In the Resistance, There is No Compromise
Congressional Democrats must not give President Trump an inch — on anything.
When Grand Moff Tarkin threatened Princess Leia with the destruction of her homeworld and its billions of inhabitants, the Princess did not seek to compromise. She understood the futility of attempting to appease fundamentally unreasonable people. So she refused to give in, and though it cost her dearly, eventually she prevailed. (Fiction to be sure, but a message worth remembering in times like these.) The Democratic Party, which constitutes our best hope of resisting the will of President Trump, must likewise show courage and hold its ground, no matter the political cost. Compromising with Mr. Trump on any of his unqualified cabinet choices, or his racist, xenophobic, regressive legislative agenda, will accomplish nothing. It’s time to dig in.
In fairness to the Democrats in Congress, we are clearly in uncharted It Can’t Happen Here territory. There is no manual in American politics for how to deal with a demagogic, authoritarian president with no regard for objective reality. The only thing that seems clear is that the old rules don’t apply. We can no longer trust that our president is making rational decisions based on our national interest because he persists in lying to us at every opportunity, as well as concealing basic information we as citizens need to evaluate his motives and performance. These are not, as has been suggested by his team, minor quibbles that concern only a small number of us. Nearly three-quarters of Americans want to see his tax returns. His refusal to release them, and his his bizarre, unpresidential behavior, has resulted in his approval rating tanking to record lows. Hell, even members of his own party are now wondering about his “emotional stability.”¹
President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, recently admitted that the strong opposition Mr. Trump faces on all fronts has been “demoralizing” to him.² To that, I have only one word of response: excellent. During his campaign and the first few days of his presidency, Mr. Trump has flouted every value we hold dear as Americans. He has threatened the press, suppressed science, started down the road toward stripping healthcare from millions, and taken the first steps toward building his idiotic wall. Somehow, he didn’t anticipate resistance to his attempt to drown our republic in a sea of Orwellian alternative facts, and he’s a bit perturbed we aren’t all enthusiastically jumping on the Trump train. What a pity for him.
Guess what, Mr. Trump: most Americans do not want you or your policies. And this is not North Korea (or your favorite, Russia); we will not be cowed into acquiescing to your nonsense simply because your feelings will be hurt if we don’t. We will fight you, and we will criticize you, and we will ensure that every day of your presidency is as hard for you as it is for all the people you demean, threaten, deport, and disenfranchise. If you don’t like it, perhaps you might consider resigning and beginning treatment for your textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder.
So Democrats on the Hill, it’s time to take a hint from the Republican playbook. Just as Republicans (unsuccesfully) made it their overriding priority to block all of President Obama’s achievements and make him a one-term president, it’s time for you to plant your heels. You cannot vote yes on patently unqualified nominees like Betsy DeVos. You cannot permit an ACA repeal. You must not allow the gagging of public agencies charged with protecting us and our natural resources. If you think by doing so that you are buying yourselves goodwill with this administration, I’d ask you to consider what happened to others who tried similar strategies before. At the end of the day, you cannot make deals with people whose only method of governing amounts to holding a gun to America’s temple and threatening to pull the trigger. The only thing you can do is fight.
You should hardly need to be reminded, congressional Democrats, that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle unconstitutionally prevented President Obama from naming a Supreme Court justice. As the saying goes, turnabout is fair play. Sen. Chuck Schumer has said that if President Trump picks a non-mainstream nominee, he will block the nomination. But that isn’t going far enough. Sen. Schumer should block any Trump nominee regardless of stated policy stances, since Mr. Trump should not even be in a position to make a nomination in the first place. Sen. Schumer, you should hold up Mr. Trump’s cabinet selections, logjam his legislative priorities, and generally sink his presidency into the same depressing morass your opponents reserved for his predecessor.
I have been a Democrat my entire adult life, and I do not regret that decision or any of the votes I have cast for members of that party. But I, like many, am tired of being politically bullied and derided as a “weak liberal” merely because I believe in equality, fairness, and justice.³ I and those like me have watched long enough while Democrats failed to stand up Republicans’ litany of dirty tricks. That must end now. President Trump may be president of all of us, but he has shown he will never be a president for all of us. So we must do all that we can to resist him, and in so doing drive him, his compatriots, and his repugnant beliefs from our government.
It’s time to cowboy up, Democrats. Be the resistance we all know you can be. Because when the essence of our democracy is at stake, nothing less will do.
¹ One wishes they would have been as interested in his demonstrably unfit temperament before he was elected.
² Apparently he doesn’t see the irony of decrying “safe spaces” and “snowflakes” while demanding unflinching loyalty and praise from the first second of his administration’s existence.
³ Especially by people who claim to be Christian, but whose beliefs indicate that they have never actually read the Bible.
