We Have to Talk about the Donkey in the Room
If you'll forgive a bit of a pun
It makes me feel crazy sometimes, the sense that on one track life is proceeding normally with grocery lists and new recipes, a yoga routine and a good novel, trying to find a tv show to watch before turning back to the same things I’ve watched a hundred times before, trying to plan vacations and decide which summer Fridays I’m going to take. Meanwhile, this administration is arresting government officials, sending people to foreign torture prisons, using the power of their office to punish anyone who speaks out against them, while Trump receives countless bribes in the form of cryptocurrency and new planes. According to Stephen Miller, Trump’s right hand man, it’s only a matter of time before they go after the rest of us too.
The cognitive dissonance is enough to make anyone lose it.
But while I think that cognitive dissonance has only gotten worse with the second Trump regime, and grows in strength the more we pay attention to their daily machinations, I would argue that this feeling is pervasive in America and in fact was a major factor in Trump’s reelection. People across the country can sense something fundamentally broken in the heart of our society - storms are getting stronger, prices are getting higher. It’s harder to find a place to live, to find a good job, to make and keep friends, to connect with your family. There is violence in our schools, at the Capitol, on our television screens. The world is rife with countless injustices that we feel hopeless in the face of.
And yet, we also have to go to work, clean, make dinner, go grocery shopping, make dinner again. No matter how much money it costs, someone has to watch the kids, the rent check has to go in the mail, the cell phone bill has to get paid. Doctors’ appointments have to be scheduled and contracts have to be filled and shifts have to be completed and emails have to be answered. Taxes have to be filed. And if all of that has to get done, then we also have to get ice cream and go to the movies and tend to our gardens and call our friends. Life demands to be lived, bills demand to be paid, and so even as we can feel the world getting harder and harder around us, even as we can feel something fundamental coming apart at the seams, we keep going.
But wait, there’s more!
Because while it is largely Republican policies that have led to the rest of us doing life on hard mode, in the last election, blame for this largely fell on the shoulders of Democrats. Republicans have spent the last fifty years trying to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, education funding and civil rights, while at the same time passing budgets and tax codes that engineer massive wealth transfers from working people to the billionaire class. And yet we have somehow found ourselves in a world where, according to recent polling, “Americans trust Trump over congressional Democrats by 37 percent to 30 percent when it comes to dealing with the country’s major problems — another 30 percent trust “neither” — and see the Democratic Party as somewhat more out of touch “with the concerns of most people” than either the president or the Republican Party.”
Furthermore, according to Navigator Research, while 3 in 5 Americans believe there needs to be significant change to our political system, most “see Republicans as a party of change and Democrats as the party of the status quo. Two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans believe Republicans are committed to changing the way government works, while just 30 percent say the same of Democrats.”
This is deeply disconcerting, as Democrats have recently led Republican-stymied efforts to forgive student loans, massively expand voting rights, reform the healthcare system, reform the tax code, reform the care economy, and reorient social, political and economic systems towards addressing climate change. And even where our efforts were stymied, they were often at least in part successful. The Biden administration forgave billions in student loan debt. Obamacare was not perfect, but it massively expanded access to health insurance and to what that insurance covers. But somewhere along the way, that narrative got swallowed up by one that holds up Democrats as the defenders of a status quo that rips off ordinary people, a system that Republicans seek to reform. (And may I just add - ha!)
There are a lot of contributing factors here, and most of them are not actually Democrats’ fault: a dominant Republican media apparatus populated by hosts, contributors, and politicians who have no qualms about lying; a mainstream media that holds Democrats to a much higher standard than their Republican counterparts; a system where one party abides by the rule of law and is thus limited by it, while the other party breaks the law and is rewarded by the public for taking decisive action, no matter it’s harms; a regressive cultural trend of misogyny and bigotry that positions itself as hip counter culture; and the rise of algorithmic social media which rewards extreme behavior and supplants reason-based journalism all contribute.
There is also a really frustrating dimension to this, in which modern Democrats frequently win voters who pay a lot more attention to the news. It’s a significant reason why we tend to win, or at least over perform, in special and off-cycle elections - those are elections you might not even know about if you aren’t paying attention, let alone vote in. There are a lot of Trump voters now offended and appalled that Trump’s policies are having a negative impact on their lives - even though he told us exactly what he was going to do, Democrats told us exactly what he was going to do, and there was plenty of information available about the impact of those policies. And while it’s not necessarily fair to be frustrated with people who aren’t paying attention to politics, or who were suckered in by bombastic and mendacious social media and podcasts, I know I’m not the only one who feels it.
