February 23, 2025 - 1:00pm
Nearly a month into Donald Trump’s second term as president, Democrats are still scrambling to find a common message. Insofar as the party is forming a plan to counter Trump over the next two to four years, it seems to mostly be a rerun of his first term, when they spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince America that Trump was a “threat to democracy.” As Jamie Raskin, a prominent House Democrat who served on the second Trump impeachment committee, has offered: “we have to work on a short-term, daily basis to defeat and block every authoritarian, fascistic move against the rights of the people, against the separation of powers, against legislative supremacy to be the lawmaking power.”
However, this was the same case that Kamala Harris made against Trump during the last campaign — a case that ultimately fell on deaf ears. Of course, part of being the loyal opposition in Congress is countering abuses of power and overreach by the executive branch where they exist. But the opposition also needs a clear vision for how it intends to speak for Americans, including those who didn’t vote for them in the last election, if they hope to find their way out of the political wilderness and eventually win back voters who have rejected them in the past.
Trump has already taken several steps in the early running that could pose risks to many middle- and working-class Americans, offering Democrats an opening to speak up for them. One obvious example of this relates to the top issue in last year’s campaign: inflation. Of the 68 executive orders that Trump has already issued, just three even mention inflation, and none appear to be designed with a specific focus on combatting it. Moreover, both his liberal use of tariffs and proposed second round of tax cuts risk exacerbating inflation even more. Trump has even openly admitted that Americans may experience some economic “pain” as a result of his tariffs.
All this comes at a bad time for the US economy: inflation unexpectedly rose in January, and people are starting to see it hit their real lives again, including at the gas pump and grocery store (virtually everyone has seen the skyrocketing price of eggs by now). Voters haven’t yet given Trump dour marks for his handling of the economy, but they’re not thrilled with it so far, either. A recent Echelon Insights poll showed that nearly half of all Americans (45%) think the current economic situation in the US is getting worse, while Trump is underwater with all-important independents in another YouGov poll over his handling of inflation.
Most political analysts agree that a primary reason Trump won last year was because voters were sick of inflation. In fact, voters cited it as the top issue facing the country. If the new president is failing to follow through on his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for average Americans, Democrats would be right to call him out for it. They would be wise to also develop their own economic plan for helping people facing economic hardship to present a contrast with Trump.
Another area where they could confront him is over the unaccountability of DOGE and the risks that the actions of Elon Musk’s team pose to ordinary people. While some of Trump’s voters are getting exactly what they hoped for, many are not. Musk’s team has not only taken aim at programs like USAID, whose focus is beyond America’s borders. They also have their sights set on domestic programmes that many working-class families — including many who voted for the president — rely on, such as aid for healthcare, food, and housing. He has additionally tried to shutter the consumer-protection watchdog created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, an institution that has notably come after Big Tech in the past and had plans to investigate Musk’s X.
DOGE risks losing popularity. Less than one-quarter of Americans think that Elon Musk and his programme should have “a lot” of influence over government operations and spending, and even many conservatives who have long supported cutting the size of government have expressed reservations about the haphazard manner in which Musk is approaching it. While it likely isn’t in the Democrats’ interest to defend every single institution or programme that comes under fire, they would be wise to highlight those that are popular and have the most direct impact on Americans’ daily lives.
Democrats should also make a point of working with Trump where it makes sense. A repeat of his first term, when the vast majority of the party voted against him on a routine basis, likely won’t work out well. In the early running, they seem to be doing the same. Though post-election polling has shown that voters — especially swing voters — disagree with Democrats’ positions on immigration and gender issues, many of the party’s members refused to take the opportunity to side with the public on some key early votes.
It may be a long four years for Democrats, especially right now, when they find themselves completely locked out of power in Washington. There are nonetheless steps they can take to make themselves relevant now, work on behalf of the country, and set themselves up for success in next year’s midterms and beyond. But this will require a deliberate and thoughtful strategy, not a reactionary repeat of how they did things in Trump’s first term.
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SubscribeOr perhaps Trump realises that ‘inflation’ is a symptom, not a cause? In which case ‘fighting inflation’ should not be a primary goal.
All the drill baby drill measures are inflation busters. As Trump and his surrogates constantly tell the media who complain about “no inflation measures”. The Dems really are stupid!
Yes, Trump seems to be the only politician left in the West who understands the role of energy costs in industrial economies. Certainly our current UK government seems to have no grasp at all of this basic reality.
Senior Democrats are not interested in taking on Trump. They are interested in pacifying the fanatical activist base, who might otherwise turf them out of their safe lucrative sinecures in the primaries.
