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Every week, I promise myself I won’t dunk on the Democrats again—and every week, they give me a reason to break that promise. I know I give them a lot of flak, and maybe it seems unfair given the fact that Republicans in Congress are members of an authoritarian-embracing cult that no longer believes in the separation of powers or checks and balances. But I criticize them because I’m rooting for them to be the strong opposition party we need to lead us through a legitimate constitutional crisis.
On Tuesday night, they failed to be that party again.
In our last issue, I said Democrats would look silly and unserious with stupid ploys that would play right into Donald Trump’s hands at his address to Congress. I thought they should refuse to attend, and 65% of you agreed. Instead we saw congresspeople wearing pink and holding up little signs. FFS Democrats, this isn’t 2005. It was corny. It was weak. And it’s exactly why you lost. Trump is a performer. You are not going to outperform him in the same room when he has the stage. Why even try?
Democrats had a chance to boycott the speech and counterprogram it, maybe with a rally, maybe with town halls throughout the country, maybe with simultaneous fact-checking to dispute Trump’s claims in real time.
But they didn’t, and they missed the moment.
Look, I get the Democrats’ position. The Republicans were in political no man’s land 16 years ago, when we had a new Democratic president and a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress. So what did we do? We took it straight to the people with the Tea Party, and we swept Congress two years later. The pendulum swings.
But what makes this moment different is we don’t know for sure if the pendulum will be allowed to swing and if Americans will be allowed to give a midterm middle finger to the administration. These aren’t conspiratorial fantasies; they’re based on Trump’s own track record and rhetoric. That is what Democrats must oppose with all their might.
Instead, Trump did his thing: he self-aggrandized, he lied about almost everything (even mice!), he spread fear and division, he was cruel and bigoted, and he did what all authoritarians do—used something good to distract from the downright awful things he is doing. And against that onslaught, Democrats just looked small. Not a good night for America.
Check out my podcast from earlier today! Thanks to Trump, Bigotry, Racism, Indecency, Cruelty & Ignorance Are Now Cool