Still, it doesn’t really doesn’t help Democrats’ credibility when our elected officials decry Trump as an existential threat but then vote for his cabinet nominees and his budget. It doesn’t help when instead of calling attention to Trump directing investigations to his political enemies and punishing law firms that prosecuted him for the crimes we watched him commit, they attend bill signings and speak at his events. If Republicans really have rigged the system against us, then why do we see some elected Democrats holding fundraisers with Trump donors and crypto investors, or using their positions to make money on stock trades? Nor is it a great look when Democrats nitpick and make concessions to Trump’s attacks on our most vulnerable friends, neighbors, and communities instead of mounting a full-throated defense of our rights to live as we see fit.
It’s more than that of course. We all watched as Israel bombed Gaza to the point of destruction, killing and starving tens of thousands of people, including children, aid workers, and journalists, while the Biden administration continued a policy that supported and funded this with impunity. How could we not feel crazy, watching this violence play out on our social media feeds, while many Democrats in power not only let it happen, but facilitated it and defended it. Democrats believe in defending and expanding democracy, but are stymied over and over again by individuals in the party who would rather put their faith in outdated accessories like the filibuster, than actually pass laws that would improve our lives. And when it comes time for decisive action, many elected Democrats seem more concerned for their own legacies than in our collective future.
Donald Trump and his cronies have launched a full on assault on our way of life. As they attack the institutions that fund cancer and Alzheimer’s research, as they overtly solicit and accept bribes right in front of our eyes, as they defy court orders and the due process system that is supposed to defend us against a vengeful and irrational executive, Democrats are necessarily pushed into the position of defending that which Trump attacks - and it can feel like we’re defending a status quo that doesn’t work for people, that pits us against each other, that enriches politicians and the powerful of all stripes while the rest of us struggle. When President Biden abides by a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits wholesale student loan forgiveness, while Trump openly defies the court to send people to a foreign torture prison, Democrats unfairly come across as feckless. And when we defend the system that allows for this, it can look like we want this unfairness to continue, like our elected officials appreciate the opportunity to pay lip service to equality while evading it.
I am a Democrat. I believe that the core of the Democratic party is one that genuinely wants to build a world where we can all thrive, where we spend our energy pooling our resources to solve big collective problems like public health, climate change and environmental protection, infrastructure, education, and economic inequality. I believe in a party that genuinely wants to protect and expand our civil rights, that wants to use the engine of government to ensure that we all have the freedom and the resources we need to thrive, and then leaves us alone. This is the future I dream of, the future I believe in, and a future we cannot achieve without the Democratic party. And even if I didn’t believe that, in a first past the post system, mathematically speaking, your option is one of two parties. And Republicans ain’t shit.
And I also believe in a system of government that inhibits any one person from getting too much wealth or power. I believe in the rule of law that supersedes any election and any position. And I believe that even presidents and Senators and governors and city council members I like should have to abide by those rules and that system. But that system, like so many others, needs to be reformed. It needs stronger enforcement mechanisms against itself. And we all need to have a hand in determining what that looks like, and we need Democrats who acknowledge this, who are willing to dismantle a system they benefit from, and who are creative and energetic in rebuilding it.
But no one else is going to believe in this vision of the Democratic party if no one ever shows it.
There are, of course, plenty of Democrats who not only have strong political instincts and communications skills, powerful orientations toward reform, and an enthusiasm for standing up for working people. If you’re looking for evidence of this, look no further than Ariella Elm’s newsletter, where every single day she highlights Democratic wins and Democratic politicians fighting back. It gives me hope every time I read it.
But going forward, Democrats need to stop assuming their words are enough and that their beliefs and goals are obvious. When Donald Trump engages in blatant corruption, undermines the rule of law, and enacts revenge on his political enemies we have to be willing to explain why that matters to people’s lives. And then we have to make it clear how we can stop people from doing that again in the future. Elected Democrats also need to be willing to lose their jobs, they have to be willing to set their own career ambitions and legacies aside and take real risks for what they believe in. And if that is the future of our democracy and our country, as I believe it is, we need to set aside normal politics and address this crisis with the urgency it demands. Nothing will show the American people that Democrats will be a force for change more than actually making change.
Here’s How to Help Democracy This Week
Keep calling your Representative and your Senators about standing up to the Trump regime’s illegal rendition to foreign torture prisons.
Get read for the No Kings marches that will take place on June 14.
Sign up for a town hall, march, or protest near you for the May recess. Republicans desperately want to pass a tax cut for billionaires and pay for it by cutting services that everyday Americans rely on, like Medicaid and SNAP. But we can stop them if we keep showing up and keep getting loud. Attend this call on Thursday, May 15 to get more info on how you can help.