Fight back now
The congressional Democrats are America’s lost boys and girls.
They wander aimlessly from federal departments to green rooms to the Capitol Rotunda to issue denunciations and contradictory declarations.
They are a mostly geriatric tribe of political wanderers cut off from power, walking around on the inside of someone else’s gated community for the very first time, while they wait for Chuck Schumer to raise the flag, and move on to the next protest.
CNN has noticed the situation, and written about the looming moment when Democrats will be able to assert political power because the tenuous MAGA majority lacks the votes to pass the required legislation to keep the government that they are smashing to bits open.
This is what is happening. CNN accurately sets the stage:
House and Senate Democrats at the highest levels are now engaged in a fierce debate about what exactly to demand in their first big negotiation with Trump and how forcefully to push, according to conversations with more than two dozen members and senior aides.
Below is an accurate assessment of the Democratic party’s fighting position:
Trump and GOP leaders will need Democratic support in the Senate, where 60 votes would be required to advance the bill. In the House, they have to contend with a contingent of conservatives unlikely to vote for any spending bill. While rank-and-file Democrats are eager to play hardball with Trump, other senior Democrats are uncertain how firm of a line to draw, fearing they may be forced to capitulate in a funding feud and ultimately appear even weaker.
A depressing debate is underway about what to do.
Apparently it has already been decided that Elon Musk is to be a rhetorical target of Democratic ire, but will evade their scrutiny when it comes to making demands that he immediately cease his unconstitutional and lawless conduct at the direction of Donald Trump.
According to CNN, Democrats are depressed and face their current situation with despair.
As one senior aide described the situation: “There’s just not a lot of good options for Democrats.”
Perhaps this is so, but when faced with choices at hand, the least worst option is always the best path, and the good news for Democrats is that the worst option is a winning hand.
The problem for Democrats is playing the hand requires grit and toughness.
There is a paradox about Washington politics, which is that the fighters are often the most endangered members who exist in the rare space where their number could be up in any election cycle. They tend to stake their service more on conviction than caution, which is the predominate mood among the defeatist ‘Schumercrats’ for whom appeasement is a philosophy, disposition and natural desire.
It is a road that has come to its end. The members in the most vulnerable districts know that they are endangered from a deep and growing anger that is building up from their donors and constituents that have a simple demand: fight back. Now.
Many exasperated Democrats, even some from battleground House districts, insist a shutdown shouldn’t be off the table if Republicans can’t put up the votes themselves. But Schumer and other governing-minded senators are proceeding more cautiously, wary of provoking a damaging shutdown and getting a share of the blame.
Indeed, even as Jeffries and Schumer have intensified their attacks on Elon Musk’s role in Trump’s government, it’s uncertain whether they’ll take aim at the tech billionaire when it comes time to negotiate a funding deal.
WHY NOT?
In an interview last week, Jeffries indicated Democrats’ legislative push to block Musk’s access to government payment systems is not “at the moment” one of their demands in the funding fight.
WHAT?
“There are bipartisan negotiations that are underway right now to try to reach a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Jeffries told CNN.
“I’ve encouraged those bipartisan conversations to continue.”
COME AGAIN?
Across the Capitol, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, stressed that the party needed to “use every point of leverage that we have” and that democracy itself is at stake. But he also acknowledged the risks of fighting too hard and landing in a shutdown: “Nobody wants a shutdown, but we have leverage.”
PROCESS THIS IDIOCY.
Democracy is at stake, and Democrats should use every point of leverage they have, but can’t fight too hard and cause a shutdown…but have leverage?
WHAT?
This is why I would be a terrible senator. If I was in a meeting when someone said something so profoundly stupid, I would either have a seizure, or be overcome by a desire to taser them (joking, kind of).
HOLY SH*#T. NO WORDS.
I’m going to lay out the only acceptable position in this moment from the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership, which is an action, an assertion and a demand.
It is as follows:
DONALD TRUMP and his MAGA Congress must meet three conditions for Democrats to begin any negotiations over the forthcoming budget votes, which are unconditional:
Elon Musk and his agents — all special government employees, contractors and every member of the DOGE staff — will cease their intrusions at federal departments immediately, and disclose without delay, every action that they have taken.
