been barely resisting, let alone engaging the Right. This is what I argued during Trump’s first term. During this second term, the Trump administration has become significantly worse. As Robert Reich describes it, “the US government has become a neofascist regime run by a sociopath.”
While much more fight is needed to save this democracy, the national Democratic leadership is missing in action. The polls reflect this situation. Americans are frustrated with current politics. They want stronger checks on Trump, and they are disappointed with Democrats. Some 56 percent believe Congress is not doing enough to limit Trump’s power, and 53 percent say the Trump administration is failing to respect checks and balances.
Democrats and left-leaning independents grew more frustrated during Trump’s first 100 days in office, with 71 percent feeling afraid of where the Trump administration is headed. They show increasing concern that Trump is acting without enough pushback from Congress or the courts. And they blame the Congressional leaders.
While the Republican leaders in the House and the Senate have negative favorability ratings, the Democrats are not seen as the solution, as the approval ratings for Democratic leaders in Congress hit a record low in April, just 27 percent, the lowest since CNN began polling in 2008.
Most of the Democrats in the House and Senate proceed as though this is normal, with one party butting heads against the other, provoking fake senatorial politeness. It is not. This is a constitutional crisis, requiring more vigorous opposition.
Among other horrible actions by the Trump administration was the pardoning of 1,500 of his insurrectionist supporters who were convicted of crimes, including vicious attacks on police officers on Jan. 6, 2021, and cutting $880 billion, mainly from Medicaid, which provides healthcare to more than 90 million Americans, to pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts primarily benefiting the rich.
And then there is the unconstitutional destruction of USAID, a tremendously successful soft diplomacy mechanism, by Trump’s henchman, Elon Musk, which had saved an estimated 26 million lives from AIDS alone, not to mention millions more through food aid. Billionaire Bill Gates commented, “He [Elon Musk] could go on to be a great philanthropist. In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.”
Democrats are the minority in the US House of Representatives and the Senate, so they cannot completely block actions by the majority, the Republicans. One of the tactics that Senate Democrats had at their disposal was the Senatorial Hold, where any Senator could object to a presidential nominee. This objection could be overcome only by a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. That would have slowed Trump’s war against democracy and the Constitution, demonstrating some backbone. Democrats did not use this tool very much against some horribly unqualified cabinet nominees by Trump. Now they do not have that tool anymore, even for sub-cabinet nominees, as last week Republicans in the Senate employed the so-called Nuclear Option, which blows up the confirmation process. Now, a majority, 51 votes instead of 60, is required for confirmation.
Robert Reich says, “keeping the US government funded now is to participate in the most atrocious misuse of the power of the United States in modern times.” Thus, he and others like the group Indivisible are pushing Democrats in the Senate to vote against the current government funding bill, in effect shutting the government down.
Such action would be a powerful stance against the Trump authoritarian march.
