Is the Democratic party going to be fully committed to opposing Trump, claiming that he is the greatest threat to American Democracy in history, or is it going to focus most of its attention on helping the party prominents feather their nests, hold on to their seats and stay out of the more risky line of fire as the elections approach?
In light of how some elected members of the party have been responding to everything that's happening, I think this is a legitimate question that deserves and answer.
Primaries Are Just Around the Corner So Watch What Democrats in Congress Do, Carefully
I'm a lifelong Democrat, the son of a labor union member who grew up in a working class household. I've always been registered to vote, and I've always voted, including in local elections at the city and county level. In all of the time I've been eligible to vote, I've never missed an election if I could help it, including voting absentee and by mail when circumstances dictated it. I've also always been a contributor. I'm not wealthy, by any means, but I can give candidates a little bit of a boost with a small contribution to their campaign, and a regular gift to the DNC
I've dropped the DNC gift, as a practical matter, and because I no longer see the value of doing so. I'm open to revisiting the possibility but I need to see something a whole lot different than what I see now. And a lot more bold and aggressive when it comes to opposing Trump. That contribution now goes to Leaders We Deserve which is where I think it will do the most good for the Democratic party in electing the best candidates who aren't afraid to stand up and be Trump opposition.
Keep a close eye on the Democrats in Congress, because at a time like this, when a tiny GOP majority is on its back heels trying to keep up its agenda and Democrats have more power than they want you to know that they do, their votes will tell you how sincere their lips are being when it comes to Trump opposition. They're not getting my vote unless they're 100% anti-MAGA.
Raja Krishnamoorthi lost this Illinois Democrat's vote this week, when he voted along with the Republicans, to censure the Clintons for their refusal to testify before Congress. I was already not impressed by some of the money he has taken for his campaign, and he demonstrated the fact that he's a nest-featherer, not a bold, risk taking opposition member, in several ways. I'm still not sure who I will vote for in the primary, but it won't be Krishnamoorthi. Democrats elsewhere need to look at the candidates in their states, and pick the more progressive, liberal, aggressive and bold candidates who will use the power to crush Trump when they have it in their hands.
I'm now naturally gravitating toward high level resistance participants, candidates who, while some may seem like longshots now, because in the sea of big money politics they are not taking any PAC money, or corporate dollars with eventual strings attached, but are running on their own. Many of them are exactly the kind of leaders we need, with the kind of convictions candidates who take PAC money can't stand up to defend at the point where it interferes with their PAC's interest, and I think some of them are going to find their way through the flood of cash to a seat in the House. Then they will represent my interests without compromise or a sudden back down, which we have seen too often.
Though I live a little bit further north than Illinois district 7, I've been at a couple of gatherings where the level of satisfaction with the members who represent several Chicago districts is lukewarm, mainly because those who are gathering and marching and protesting are way ahead of where their congressional representatives are operating. I'm happy with what my representative, Delia Ramirez, has done, and she's earned my support and contribution. But I'm willing to give to a neighbor, Reid Showalter, who is a longshot candidate in neighboring district 7. Go to his site and see why he is the kind of Democrat we need to be on ballots everywhere. It would be great having them both represent a large chunk of Chicago in the House.
With the loss of a couple of their seats recently, one due to the resignation of one of the worst MAGA cultists in the House, there's a lot of pressure on the GOP leadership to hold the fort. And there's a lot of money destined for the mid-terms that might buy some weakness on the part of Democrats, because they think they can hide it or get away with it. I hope the voters are smart enough to detect that kind of nest-feathering until we can get big money out of politics completely. Until then, unfortunately, we will have to keep a close eye out and keep careful watch over who is writing campaign contribution checks, and to whom they are writing them.
Recovery From The Trump Disaster Won't Be Quick or Easy
Frankly, as a former civics and history instructor, I am not sure that we can ever actually recover from the damage that Trump has done to American Democracy. The residue of the fascist ideology and the racism and bigotry he tapped into in order to divide the nation so he could win elections isn't going away just because he does. One of the biggest political mistakes ever made by a sitting President of the United States was Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon. Had Nixon been prosecuted and sentenced to the full extent of the law, I doubt Trump would have even dared run for election. He bases his lawless, anti-patriotic, anti-American practice on the fact that Nixon got away with it and he's said as much.
That's going to take Democrats with the boldness to take risks when they're back in power, and this time, use it to enforce the law, not to drag feet, slow processes down and "garlandize" criminal indictments in order to nullify their effect. We need a party full of Jack Smiths, and David Hoggs. They're out there. We just need to filter through the muck of the money flood to find them and elect them.
This time, when we control Congress and the White House at the same time, we need leaders who see the necessity of packing the Supreme Court with liberal progressives who will neutralize the corrupt conservatives and make their votes irrelevant, even if we have to keep paying them their undeserved salaries. We could have done that any time between 2021 and 2023, but for the complaints and whining from those who thought that might look political. They knew what was coming if they didn't, so that tells me there wasn't a whole lot of genuine conviction about Trump's threat to democray, and too much nest-feathering going on.
The Challenge is This
Any Democratic candidate for office must earn my support by their boldness, their willingness to take risks, and their desire to see Trump and MAGA gone, by the actions they take now to ratchet the pressure up on Republicans as much as they can, and given what Republicans have done to Democrats when they weren't in power, the fact of the matter is that this can be done, and not ignore what's happening to get to their next fundraising luncheon at the club.
Real resistance, a real fight and the willingness to use the power of office in every possible way against Trump earns my vote and my donation. Anything less than that, and I will find someone who is willing to be bolder and more of a risk taker for whom to vote.
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