Wake Up, Democrats

Why are Democrats handing Trump more power?

Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk. Image via Gavin Newsom on X

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – We’ve all noticed it. It seems like the default position for political and corporate elites in this country is to capitulate to Donald Trump as though he won the 2024 election with a 1964 or 1984 level mandate. Bad enough that we have to deal with destructive, destabilizing neo-fascism because too many voters were snowed by social media disinformation, again, but now we face a domino effect of national leaders carrying out the president’s oppressively chaotic agenda for seemingly no reason.

Even Gavin Newsom, who many once believed was the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for 2028, is glad-handing Donald’s MAGA footsoldiers. The California governor’s first two podcasts were interviews with Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon for reasons I’ll never understand. He’s evidently trying to break Rudy Giuliani’s record for the world’s fastest career suicide.

Likewise, Bill Gates shut down his climate crisis advocacy foundation this week. Major corporations ended their DEI programs. Formerly popular Democratic senator John Fetterman seems like he’s going to switch parties any day now. And I’d be willing to wager that we’ll be seeing a return to movies and TV shows dominated by white men very soon.

Nothing makes sense. Other than some sort of unspoken fear of legal reprisal from Donald’s Justice Department gestapo, there’s no valid explanation for this level of acquiescence.

This, of course, extends to the Democratic Party on the Hill.

To be clear: I’m not talking about all Democrats. Many blue state governors have aggressively pushed back against the MAGA agenda – Wes Moore, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker to name a few. Plus, there are rank-and-file congressional Democrats like Al Green, AOC, Pete Buttigieg, Jasmine Crockett, Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren, Brian Schatz, and Bernie Sanders (technically not a Democrat, but you know) who have been at the top of their game this year.

On the other hand, there was a shaky period of time on Wednesday when it looked like enough Senate Democrats were going to vote for cloture on the House spending bill, allowing it to pass – a bill that, among other things, would’ve codified Elon Musk’s ungainly deconstruction of the federal government.

In case you’re new to politics, the U.S. Senate routinely holds procedural votes on “cloture” to end filibusters, requiring support from 60 senators in order to proceed to a vote on the legislation itself. In other words, if there are 60 votes to invoke cloture, the filibuster ends, allowing the bill to be passed or voted down. When you hear that a bill has been “filibustered,” it means there weren’t 60 votes for cloture and the legislation fails to reach a final vote.

In order for the Senate Republicans to pass the House spending bill, they need 60 votes to end the filibuster. But the Republicans only have 53 senators, requiring seven Democrats to vote for cloture along with them. Long story short, there was a period of time on Wednesday when it looked like seven or more Senate Dems were going to vote for cloture, allowing a floor vote to subsequently pass – without Democratic support in the final floor vote. This way, the Democrats could say they all voted “NO” on the final bill, while allowing the legislation to pass, preventing a government shutdown.

Not only was this plan weak and pathetic, it would’ve been impossible to explain to constituents. What would the Democrats have won? The right to say they voted against something that they actually allowed to pass through confusing parliamentary procedures?

Fortunately, Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday afternoon that there weren’t enough Democrats willing to vote with Republicans to invoke cloture. If his whip count holds through the cloture vote, the matter goes back to the House to concoct a new bill, and the clock continues to count down to a government shutdown.

Meantime, congressional Democrats need to camp out in front of every available TV camera to expose Elon and Donald for illegally firing federal workers, shutting down agencies, and threatening Social Security and Medicare—while Republicans are trying to secure a legal basis for it.

But they can’t do it as long as the Senate Democrats stand firm and filibuster everything. (The only way around a unified Democratic caucus is by eliminating the filibuster. Aren’t you glad the Democrats didn’t end the legislative filibuster when we were urging them to?)

Regardless of whether the government shuts down, the congressional Democrats need to spend less time quietly screwing around and more time forcefully refusing to give the fascist party any wiggle room.

One final thought: the Republicans are dropping a big juicy political steak in the laps of the Democrats – the MAGA embrace of oligarchy and billionaires – but so far only a few Democrats have chosen to exploit it. The entire party needs to position its messaging around fighting for working Americans, including federal employees, and against the billionaire elites.

By 2026, economic populism modeled after Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will be a winning issue, allowing the Democrats to dominate the midterms if they choose to do it. But if they choose to keep rolling over for the White House, like they almost did this week, the Republicans will keep on winning and democracy will fail.

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