Democrats’ performative protest exposes the party’s lack of an alternative

When President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last Tuesday, the public witnessed a stark and unmistakable contrast in leadership.

On one hand, Trump offered a bold, well-articulated vision for the country and the revival of the American dream. On the other hand, viewers saw a Democratic Party still struggling to present any semblance of an alternative vision or platform.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) perfectly summed up the challenges facing his party in the wake of Republicans’ November sweep tweeting that Democrats' conduct at the speech was a “sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance. ... We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to — and it may not be the winning message.”

Even those of who did not vote for Trump saw a president with the determination and will to bring his agenda to life.

Speaking for more than 90 minutes, Trump told Congress — and the world — that his administration would be singularly focused on ensuring that the American dream would be within reach for all Americans.

To be sure, the tasks in front of Trump are Herculean, and there is no guarantee he will achieve the goals he has set out — lowering inflation, ending wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, revitalizing the economy, and more. Meanwhile, the chaos surrounding tariffs has led to significant losses in the stock market amid concerns that trade wars will choke off economic growth.

Nevertheless, there can be no ignoring the forward-looking and innovative agenda Trump is offering for the country.

So what about Democrats? I find myself wholly unable to identify a competing vision or agenda being put forward by the Democratic Party, aside from the performative “resistance” platform Sen. Fetterman was alluding to — carrying signs and wearing t-shirts with silly slogans such as “false” or “no kings live here” into the House Chamber, Democrats put on full display their struggle to communicate with voters.

Democrats’ rapid descent into irrelevance has not gone unnoticed. Nearly two-thirds of voters said the party either has no strategy at all for responding to Trump (40 percent), or has a poor strategy (24 percent), according to a survey from Blueprint.

Moreover, even party leaders were dismayed by what they saw on Tuesday, which, in reality, is just the latest example of a rudderless party struggling to reconnect with voters they lost.

Former Biden spokesperson Symone Sanders pointed out that the signs were “not landing.” As North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton put it, “Why did Democrats go with this?”

I do not write this as a converted Republican, but as a lifelong Democrat and political strategist deeply upset at my party’s lack of coherent and convincing platform to address the challenges facing the country. If I can act as a neutral observer, I believe I am watching Democrats fail to realize that, instead of spending energy resisting Trump, they should work with moderate Republicans to find common ground on critical issues.

Trump has made it clear that he wants to lower inflation, secure the border, strengthen the economy, and reduce crime. Those are goals Democrats should support and work with the administration to achieve. But for now, all Democrats can muster is protest.

Worse still, instead of opposing Trump by explaining succinctly the negative impact of his policies and their competing alternative, Democrats are stuck arguing amongst themselves. The widening divisions within the Democratic Party are now on full display following Trump’s address.

Whereas Sens. Fetterman and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) correctly pointed out the absurdity of Tuesday’s spectacle, other Democrats, such as Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), argued that the “whole point” of holding up signs was to be “rude and disrespectful” toward Trump. The problem with intentionally disrespecting a U.S. president is that it only exposes for our adversaries just how divided the country currently is and how far we are from genuine solutions to the challenges we face.

Further, as Fetterman perfectly noted, these stunts “only make Trump look more presidential and restrained.” Therein lies the crux of the issues plaguing the Democratic Party today. Whether you agree with Trump or not, on Tuesday night, he displayed his presidency as strong, transformative and committed to improving the lives of the American people. Even if he fails, he is at least undeniably attempting to bring his vision into reality.

Democrats, on the other hand, are offering virtually no solutions, nor have they articulated a vision for the country. Until they do — and one must hope they can right the ship ahead of next year’s midterms — it is highly likely that they will remain an increasingly irrelevant minority party.

Douglas E. Schoen is a political consultant who served as an adviser to President Clinton and to the 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg. His new book is “The End of Democracy? Russia and China on the Rise and America in Retreat.”

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