The majority of Americans are not living in “la la land” expecting that in four weeks inflation would be fixed. What is wrong with Democrats is their “sound and fury signifying nothing.” In my view, Democrats in the USA and leaders in Europe need to face reality and be honest with those who they claim to govern. Nothing significant or good is achieved overnight AND ignoring reality is expediting death.
Inflation is hurting Americans, no doubt but most realize Trump was handed a burning house.
But you know what helps? Sunlight, common sense, transparency, leaders who prioritize the people and confront the problems…as well as justice and exposure to those who lied and broke the law.
It’s amazing how powerful that is and how destructive the lies and poor leadership have been. Let’s not forget we had a senile president sleeping in the basement while radicals ran wild and hid from everything, blamed us and gaslighted continually, drumming up two major wars and record illegal immigration.
Inflation is rough and precarious, but I think the majority have some patience. Strong leadership and common sense are an amazing unifier. Gonna be rocky but going in the right direction. Peace through strength first.
A big problem with the Democrats and inflation is they pretended it was not happening. Whether or not Trump fixes it or inflation continues to rise, the Democrats have a major optics issue now ranting on about inflation all the time. It was a bad idea to have the party and entire extended mainstream media apparatus telling voters their economic problems were just their imagination.
Yes. And it wasn’t the only mistake, in a long list of damaging gaslighting tactics. Which is just a fancy way of saying lying and manipulation. It didn’t pass the American gut test, but they kept doing it. Like that awful narcissistic boyfriend who finally makes you face the truth.
The border and immigration, Covid, vaccines, transgenderism, boys in girls locker rooms, porn in grade school, indoctrination of children, cutting off children’s body parts?? An obviously senile president they trotted out and blatantly lied about, censorship and persecution. I’m sure I’m missing something.
Americans are young, free and feisty. Maybe this far left woke direction is more palatable and comfortable for Europeans, who lean left more easily, cling to the feeling of superiority and misery, rely more on the nanny state and have given up on themselves,. But the reason Trump won is because we still have some strong men, who can find their balls.
The vibe of the far left is far more terrifying and obvious.
They won’t stop. The destruction and corruption and lying, anti human, anti family, anti liberal direction. I mean cmon. Kamala Harris are you effing kidding me? No self respecting American man is going to vote for her. The left hates the good, and they hate this country, freedom, and they hate us. Clearly. As evidenced by every single policy they implemented.
It wasn’t the silent majority that voted for trump. It was the scared majority. At this point Europeans opinions mean very little, because they are weak and irrelevant and diverging on a different path. We are just trying to save our country, our economy and our kids.
Inflation is painful but I’m sure most voters realise that getting it down is a complex undertaking that takes time. If it was like flicking a switch, don’t you think politicians would just do it?
Voters might still be unhappy but I think that most of them have enough common sense to withhold judgment until a little time has passed.
There is though, it’s called price controls. Of course price controls are very controversial and not always effective but also not completely unheard of. It is used every once in while. After WW II the US used price controls across the board to prevent inflation due to the massive war spending. In this case the inflation seems to have been caused by the policies during the pandemic. Not only were supply chains disrupted, the money supply increased a lot and ended up mostly in the pockets of the already wealthy. Relatively speaking the middle class became a lot poorer and they are starting to notice that more and more.
It takes time to see results. What’s concerning with Donald Trump is not lack of results, but lack of effort. He’s not doing anything to fight inflation. He should have started that fight on day one.
Instead, we have Elon Musk and minions running around like they are superheroes in capes who are doing lots of damage and little, if any, good. Whatever they think they are doing,, it’s not fighting inflation.
He’s not doing anything to fight inflation.
The root causes of inflation are over-regulation, government spending and energy costs. He seems to be dealing with all of those things.
I think they should just keep pounding home the notion that they are on the right side of history and anyone that disagrees with them is both stupid and/or a bad person.
Keep pumping out protest songs and anthems of the Revolutionary Bureacracy. There’s nothing more inspiring than listening to Bureacrats sing about the importance of self-importance.
I have complete confidence that the American people will gradually come to enjoy being relentlessly scolded by people with zero common sense.
The optics of those bureaucrat protests are so awful. Even if the matter is more complex, I guess the average taxpayer looks at them and simply sees a bunch of cossetted fools fighting for their right to waste citizens’ hard-earned dollars.
It’s important also to continue to advocate for more men taking part in women’s sports, completely open borders and decriminalisation of things like shoplifting.
The Democrats, thanks to the Progressive hijacking, are doomed. Recent polling shows lowest approval ever at 21% which has actually decreased since Trump’s election. They lost their base and expanded Trump’s, transforming the GOP. Dems are only propped up by a complicit media and radical segment, or those suffering Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It’s down right odd to see their hubris, desperation and most baffling… Digging in on the 20 side of 80/20 issues. But boy they make a lot of noise and put up a good fight! Doge is the nail in the coffin.
