Democrats must stand up against the bully in the White House

Democrats in Congress have come up with a novel answer to Donald Trump's blatant abuses of the presidency. They are whining about their constituents.

In a recent closed-door meeting, House Dems reportedly engaged in a "gripe-fest directed at liberal grassroots organizations." Axios reports Democrats are upset that their constituents are blowing up the phone lines with complaints that the party is not doing enough to fight Trump. In public comments, several have claimed they are powerless because Republicans control Congress.

Their strategy, if they have one, might be to step back and let Republicans self-destruct. However, Trump's election shows that Americans are not looking for passive leaders. There has never been a more critical time for a minority party to get creative, stand up and fight.

So far, the Democrats' public response has consisted of televised pressers, as when Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), 74, threatened to "pull the fire alarm" and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), also 74, with his glasses at the end of his nose, led a weak chant of "We will win!"

The caucus sent its great-grandparents to Trump's street fight. Social media and late-night comedians had a heyday.

Voters are hungry for an aggressive response from capable leaders to fix a government in which they have drastically lost confidence. They may not have taken Trump's campaign promises seriously. During halftime at the Superbowl, rapper Kendrick Lamar seemed to be talking to the electorate when he said, "The revolution will be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy."

The New York Times put it differently. Trump's election "was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year history."

Pre-election polls were clear about Americans' disappointment in democracy, the federal government and the option to choose a frail president. Most adults believe that democracy is weakening in the U.S. and posing a critical threat to our vital interests.

Only 22 percent of adults said they always or usually trust the federal government to do the right thing. About 70 percent have a negative view of Congress, and 85 percent believe elected officials don't care what the people think. Public trust in one of the most revered institutions, the Supreme Court, has hit historic lows.

More recently, 70 percent of adults, including strong majorities across party lines, said corruption and inefficiency are significant problems in the federal government. Trump exaggerates and feeds that perception. Yet, he has cleared the way for more corruption and inefficiency by firing the federal officials charged with identifying waste, fraud and abuse.

His reckless response is to dismantle the government rather than fix it. A poll last week found that 68 percent of Trump's 2024 voters and 79 percent of independents are squeamish about what he's doing.

The rest of the world notices, too. Transparency International has just rated corruption in the U.S. as the worst since the group began ranking countries in 2012. America hasn't placed among the 20 cleanest countries since 2017, when Trump started his first term as president.

How should Democrats respond? They should appoint their best warriors to lead a coordinated counter-revolution — people like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and blue-state governors like California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois's J.B. Pritzker. Democrats are blessed with many of the most intelligent, articulate and knowledgeable members of Congress. Where conventional weapons don't work to stop Trump and the Republicans, they should get creative.

Democrats could develop a new Contract with America to address the American people's concerns if voters give them control of Congress in next year's midterm elections. Its objective should be to fix the dangerous cracks that Trump's stress test is revealing in our constitutional democracy and to make the federal government more responsive to the people.

More specifically, the contract should focus not on culture wars but on modernizing the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College, make clear that presidents can be sanctioned under the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause, and significantly limit the role of money in politics.

Democrats should restore women's right to abortion, strengthen ethics rules against Trump-era conflicts of interest, and create ideological balance on the Supreme Court by expanding it to 13 justices serving staggered 18-year terms.

They should restore the Voting Rights Act and protect families and public health against corporate greed. Congress should resume and sustain America's aggressive campaign against fossil fuel emissions and global climate change, accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, and add greenhouse gases to the criteria pollutants in the Clean Air Act. The Senate should formally endorse the Paris Climate Agreement to give it treaty status so its goals have the force of domestic law. It should strengthen the polluters pay principle in U.S. law and reinstate the Chevron doctrine, which allowed regulatory agencies to interpret environmental laws.

Much has changed over the last 250 years, most recently the nation's ironclad commitment to its constitutional democracy. There is no doubt that the U.S. can use some mid-course corrections. But turning the country over to a dictator is not one of them.

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to "Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People," and contributor to Democracy in a Hotter Time, named by the journal Nature as one of 2023's five best science books. He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.

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