Photo: Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images
In 1994, Democrats lost both chambers of Congress for the first time since 1952 as well as many down-ballot races. Afterward, journalist E.J. Dionne penned a book about the Democratic Party titled They Only Look Dead. Indeed, a comeback began before the ink was dry on this optimistic message. Right now, Democrats are at an emotional low ebb even worse than the one they experienced 30 years ago. After losing the White House and Senate in November, they face an unprecedented onslaught on everything held dear by liberals from a lawless president whose congressional allies have green-lit unimaginable power grabs. And after failing to exploit their one point of leverage over an appropriations bill that consolidated these power grabs, Democrats are at one another’s throats even as a radicalized GOP runs wild and an overwhelmed judiciary seeks to impose some kind of constitutional order on the prevalent chaos.
Yes, Donald Trump’s popularity is already flagging, and relief from his reign of terror may lie on the horizon in the midterm elections as his party is very likely to lose its governing trifecta. But with Elon Musk and Russell Vought racing to do permanent damage to the public sector and other institutions that stand in Trump’s way, 2026 seems far away. What can Democrats do right now other than whale at one another? Here are a few ideas.
Keep up the filibuster threat
Republicans were able to enact their spending bill because Senate Democrats (or at least ten of them) decided not to filibuster it to death at the expense of triggering a government shutdown. This sheathing of the filibuster sword was significant because the spending bill was the one clearly identifiable major point of leverage for Democrats, at least until late September (when that spending bill expires). Why? Because most of Trump’s agenda will be advanced through a giant budget-reconciliation bill that cannot be filibustered and can pass both Houses on a strict party-line vote.
But as Bill Scher recently pointed out in Washington Monthly, the threat of a filibuster still matters on those occasions when Republicans want to enact laws that clearly don’t meet the requirements for inclusion in a reconciliation bill:
Two weeks ago, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have banned schools that receive federal funding from allowing transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams. In January, they derailed a bill that would have put doctors performing emergency late-term abortions at risk of criminal penalties, as well as a bill that would have sanctioned International Criminal Court officials for issuing an arrest warrant to the Israeli Prime Minister. Filibustering those bills was not without political risk for Democrats, but they did so anyway.
There may be more opportunities in the future: Potentially, a lot of Trump’s agenda items that don’t involve spending or revenues could be ruled out of a reconciliation bill by the Senate parliamentarian (who referees these things) and would thus have to pass through the regular legislative process, which includes the Senate filibuster. Reasserting their willingness to use this weapon where they can is important for Democrats.
Promote and exploit Republican divisions
Republicans have managed to get two very important bills (the initial budget blueprint and the spending bill) through the closely divided House and Senate with minimal help from Democrats thanks mostly to pressure from the White House. But divisions between House and Senate Republicans still exist. Most crucially, they are not on the same page for the balance between the tax cuts Trump has demanded and the spending cuts necessary to pay for them. There’s potentially an even bigger problem approaching: Senate Republicans are trying to convince the parliamentarian to accept a radical new “scoring” process for tax cuts to pretend the extension of Trump’s 2017 legislation will be “free” from a budgetary viewpoint. If that fails, they suddenly have a $4.5 trillion hole in the budget to fill.
The larger point is that there are a variety of fault lines in the GOP’s legislative plans that Democrats should expose, promote, and, where possible, exploit. That could mean siding with Senate Republicans on one issue (e.g., how horrible Medicaid cuts would be) and with House Republicans on another (e.g., how horrible unpaid-for tax cuts for billionaires would be), while encouraging friendly media and activist voices to do the same.
Settle on a comprehensive emergency message
There have been many arguments between Democrats since November about the nature of the anti-Trump message they should be sending, with some focused on the not-so-hidden authoritarianism of the new administration and others insisting on a purely economic pitch. There’s really no time to sort this out, so Democrats may be well advised to adopt a message that includes both the “democracy” and “populist” angles. Something like: Trump and his lawless band of billionaires led by Elon Musk are breaking laws and the Constitution in order to pull off a massive redistribution of wealth from middle-class Americans to themselves. This has the added advantage of being true.
Start winning off-year elections
The best way to signal to Republicans, and to themselves, that the Trump-Musk rampage is undermining whatever limited mandate his narrow 2024 election victory provided is to do well in some special and off-year elections. Quite a few of them are coming up soon, beginning on April 1 when Wisconsin holds a high-stakes, very expensive Supreme Court election and Florida will hold two congressional special elections (which Republicans will likely win but possibly by reduced margins). Later in the year are competitive gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia and much-watched mayoral elections in New York and Pittsburgh, among other cities. Democrats could get early validation of the hypothesis that non-presidential turnout patterns now favor them, particularly without Trump on the ballot.
Work on a long-term message and strategy
Democrats don’t have the luxury of devoting time to ideological knife fights between progressives and centrists with the wolf quite literally at or even inside the door. The strategic and tactical differences of opinion that afflicted congressional Democrats during the spending-bill struggle need to be resolved quickly (with or without changes in leadership) and should not be conflated with ancient battles between different “wings” of the party. There will be time enough to determine the party’s future shape during the 2028 presidential-nominating contest, which should be wide-open and robust. But it’s not too early to begin thinking about a positive Democratic message and agenda that take fully into account what we have learned about the party’s weaknesses — particularly the need for a compelling, distinctive approach to inflation, immigration, and government reform. Those weaknesses aren’t just going away, so the time to begin thinking through how to address them begins right now.