It’s probably far more likely that the Republican party will organically split between MAGA and more neocons or liberal independents. I hope so….Two party system is healthy. I miss the real liberal Democrats, but unfortunately lefty mindset has veered into a “burn the house down strategy.” Hubris is their downfall. And the woke mind virus is the cause.
Trump was and still is a moderate Democrat. And hes surrounded himself with other moderate Democrats. The reason the current Democrat party cant get a foothold against him is hes stolen all their reasonable ideas, leaving them to compete against common sense with their woke ridiculousness. And the RINOs hate him because hes made them irrelevant.
That’s a very good point, which shows just how far left Democrats went. Funny how these policies are called “far right” but I wouldn’t minimize the profound impact and detriment of the woke agenda. Wayyyy too far left for Americans and the damage is widespread to our culture and institutions. What caused the right turn were fundamentally conservative values and common sense.
Some good points in this article. I can’t believe so many people support Elon Musk and DOGE. What a bunch of numskulls those guys are.
Yes. That’s what Dems said. And look where it’s gotten them.
Fighting DOGE would be a monumental mistake for the Dems.
As long as it keeps finding obvious cases of waste, Dems should stay well clear of complaining about it.
When did DOGE find any obvious cases of fraud, waste and abuse? They keep trumpeting that they have found some, but so far their only success have been to cut programs that were authorized by Congress. That’s not fraud, waste or abuse.
It’s been enormous, billions across multiple agencies and also obvious corruption specifically USAID.
If you really care to know, it’s very transparent and you can see it in their website:
https://www.doge.gov/
It is mainly grants and funding not authorized by Congress specifically, but administered by bureaucratic agencies, acting independently with no oversight and that fall under the authority of the executive branch, not the legislative branch, ie congress. The executive branch means the president, in case you didn’t know that. The employees being terminated are also under that authority, not congressional authority. But these agencies are used to fund multiple NGOs and bypass Congress and that’s exactly why they use them to funnel tax dollars without oversight.
Where is the evidence that what is listed is fraud, waste or abuse? Where is the evidence of corruption at USAID? Is the FBI investigating Samantha Power to bring criminal charges?
Seems to me Elon Musk and DOGE are asking us to take this all on trust. I have no reason to trust Elon Musk and every reason not to.
Social security payments to dead people might be one example.
I’m glad you brought that up. DOGE did not find any evidence of social security payments to dead people. Not a single one.. They found a lot of social security numbers for dead people that were still active. But no payments are being made to those accounts. The DOGE people know that, but still misrepresent the facts. That’s the problem. They use smoke and mirrors to hide behind.
And it’s also completely false your statement “programs authorized by Congress” you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re repeating talking points.
Congress appropriated $40 billion to USAID for a variety of purposes. Those funds were appropriated for soecific countries or regions and targeted at specific problems. Congress didn’t just make a block grant that the president can use as he sees fit.
For instance, Congress appropriated about $20 billion for assistance of various types to Ukraine. The use of the funds was all specified by Congress. That was not left up to the president’s discretion.
Maybe you should be careful about who you call a numskull. Especially when referring to a guy who builds rockets.
Elon Musk is a genius in some ways and a nerdy middle-aged kid in others. He has worked miracles at runningTesla and SpaceX as businesses but he has no business being in government.
For example, can you believe the email Elon Musk sent to all federal workers? “You need to send an email to your boss listing all that you accomplished last week or you will be fired.” What a joke. But no one’s laughing.
Focus on classism. Overturning Citizens United, corporate greed and power. Housing as well. Speak more about the proposed bills that would limit large hedge fund investors from swallowing up residential real estate and putting more limitations on short term rentals. Recognizing the need for more skilled trade workers. Cleaning up pollutant and plastics from our environment and food. Reform farming so that is not monopolized. Reforming prison as a place of rehabilitation instead of a revolving door where people just go back to flooding the streets. Giving parents more option for childcare and stop making stupid regulations that only large corporations have the ability to meet or dodge. Enforcing ai companies and social media to put in more controls to protect our society and youth. Identity politics is not the hill to die on, we need to stop taking the bait. Classism umbrellas everything. Do we really want the richest in the world oligarchs running our country?
https://www.thesling.org/are-hedge-funds-and-private-equity-firms-driving-up-the-cost-of-housing-2/
That would be very effective if they cared about any of that, and if anyone believed them. But no one does. Stopping the baldface lying would be a fabulous start.
If you are talking about George Soros, then no. We don’t.