Where is the fear and outrage in the Democratic Party?

The Democrats Must Pledge to Block Donald Trump’s Racist Agenda or They Need To Get Out of Our Way.

The Democratic establishment failed to stop Donald Trump and now the country will have a tax-evading president who called Mexicans rapists, bragged about sexually assaulting women, sued the state of Nevada for keeping polls open, and has been endorsed by the former leader of the KKK. Yet, despite the promises of mass deportations, increased military and police spending, digging up fossil fuels that must stay in the ground, and an imminent threat of fascism, some establishment Democrats are finding ways to work with Trump.

Presidents keep most of their campaign promises. Since 1968, an average of 67% of campaign promises are fulfilled. Beyond the statistics and dangerous policies Trump has suggested, he is appointing the racist elite and Wall Street insiders in leadership positions. Steve Bannon’s appointment has been praised by the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

Where is the fear and outrage in the Democratic Party? Every single day, we are watching thousands of high school students walk out of school, and tens of thousands of people taking over the streets protesting Donald Trump and his hateful, divisive rhetoric. American people are angry and afraid for our lives, the people we love, and for our democracy. There is a growing resistance in the streets- a resistance to racism and hate. Where is the opposition in the halls of Congress? Where is the moral leadership in Washington?

The Democratic party leadership is failing to rise to the occasion. Rather than stand up to Trump and the rise of white nationalism sweeping the country, they are looking to align with Trump to accommodate a virulent racism dressed in a phony populism. The Democrats are learning the wrong lesson from the election results.

Democrats would rather align with the Trump administration on issues like infrastructure and trade because they want to appeal to the voters Trump took from them. Some establishment Democrats think they need to work with Trump to appeal to voters they lost. But that’s not what the numbers show. Clinton lost PA, WI, and MI by a razor-thin margin of less than 110,000 votes. We don’t need to appeal to millions of white voters’ racial resentment. We need to keep expanding the Obama coalition, and bring back working class voters of all races, especially in the Rust Belt, with an authentic economic populism that Clinton could never credibly convey.

We cannot ignore racism. Donald Trump rose to power by repeating racist lies. He used fear and hate of people of color and immigrants, a strategy straight from the Republican party 50 year playbook, and then cloaked himself in a phony populism. Donald Trump successfully lied to millions of Americans with a false right-wing populism, scapegoating people of color and immigrants for our country’s economic insecurity. But we know it’s the racists, Wall Street, and the politicians they employ who are to blame for our collective economic insecurity. Why would we believe Donald Trump will take on corporate America when he built his career on ripping off working people and has placed racism at the center of his administration?

We need a real opposition. We need leadership who will oppose and delegitimize Donald Trump’s impending reign of hate and terror. With hundreds of thousands of Americans joining the resistance in the streets, we need Democrats in government to join the opposition. In a two party system, the Democratic Party is how we can take back our government for the people. New leadership is urgently necessary, most importantly in the Senate, where Democrats have their only hope in containing the damage of a Trump presidency. But, it’s going to be up to all of us to transform the party and take over.

On Monday, we joined 40 of our friends and took over Senator Chuck Schumer’s office, demanding that he and other Democrats refuse to negotiate with Trump’s racist and fascist agenda.

During the sit-in, a group of high school students from Brooklyn were receiving a tour of the Hart building, and for about ten minutes they stood and watched as we sang and chanted and banged on the walls of Schumer’s office. After explaining our purpose for being there one of the students accurately stated that almost half the country chose not to vote at all, and asked why we didn’t put more blame on those people. We asked them what they think motivates people to vote. His friend replied, “people are motivated to vote when they believe in the people who they are voting for.”

There is a new America rising up that refuses to allow the corrupt ruling class and Wall Street to continue destroying our communities and our country. We will create a new America together, not rooted in the hatred of racism or the greed of corporate capitalism, but in the love of family and community. We are going to build a party for #AllofUs and make sure that the Democrats fight with us, and don’t negotiate away our future. #AllofUs will support primary challengers against those Democrats who continue to stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.

Together, we will finally create a new America, an America for all of us–one that’s never existed before.

• Yong Jung Cho and James Hayes