Democracy is Fighting Back

“The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives…”

Democratic activists, donors, and ordinary voters are understandably frustrated that President Trump’s torrid assault on the rule of law, on U.S. national security protections, law enforcement, trading partners, sane governance, and truth has not been stopped dead in its tracks. In particular, many Democrats have been dismayed that their lawmakers in the House and Senate have not been more forceful in their response to unprecedented attacks on the Constitutional order. Nevertheless, the tide may be turning.

While some Democratic senators continue to vote to confirm utterly unfit nominees, the pro-democracy response has improved markedly in recent days. Most importantly, well-targeted lawsuits have at least temporarily halted Trump’s efforts to unilaterally erase birthright citizenship from the Constitution and usurp Congress’s power of the purse by freezing federal funding. Other suits have been filed to prevent Elon Musk and his band of cyber-whizzes from sucking up highly sensitive information from the Treasury Department; reverse Trump’s Schedule F decree; undo anti-trans edicts; halt collection of names of every FBI employee to work on any Jan. 6-related cases; and stymie the firing of career federal employees in contravention of the law. Actions to reverse purges of inspectors general, career FBI agents, and employees deemed to have worked on “DEI” programs are gearing up.

Meanwhile, Trump has accomplished practically nothing on two big promises. His attempt to enact consumer tax (tariff) on goods from Mexico and Canada was met with a storm of protest. After phony concessions from angered allies, Trump backtracked and put those consumer taxes on hold. And while he has staged showy immigration raids, the results have been meager. “President Donald Trump and his allies have promoted immigration operations in cities like Chicago and New York, where agents across federal agencies were called in to increase the number of arrests,” NBC News reports. “But arresting more people inside the United States on allegations of immigration violations means they need to be held somewhere. And significant space constraints in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities — and federal court orders forbidding indefinite detention — have forced the agency to release some of those arrested in the roundups rather than hold them until deportation.”

The Musk-Trump assaults (e.g., attempting to freeze federal funding or Musk’s capture of Treasury data) have collectively stirred Democrats to action. More importantly, Democrats have refocused attention on Musk, the unmistakable conniving link in the Musk-Trump presidency. Peaceful protests at USAID, the Treasury Department, and the Labor Department drew boisterous crowds and scores of Democratic lawmakers. At the Treasury protest, an array of popular lawmakers (notably Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland) delivered fiery speeches from a podium labeled “Nobody Elected Elon!” Scores of activists and lawmakers are training their glare on the apparent lawlessness and conflicts of interest inherent in Musk’s attempted government takeover.

Unelected Musk, the embodiment of the weird tech-bro, is not a popular figure. (Only 39 percent approve of his performance while 53 percent disapprove according to an early Quinnipiac poll.) Since 2016 his net approval has nosedived from +29 to -11 points.

Several developments this week suggest Musk is a vulnerability for Trump. As reporting from The Washington Post and others confirm, Musk and company have been put on notice of the likely illegality of their actions. Their blithe contempt for the Constitution gives weight to warnings that he is out to wreck our government and subvert democracy. “Internal legal objections have been raised at the Treasury Department, the Education Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the White House budget office, among others,” The Post reported. “Government officials are warning us that Musk is attempting to “operate as a strike team, outside typical agency rules and constitutional checks on executive power.” The Post’s report observed, “Specific concerns include the terms of ‘deferred resignations’ Musk’s team is offering to purge the civil service—which experts say runs afoul of federal spending law—and whether Musk’s staffers will use Treasury’s payment system to reverse spending that has already been approved.”

In addition, reminding voters that he is rampaging through government without clearances and in potential violation of numerous statutes and regulations serves both to highlight the growing constitutional crisis and taunt Trump (Who’s in charge here?!). Some political strategists surmise that Trump’s portray as a feeble figurehead will encourage a falling out between the tow.

Moreover, the fight over privacy and fear of monkeying around with critical financial information now have made clear to voters that this is not about some anonymous government bureaucrats. This is about Americans’ data and finances. When Musk tries to turn off the spigot to federally funded daycare or to life-saving medical research they get hurt. What will Musk do with all that data, and will he attempt to rewrite government coding and apply artificial intelligence to databases? That’s a question even the legacy press cannot ignore.

And finally, while Republicans have reprehensibly caved to every Trump whim, turned a blind eye toward his egregious usurpation of congressional power, and rubber-stamped manifestly unfit nominees, Democrats have not used all tools available to them. Just as The Contrarian contributor Norm Ornstein advised Democratic senators to use every legislative tool available (e.g. refusing unanimous consent, forcing quorum calls), Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin exhorted the crowd to demand Democrats “Shut down the Senate!”—or at the very least stop voting to confirm utterly unworthy nominees.

Rally against Musk Urges Senate to Act

If activists can push elected Democrats into action, the Musk-Trump steamroller may grind to a halt.

If they can just follow the lead of litigants and Democratic protestors, Democratic politicians might inflict real political damage on Trump and demonstrate that they, not he, have ordinary Americans’ interests at heart. After all, for all the chaos and excess and lawlessness and vilifying and excuse-making, Trump has done absolutely nothing to improve the lives of Americans. In that regard, he has betrayed the voters, however misguided, who thought he was going to be their champion.