On the menu today: After examining the joys of annexing Gaza, the on-again, off-again trade wars with Canada and Mexico, the likely next secretary of health and human services’ belief that whites and blacks need different vaccine schedules and lack of interest in Medicaid and Medicare, and the chameleon-like ideological transformations of the woman likely to become the next director of national intelligence, it’s time to turn our attention to that other party in Washington, although you’re forgiven if you’ve forgotten the Democrats exist. Life in the minority was always going to be tough, but right now the Democratic Party in Washington is a Superfund site, with a dearth of leadership that makes the Republicans’ recent times in the wilderness feel like a comfortable stroll.
A Floundering Party
Democrats don’t have the White House, a Senate majority, or a House majority for the first time since January 2, 2019, and you can tell they got really used to having control of at least one chamber.
Before we go further, we should note that Republicans will soon have the slimmest House majority possible. They currently “enjoy” a 217-215 House majority. Sooner or later, Elise Stefanik is going to have to resign to become ambassador to the United Nations; a week ago, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance her nomination out of committee. On April 1, Florida will hold two special House elections for the districts formerly represented by Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz. Between Stefanik’s resignation and April 1, the House will have 216 Republicans and 215 Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Democrats in the New York State legislature want to rewrite state law, which currently requires a special election be held within 90 days of a declared vacancy. Democrats were talking up the possibilities of pushing back the special election to the June 24 primary date, or even the general election in November.
After years of insisting that the Republicans are a “threat to democracy,” Democrats want to ensure the voters of New York’s 21st district have no representation in Congress from later this month to either late June or November. They are now literally a shadowy cabal of powerful elites who are conspiring to undermine the democratic process and stifle the voices of the American people. (Perhaps recognizing the political risk of trying to keep a GOP-leaning district unrepresented as long as possible, on Monday, state assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who chairs the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, said that the legislation was “on pause.”)
Senate Democrats still have the filibuster, but the filibuster doesn’t apply to reconciliation, which allows Republicans to stuff any policy proposal dealing with the budget into one big bill and pass it with as few as 50 votes, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.
On paper, Democrats could attempt brinksmanship with the next debt-ceiling increase . . . but this entails the usual dilemma of taking a hostage that you’re not really willing to shoot. (Few have noticed that the Treasury Department is taking “extraordinary measures” to keep the U.S. under the debt ceiling.)
As the Treasury Department states, “Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences. It would cause the government to default on its legal obligations — an unprecedented event in American history. That would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten the jobs and savings of everyday Americans — putting the United States right back in a deep economic hole.”
For years, under Democratic presidents, Democratic members of Congress insisted the debt limit should be regularly increased with no strings attached. Now they’re going to tank the economy, just to score a win against Trump?
Trump won’t face the voters again, we’re almost two years away from the midterm elections, and congressional Republicans are much less troubled by hostile press coverage than they used to be. The guy running the Department of Government Efficiency is the world’s richest man, runs his own social-media platform, and doesn’t need the job.
In the minority, Democrats can’t subpoena anything and can’t call hearings, although they can call witnesses at hearings called by the majority. They can demand this or that — Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats want a second hearing for FBI director nominee Kash Patel, Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats want to know what security precautions had been taken to prevent unauthorized leaks of information by staff at the Department of Government Efficiency — but the GOP majorities and Trump administration can just ignore them.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote a letter to President Trump: “We write to demand that you cease your purge of non-partisan, civil servants, including career professionals and independent government watchdogs.”
Take that!
Democrats have convinced themselves they’re going to thwart the agenda of the Trump administration and the GOP majority through “the streets.” Last Friday, Jeffries warned that Trump’s agenda is “not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”
(Get all your “how dare he encourage January 6–style violence” takes out of your system.)
“Fighting it in the streets” apparently means holding a lot of rallies and press conferences outside of government buildings in chilly February weather. NBC News:
On Monday, congressional Democrats staged a protest outside USAID. On Tuesday, they appeared outside the Treasury Department. On Wednesday, they spoke to a crowd near the Capitol and another outside the Labor Department.
Note this delicious detail in The Nation’s coverage of Tuesday’s protest outside the Treasury Department:
As one after another member of Congress outlined the horrors perpetrated by Musk and his team of tech lackeys, protesters would shout back, “Arrest them when they come out!” and “Lock him up!” As the speeches continued, one especially plaintive chant took hold in the crowd: “Tell us what to do!”
We can laugh, but a chant of “tell us what to do” does represent how most progressives see a citizen’s relationship to the federal government.
