Norm Ornstein talks about what Democrats should do if they win back Congress:
Start with three big challenges. First, a lot of those who voted for Democrats are expecting action to improve their economic conditions: Run on affordability, you better improve affordability. Second, and related, with Democrats holding a sizable piece of power in Washington, the failures of policy driven by the reckless Trump and his administration could be blamed on them—and it is a sure thing that hundreds of millions will be spent by Trump allies to try to pin the problems on the Democrats. Americans already think Washington isn’t working; if it looks like Democrats are a part of the problem and not of the solution, that could have brutal consequences in 2028.
Third, it is clear that the Democratic Party base wants toughness and serious pushback against the corruption, misconduct, and mayhem that are the core of Trump’s presidency. Witness the negative reaction to the private meeting between House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, looking for areas of possible common ground after January 3. Rank-and-file Democrats want pushback, not compromise. Of course, compromise will be necessary to meet the first challenge of improving people’s economic circumstances. But if it is not led by Democrats using every tool at their disposal to name names, kick ass, and stop further destruction, there will be hell to pay with the base.
Ornstein names six tools:
Lawmaking - regulating ICE, removing tariffs, re-regulating our drug and food supply, etc.
Power of the Purse - slashing funding for ICE, limiting the appropriations for, e.g., the Park Service so Trump can’t raid it to build whatever he wants, etc.
Investigations and Oversight
The Bully Pulpit
Advice and Consent in the Senate
Impeachment - lower level horrors like RFK Jr and Hegseth.
The whole thing is worth a read — it’s really well thought out. Ornstein goes through Supreme Court reform (18 year terms, expand to 13, hearings on reducing the Court’s jurisdiction). He talks about how Democrats need to get their messaging act together. It’s the full treatment from a guy who knows Congress and was one of the first “down the middle” commentators who ended up writing a book on how Republicans are at fault for our current dysfunction in DC. If you’re not aware of how Ornstein and his co-writer Thomas Mann called out Republicans, this Jamelle Bouie video is a good intro.
I can’t imagine the current Democratic leaders doing what Ornstein suggests, but I want to bookmark his piece for reference when the inevitable whining and excuse making comes from Jeffries and Schumer. To pick one example not in Ornstein’s piece, Alito has been making noises about retiring. If he does that during the lame duck session, Republicans will try to jam through someone like Aileen Cannon. Do you think Schumer will rally his caucus to stop that? I don’t. We are in a long fight to rid the party of the defensive crouchers, and I only hope that we can survive long enough to turn things around before the Republicans get back in power.
Moving on to even stronger stuff, Scott sent in a piece called Forty Acres and Go Fuck Yourself. It goes through the history of how people who were former Nazis were able to have their former bad acts forgotten, the history of our failure post-Civil War to deal with former Confederates, and the way that the South African Truth and Reconciliation commissions worked. The author, Brian Del Monte, is a former Bush DoD official who was in charge of defending places like Gitmo, so he’s definitely tweaking my “never trust a never Trumper” spidey sense, but the piece is still worth a read. The part about truth and reconciliation is good: South Africa was very forgiving, but you had to tell the truth before you were forgiven. All the people pardoned by Trump are immune for their pardoned crimes, so there’s no excuse that keeps them from telling the truth about what they did. And if they lie, well, that’s perjury.