The independent inspector generals will be restored to each federal department immediately.
Elon Musk will appear before Congress and disclose his conduct fully.
The Democratic message is simple:
STOP.
IMMEDIATELY.
Here is the speech I would deliver as the Democratic Leader:
Two hundred and ninety-six days ago, the American people participated in this nation’s 60th presidential election.
Donald Trump received 77,284,118 votes, and the Democratic nominee received 74,999,166.
Donald Trump received 49.8 per cent of the vote, and the Democratic nominee received 48.3 per cent of the vote.
History will record this Trump victory as the fifth smallest margin of victory in the thirty-two presidential races held since 1900.
We respect the will of the American people who elected us to oppose an assault on the US Constitution, and taking away the people’s power by letting the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, rampage through the United States government.
Some commentators say that the American people of 2024 are unable to understand who it is we are, and what it is that we believe.
Let me restate with conviction that we stand with the vast American majority as we renew three beliefs:
We believe that all men and women are created equal and endowed by a creator with inalienable rights which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe in a government of, by and for the people that shall not perish from this Earth.
We believe that it is the United States Congress that will decide how the American people’s money is spent.
Not Elon Musk.
Let me make something clear.
When Elon Musk said that he was "naive" about the extent of antisemitism until recently, we gave him a pass.
When Elon Musk said "the actual truth" that said Jewish communities advocated a "dialectical hatred against whites," we gave him a pass.
We accepted his hollow apologies, but we do not seek any more apologies.
We will not ask for them again.
We see Elon Musk as clearly as we saw his fascist salute.
We see Elon Musk clearly. He spends $288 million in an election, buys the world’s most expensive puppet, and installs himself as the artificial intelligence system, while making $2 billion in new wealth since the election.
We see a man who wants to be a king.
We see a man off his leash.
We see a man unrestrained, whose arrogance does not give him an entitlement to yield a wrecking ball to the citadels of liberty that gave him citizenship when he promised faithfulness.
Elon Musk, I have a message for you.
I have a message for your young agents.
Hear me.
We are members of the United States Congress, elected by the people of the United States of America from across the 50 states of the Union.
Do not tread on US.
Mr. President, our offer is on the table if you need the votes of any Democratic members of Congress to advance your….
How did you put it again, Mr. President?
You were “saved by God to make America great again.”
Well, if so, I suspect that he will tell you what to do, or at least whisper it to Pastor Paula.
Lest there be confusion about this speech, and where we go from here, let me conclude by saying this.
We go forward.
We meet this moment not on our terms, but on the terms of the American people who have put us together in a great contestation for this nation’s future.
Donald Trump has made his move, and now we will make ours.
We will stand our ground, and we will not yield it.
Should it come to pass on March 14, 2025, 33 days from now, that the government shuts down, we are prepared for the question to be decided 1,366 days from now on election day.
We will let it be known that we rose in opposition to madness and insanity, and made it stop.
We will let it be known that you did not break the US Constitution, and we will willingly put it to the people who will stand with us as we are now standing for them.
How dare you, Mr. President?
During the last 20 days you have assembled the most unfit cabinet in American history, and created a carnival of mayhem for no reason than the thrill of confusion and the titillations of your brittle vanity.
You have stripped security protections from retired patriots like General Milley and threatened war or annexation with Denmark, Panama, Canada, and promised to send American troops to Gaza.
You have run amok, and now you must think about your rampage and our country because, unless you stop, we will stop it for you.
Lastly, I appreciate that there are instances when political parties must make a break with the past. This is such a time.
Let it be known from this instant, regardless of past indifferences to the present position and future course, that this is the “WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY, AND SAY WHAT WE MEAN PARTY.”
Mr. President:
Elon Musk or shutdown?
Your move.
Fantastic. Please get it into every Democrat congress person’s inbox. And then send it again. This is the way to proceed. Many thanks to finding the words that would be a great speech to hear and not to see on your Substack.
I can't "like" that speech enough times.