According to Axios, Democratic lawmakers’ offices are getting flooded with calls from furious progressive constituents, demanding those elected officials stop Trump, his nominees, and his agenda. One member of Congress fumed regarding the callers, “You are literally calling the wrong people.”
I’m reminded of the time in 2009 that a progressive activist confronted Wisconsin Democrat David Obey and demanded to know why congressional Democrats weren’t doing more to end the war in Iraq, and why the House hadn’t stopped funding for the war:
Obey: How, if you don’t have the votes? It takes 200–
Activist: With a filibuster on his supplemental request!
Obey: There is no filibuster in the House!
Sometimes it is delightful when the opposition’s grassroots doesn’t understand how the legislative process works.
Besides the usual difficulties of life in the minority, I don’t think it is unfair to call Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Jeffries less than ideal leaders at this moment. On January 29, a group of six Democratic governors called up Schumer and basically labeled him and the rest of the Senate Democrats weak in their response to Trump so far. And you don’t have to look too far to find Democratic talking heads fuming that Jeffries’s response to Trump has been far too weak. (Do you envision either Schumer or Jeffries as a “wartime consigliere”?)
The old Democratic political dynasties like the Clintons and Obamas are gone. Sure, Obama will remain an influential voice behind the scenes, but he’s not going to be front and center as the public face of the second-term resistance.
A curiosity: The Barack Obama Presidential Center was announced in 2015. Construction didn’t begin until 2021. The presidential library is scheduled to open in 2026 — almost ten years after Obama left office! According to the Daily Beast, fundraising for the slow-moving project has taken a hit in recent years:
Rather than shine as the nation’s lasting tribute to America’s first Black commander-in-chief, costly delays and worrying setbacks are in danger of turning the 225-ft watchtower library and museum project on the south side of Chicago into the Obamas’ financial folly. . . .
In 2022, Jeff Bezos and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky bailed them out with $100 million apiece to boost the year’s total to over $311 million, but fund-raising nosedived by more than 50% to $129,320,227, the following year, according to IRS filings, and supporters are nervously awaiting the 2024 totals as costs spiral upwards and delays pile up.
We’re told there’s a certain schadenfreude in some circles as the Obamas weren’t seen to be playing the game as they climbed the slippery pole to the White House. “He’s arrogant,” said one donor who ended up giving substantially less than they could.
“He didn’t help others when they were trying to fundraise and so they’re not going to look out for the Obamas now. There’s no quid pro quo because it’s a one-way street.”
Donors may also be asking how more than $5 million was paid out in “executive compensation” and $27,365,683 in other wages in 20023, with Obama pal Valerie Jarrett pulling in a $740,000 salary for a project that’s not likely to open for another year at the earliest.
Man, if I were facing all those headaches, I’d just want to spend time with . . . friends.
Kamala Harris envisions herself as the leader of the party; Politico declared her as one of the “winners” of the Democratic National Committee chairman’s election even though she didn’t endorse a candidate, and for what it’s worth, former Democratic National Committee official Alex Hoffman said, “The people who were actually in the room, whether they’re the DNC members or the operatives or the donors that were there, I don’t think there’s a single one of them who was saying that Kamala Harris is the leader of the party, nor should she run again.”
If Harris really sees herself as still the leader of the Democratic Party . . . have you seen or heard much from her since the election? Since Inauguration Day? It’s kind of hard for people to gravitate to your inspiring leadership when you act like you’ve been put in the Witness Protection Program.
Once again, for brutal honesty, we have to go to the one recently retired Democratic elected official who speaks like he’s just been injected with truth serum:
“There is no one. . . . It’s as simple as that,” said former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who was among the first Democrats to warn that Biden’s age was a liability on the campaign trail.
“There’s no one, certainly, that the party, I would argue, looks to, or feels led by, or inspired by, is the truth,” he continued. “Any organization — business, for-profit, nonprofit, political party — that lacks spirited leadership is going to suffer. And I think you can count us among those organizations right now. There’s just no question.”
But nature abhors a vacuum. Sooner or later, someone will emerge as the clearest and most compelling voice of opposition to Trump, and that figure will quickly get a leg up in any aspirations to the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. My guess is it will be someone who echoes former Vermont governor Howard Dean’s declaration, “I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.”
ADDENDUM: Over in the New Hampshire Journal . . . are we sure 78-year-old Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is going to seek a fourth term? She’s not raising money like a woman about to enter a reelection cycle. Or is Shaheen going to create another open Senate seat in a swing-y, purple state to go along with the race in Michigan?