By Robert Reich
Trump is killing the economy, reducing the U.S. government to rubble, and destroying our relationships with our allies. Putin may love it, but it’s a catastrophe for us and much of the rest of the world.
Many of you ask me: Where’s the Democratic Party?
I wish I had a good answer. At a time when America needs a strong, bold, courageous opposition, the Democrats’ silence is deafening.
My old friend James Carville advises Democrats to “roll over and play dead.” With due respect to James, he’s full of sh*t.
Democrats have been rolling over and playing dead too long. That’s one reason the nation is in the trouble we’re in.
If Democrats had had the guts years ago to condemn big money in politics, fight corporate welfare, and unrig a market that’s been rigged in favor of big corporations and the rich, Trump’s absurd bogeymen (the deep state, immigrants, socialists, trans people, diversity-equity-inclusion) wouldn’t have stood a chance.
My simple advice to congressional Democrats: Wake the hell up!
Tonight, Trump will address both chambers of Congress. He has taken over the brains and intestines of Republican lawmakers, who will applaud his stream of lies.
Democrats will do — what? Sit on their hands? Applaud a few insipid things?
Ideally, Democrats should boycott the whole event. Even sitting in the well of the House as if this were just another president addressing just another Congress legitimizes Trump’s coup.
Democrats should not signal to a nationally televised audience that what we’re living through is normal.
If Democratic lawmakers feel they must be there, then make good and loud trouble. Disrupt Trump’s speech. Arrive in Revolutionary War costumes and hold signs proclaiming America is not a monarchy. Wave American flags and copies of the Constitution.
Every time he utters the word “tariff,” hold up a sign that says “It’s a tax.”
When Trump lies — about Ukraine, about DOGE, about immigration, about the tariffs he’s just put into effect, about his plan for robbing working people to give another huge tax cut to the rich — boo loudly. Hold up a “lie meter” for the cameras.
Then walk out en masse.
Show America there’s still life in the democratic opposition, even as America slides toward dictatorship.
The good news is most of America is firmly against Trump (and with Democrats) on the big things. According to polls:
- Most don’t want a Trump Republican budget that cuts almost $1 trillion out of Medicaid, food stamps, and child nutrition in order to make way for a $4.5 trillion tax cut mostly for the wealthy.
- Most don’t want the richest person in the world destroying departments and agencies that protect our health, safety, financial security, and environment.
- Most don’t side with Putin. Most don’t want us to abandon Ukraine.
- Most don’t want us to turn against our traditional allies that are democracies in favor of a bloodthirsty dictator.
Most don’t want tariffs that drive up the prices they pay for food, gas, housing, and clothing. Most understand that tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers. - Most don’t want a government of, by, and for billionaires.
- Most believe in democracy and the rule of law and don’t want Trump trampling on the Constitution, acts of Congress, and federal court orders.
Not only should Democrats be making noise (and hay) about all this, but Democrats should not rely on so-called “moderates” (such as Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin) to speak for them. Democrats selected Slotkin to deliver the Democrats’ “response” to Trump’s address tonight.
Democrats need Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, or anyone else with fight in their hearts and rage in their bellies who can make the case that Trump is bad for working people and terrible for America and the world.
What the hell does it mean to be a “moderate” today anyway? When the choice we’re facing is between democracy and dictatorship, where’s the midpoint?
We are in clear and present danger. Democrats must stand up for American ideals at a time when Trump, Vance, and Musk are riding roughshod over them.
The rest of you, my friends, should make a ruckus, too. Call your Democratic senators and Democratic representatives (if you have any) today, and tell them what I’ve just told you. Again, the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.
During or after Trump’s speech tonight, call the White House and tell the operator that you disagree with what Trump has said. White House operators keep track of positive and negative responses. (The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.)
Have no doubt that we are the true patriots of this nation. We are the voices of democracy, freedom, social justice, and the rule of law. We are the people.
Our lawmakers — including Trump and Vance (and even de facto lawmakers like Musk) — are supposed to be working for us.
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
The sad reality is that the Democratic Party seems incapable of rising to the occasion.
Let’s be honest: the Democrats have proven time and again that they lack the intestinal fortitude to take any such bold steps. The Democratic Party today is a weak, spineless bunch, more concerned with maintaining their positions of power and appeasing their donors than standing up for the American people.
Look at their track record—when it comes to addressing the corporate welfare system or fighting against the flood of big money in politics, Democrats have consistently failed to make real change. Whether it’s silence in the face of a lying president or tepid responses to his disastrous policies, the Democrats have shown themselves to be a party of sycophants who bend and twist to political convenience rather than principle.
No, most Democrats remain too busy trying to maintain their political careers to seriously challenge the status quo. When it comes to actual confrontation, they’re more likely to sit on their hands, hoping that things will just work themselves out.
So while Reich’s words may be full of righteous indignation and frustration, it’s clear that the Democratic Party just doesn’t have the spine to do anything about it. They lack the guts, the grit, and the moral backbone to fight for anything resembling true opposition. Until that changes, Trump’s grip on the nation will continue to tighten, and the Democrats will just be watching from the sidelines.
How do you really feel?
Yawn, there’s no leadership at the top that represents the moderate left. We hate the right, but we are tired of the far left failed specialty policies that have zero traction as evidenced by the last election. Get back to the basics that local politicians are at service to the taxpayers first. To service taxpayer efficiency through roads, infrastructure, maintenance. The end result to solve a problem is not to tax your base more in the excuse of making your life better. Innovation should save you money, not cost more. Why would we want to defend Dems when people like Elo-Rivera want to tax your trash, wanted to add an infrastructure tax, or a city sales tax increase, and yet jump to push minimum wages up (more tax money please). The Democratic party will wake up when somebody is not in your pocket looking for the handout.
