No, Democrats don't have to give people something to vote for

Democrats need to learn to be an opposition party or they may be in the minority forever.

It’s frustrating watching the political dialogue on social media right now. Democrats are arguing about what kind of party they want to be. Are they a party of left-leaning populists running against the oligarchy? Are they social justice warriors protecting every conceivable minority group against oppression that lurks behind every corner? Are they neo-liberals who want abundance created by fewer regulations that drive economic development?

None of it really matters. Instead of trying to figure out what to stand for, they should be attacking Trump and the Republicans and giving people something to vote against. The fact that Democratic positions on anything is in the news is a failure of communication. The entire party should be focused on the excesses and outrages of the Trump administration and the grifters running the Republican Party.

I’m sick of hearing, “Democrats have to give people something to vote for.” No, they don’t. At least not now. Right now, they don’t have the power to do much of anything. The Republicans control the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

Donald Trump is sending troops to occupy American cities and control the citizens. Masked men are swooping into neighborhoods, kidnapping people, and sending them off to foreign lands or American concentration camps. He’s using the FBI to go after his political enemies. He’s putting in place the framework of a police state.

Trump and the Republicans are about to strip health insurance away from millions of Americans when their cuts to Medicaid go through. They are going to raise premiums on millions of more people if they allow Obamacare subsidies to expire. Hospitals across rural America are in collapse and it’s their fault. People care about their access to health care.

Trump’s tariff regime is raising prices and costing jobs. He’s forcing private companies to surrender stock to the government. He’s trying to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve and firing people who give economic assessments that make him unhappy. We don’t know what’s really happening with the economy. All we know for sure is that Trump’s family and friends are getting rich at our expense.

Internationally, Trump would have made the United States a laughingstock except what’s happening in the world right now is not funny. He’s playing Charlie Brown to Putin’s Lucy, who smiles every time he pulls the football out from under Trump. The wars Trump pledged to end on day one of his presidency are still raging and there’s a famine in Gaza, a situation he’s largely ignored.

Trump’s cabinet is full of sycophants and miscreants. RFK, Jr. is bringing back deadly childhood diseases with his crazy vaccine agenda. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is probably a Russian asset who just outed an undercover CIA agent. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is so incompetent that he’s left the Pentagon demoralized and in chaos with turnovers and missteps. The cabinet meeting this week was an exercise in seeing who could brown nose Trump the most. And almost every Republican Senator except Mitch McConnell voted for these idiots.

Trump is covering up the Epstein files after promising to release them throughout his campaign. He’s already been found liable for sexual assault and he has about a dozen credible accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior. He admitted to an affair with a porn star right after his wife gave birth to his youngest son. Throughout the 1990s, he bragged about watching teenage beauty pageant contestants undress. It’s certainly not hard to imagine him sexually abusing young girls with his pal Jeffery Epstein.

Who cares what Democrats stand for? They should all be standing against this insanity.

They should oppose federal troops usurping the power of local police. They should stand against mask-wearing thugs breaking up families. They should be screaming about losing health care. They should be outraged by Russian aggression aided and abetted by the Trump administration. They should be demanding accountability, insisting that Trump follow through on his campaign promise to release the Epstein files. In short, they should amplifying every negative thing that pops up during the news cycle.

Democrats need to quit worrying about what they stand for. That’s what primaries are for. Sometime after the 2026 election cycle, the party will rally around some candidate who corrals enough support to define the party heading into the next presidential election. But right now, Democrats need to drive Trump’s slumping numbers into the ground. They need to wrap every Republican around the stupid that is the Trump administration. Democrats need to learn to be an opposition party and quit seeing themselves as a governing one. Otherwise, they may never get the chance to lead again.