Where the f*ck are the Democrats?
Along with so many of you, I have watched in dismay (but unfortunately not much surprise) as many Democrats in Congress, especially the Senate, have trotted out careful middle-of-the-road, politics-as-usual statements about Elon Musk's ongoing coup. One Democratic Senator reportedly said, "What do they want us to do, get arrested?" Yes, genius. We want you to do everything in your power to stop an illegal fascist takeover of the federal government.
As maddening as it is, I want to take a moment to explore why Congressional Democrats have felt so out of touch with the moment, what the institution does to make it hard for people inside it to recognize when there's been a paradigm shift—and how we break through.
Quick story: I departed my first professional stint in the Executive Branch in Washington, DC in mid-2016 and spent 6 years back in my home Great Plains state. I felt geographically and topically disconnected from Washington, but assumed that after January 6th, 2021 surely at least some things behind the scenes would have changed.
When I returned to an Executive Branch agency in early 2022 as a communications director to a senior subcabinet official, I was dismayed to learn as our team prepped my boss for a Congressional hearing that the insurrection had changed nothing about the way federal agencies interacted with Congress. My boss, a decorated PhD scientist, was still expected to show an obsequious amount of respect to all Members of Congress, regardless of their party or how crazy their views on scientific topics like climate change and vaccines might be. Democrats and Republicans on the committee would take turns asking her questions, and the whole thing was very much business as usual.
Barely one year after the insurrection, one year after these individuals' lives had been threatened, next to nothing about the day-to-day functioning of Congress had changed. This chilled me to my core.
Anyone who's paying attention knows Democrats are in the minority in the House and Senate. We get it, guys, you don’t have the votes to stop everything. But Democrats have been telling their constituents they should be calling Republican offices instead in the last 10 days, and 1) pretty bold to tell your constituents not to call you about a literal coup, 2) why would people call random offices of which they are not constituents, instead of calling you when you also have the power to do something? and 3) rather than telling people what they should do, how about YOU pledge what you are doing with your power to handle the situation, and let people decide where their calls are best directed?
What informed voters want is for Democrats in Congress to use every single tool at their disposal to slow down, frustrate, and when possible stop the Musk-Trump coup. That means, as basic table stakes, STOP ADVANCING THEIR NOMINEES. Period. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) blocked hundreds of Biden's military appointments with his little finger because he was mad about woke. Know how he was able to do that? He didn't care about pissing off his colleagues, wasting a lot of their time, and being seen as an asshole. That's it! That's literally all it takes, folks.
Any single senator could do the same now, and Brian Schatz (D-HI), to his credit, has said he will place a blanket hold on all State Department nominees until the illegal shuttering of USAID is reversed. Great! We need every Democratic Senator to pick an issue where Musk & Trump are running amok and place blanket holds on nominees at related agencies, until all nominees are covered. Every single Senator has immense power to slow things down. The speed with which these hearings and votes on Trump nominees have been scheduled (which, yes, Republicans control but Dems can take numerous steps to slow down, complicate, and mess with) and the Dems who even last week were voting for Trump nominees is truly bonkers.
So why have the Democrats been slow to step up? A few reasons, but I want to hone in on two (in addition to money in politics and the constant focus on reelection, which are ever-present): the norms of the institution making it hard for those inside to know when a sea change has occurred, and outdated notions of "bipartisanship" as a virtue.
Congress is an 18th-century institution and the Senate specifically is designed for slow deliberation even by the standards of the day. No secret that Congress has been struggling for years to keep up in the digital age. But I think what's important to know is this: the norms of the institution are designed to keep it running through every circumstance, and that makes it hard for longtime members in particular to know when outside events have put them, and us, in a new world.
The other issue is the myth of bipartisanship. Many members took the wrong lesson from the 2024 election, thinking people voted for Trump based on how he characterized his “policy” “plans”. Congressional Democrats went into this year planning to say, “You have economic concerns! The price of eggs! We hear you!” Their stated messaging plan when Congress came into session in January was to focus on the economy and stay above politics. LOL.
They failed to recognize that the yelling about cost of living last year was being driven by Russian bots and far-right media, and that campaign ended the moment Trump was elected. This is not to say Americans don’t have real cost of living concerns; they definitely do. But “cost of living” as it was screamed about online and in the media leading up to the election was a dog-whistle against Kamala Harris’s candidacy, and what just astounds me is that 10 years into this debacle, both the media and the Democrats continue to take what Trump and MAGA say at face value rather than look even one layer deeper at the white grievance underlying Trump's rise and call it out.
What voters want is people who they perceive as being willing to fight for them, and millions of people, however misguided, think Trump is that guy. Even in districts where lots of voters chose Trump and a Democratic Senator or member of Congress on the same ballot, what people want is someone who will stand up for them and prevent, for example, their Social Security benefits being raided by Elon Musk. Not someone who tells their constituents to call the Republicans instead.
The average Senator is 64 years old (half are older than that), and for all of these people's lives and careers, "bipartisanship" has been held up as the ultimate measure of political effectiveness and literally as a major policy goal. People like Amy Klobuchar and Dick Durbin are facing serious cognitive dissonance given the stark reality that "bipartisanship" is now collaboration with fascists. It hasn't sunk in for them yet that they can't "reach across the aisle" selectively on a Monday and on Tuesday declare the GOP to be an existential threat to the country, as Chris Murphy, to his credit, has recognized and said publicly. To say nothing of the fact that some things–stopping a coup—are more important than reelection.
That, I think, is why Members of Congress are among the last to behave like the coup we are experiencing is novel and dangerous. And damn is it disheartening, in this moment and routinely.
And yet the good news is your calls are working. Senators are absolutely feeling the pressure, Republicans as well as Democrats. Dems held the floor all night to try to stop RFK Jr.'s nomination for HHS secretary (as well as for Russell Vought as head of OMB last week). They were united in voting against both. AOC explained in a recent video that Republican voters typically make FAR more calls to Congress than do Democrats, and it influences the direction of the institution. But in the past couple of weeks that has been reversed, and if this momentum is sustained, it will make folks think twice about how they vote.
If you haven't already, download the 5calls app and call your Member of Congress and your Senators daily. Tell them you don't want them voting on any Trump nominees until Elon Musk and his minions are gone. If you are able, donate to leaders like Chris Murphy and AOC who understand the magnitude of this moment and are speaking out. This is a frightening time, and people are right to demand that their elected leaders fight back. Don't let up.