Chris S – what “far left” are you freaking talking about? The San Diego city council? The national dems?? You obviously don’t know what the “far left” positions are. The “far leftists” are out in the streets protesting Trump, Musk and the efforts at a coup. What have you been doing of late?
Trump & his cronies are even worse then I imagined! Despicable comments & actions against average Americans, who struggle to survive. There too many to name, but the King is responsible.
Those elected to the House & Senate, whose job it is to protect us; are cowards!
Well said Douglas!
Chris Shultz: Read this link and think about where would you be on this scale. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Milgram Experiments but it might behoove you to re-examine your relationship with the premise…
Then tell me where you think the slathering followers of the Orange Fascist in this county land?
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And also, like Frank asked, just WHAT “far left” are you talking about? AOC is NOT far left; neither is Rep. Jasmine Crockett nor Jamie Raskin, much less Bernie Sanders. The Democrats dropped into Neo-Liberal right-wing corporate-funded politics most definitely when DINO Bill Clinton was put into the presidency. The DNC are Reaganites. It’s only become worse since then.
I feel like I’m living in a horribly demented version of a combination of a few books I have on my bookshelves: It Can’t Happen Here, 1984, Brave New World, and They Thought They Were Free. Maybe throw in a couple of scenes from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas for the effects…
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And yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to not only an AR-15 blowing 8 round bursts from a 30-round magazine at a target somewhere within a mile or two of this property for at least a solid hour, but a couple more being fired from a couple of other directions farther away. Along with the very distinct sound of a clacking chattering AK-47 also with a large capacity magazine. Just who are these Trump voters practicing to kill, hmmm?
Whomever he points at.
The Milgram experiments: Findings on obedience
The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the details are worth knowing.
https://reneegerlich.substack.com/p/the-milgram-experiments-part-i-obedience
A cut:
Milgram wanted to know what would compel subjects to act on their conscience, and defy orders. What if the learner strapped to the chair was especially vulnerable? Milgram had the learner (actor) complain of a heart condition after the experimenter’s briefing — but there was no change to the initial results.
“I must conclude that Arendt’s conception of the banality of evil comes closer to the truth than one might dare imagine,” Milgram lamented.
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sealintheSelkirks
It’s true that Democrats are losing in part due to their unwillingness to take action in the face of a real threat to American democracy. This has been going on for years…the GOP surges ahead, with no hesitation to “do whatever it takes” (for better or worse), while the Democrats sit on their hands. Is it possible that our only hope is for Trump supporters to wake up and turn agains their “leader”, guns in hand?
What is take action in your view? Dems in the city and state want your money every which way for their holistic approach to society. Ironically, they are the government that needs a haircut. Everybody is entitled for this, that, and the other simply for existing and you who are better off should furnish it. It’s akin to tipping. It was just restaurant service, but now, everybody has their hand out for more. And people will over react to this without self examination first. This is not an excuse to GOPhers. Dems need the middle of the road taxpayers first.
Well KB in PB, if that’s our only hope we are well and truly f**ked because Trump supporters are extremely defiant about become ‘woke’ up from their deep, deep, DEEP sleep/coma. And besides that, those two MAGA guys ALREADY tried and both of them were so completely incompetent (which seems to be shared trait in that crowd) that one MAGATS accidentally killed another MAGATS in the stands behind Trump and shattered the plastic teleprompter which sprayed sharp plastic pieces of which one of those pieces nicked his ear.
What happened? The GOP tried to spin it that somehow Democrats were responsible!
But Trump then got to scream that he ‘took a bullet’ in the ear for months while wearing a Kotex Maxi-pad over it until some photographer took a picture showing NO SCAR. Oops. Exit the Maxi-pad.
But it made him a political martyr and gave more meat for the loons to claim some god protected him so he could ‘save’ this country all by his little self. I think they were wrong about which of the thousands of gods humans have invented that did that; it was probably Loki the Jokester. Just playing a nasty prank on the species!
But it was such a wonderful photo op that it couldn’t have been planned any better…oh wait! Did I just say that?
And honestly, do you really think he’s in charge? He’s an intellectual desert, he knows nothing about anything, and it has become pretty obvious that he’s falling down the same dementia rabbit hole his father did at the same age. When he goes off script and starts mind wandering…it gets really obvious, doesn’t it?
And he’s surrounded himself with even more incompetents this time than his last term. I didn’t think it would be possible but…I was wrong!
I am, however, just so impressed with the dress-up his ‘homeland security’ wears, aren’t you? They’re so…I’m not sure what the right word would fit here! Halloween-ish? Third grader-ish? I’m waiting for her to maybe put a bullet into a Chihuahua or something to show how tough she is…
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I know, it’s NOT funny, none of this is but…it’s so funny! Like Trailer Trash Greene shooting a big gun at a Prius and it blows completely up like somebody threw a grenade inside, one just has to laugh at the imbeciles no matter how seriously they take themselves.
And these are the loons who WILL be taking over when those that own him use the 25th Amendment sometime in the next four years (if he physically lives that long). Or not and do what the GOP did with Reagan when he disappeared into Alzheimer’s his 2nd term.
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sealintheSelkirks