"Should Democrats help bring these nominees to a quick vote?"
No.
Democrats should insist that Musrump's nominees come to a vote in *normal order*--with full committee hearings followed by floor votes. The process can be our friend when we fight back on the substance.Tactics that simply delay and obstruct the inevitable would only create Republican attack opportunities.
By now, Schumer should be putting committee investigative staffs to work full-time on opposition dossiers for all Musrump nominees. Current committee chairs should be preparing to quarterback Democratic interrogation of nominees when they become ranking members.
By all means, Democrats: MAKE SOME STINKIN' NOISE!
Bill, you're wrong. The Dems should not be loud and vigorous in their opposition to the Trump appointees. They should grill them in hearings, sure, and vote no for the bad ones. The last thing we need as was mentioned would be an excuse for recess appointments. That will likely happen anyway if the Republicans block any appointments. As JVL says, make the GOP own this clown show.
"Meanwhile, the New York Times notes that consumer confidence has surged among Republicans and cratered among Democrats practically overnight—a reversal that pretty much always happens after an election where parties switch power."
In my next life I want to be one of those people who are short on reason and long on instant gratification. On second thought, no I don't.
I'm not sure it makes any sense for Democrats to boycott the hearings but rather prepare for two things. 1.) Make sure each nominee needs to step through some very hot coals and 2.) be prepared to flood media including folks like Brett Beier and Joe Rogan to make sure the world knows the risks of the people that Trump has nominated.
I would also like to give the folks at The Bulwark some food for thought. It took courage to break from your roots as Republicans. I'd prefer to see much more from you about reforming your former party than your advice or complaints about what Democrats should be doing or are not doing. For example, using your long time contacts in the GOP, how many interviews do you have lined up with GOP senators regarding the nominees?
I'd also like to see you grapple with the question of whether Trump transformed the GOP or whether he revealed the GOP for what it largely has been for decades. For example, I think there is a fairly clear through line between Reagan's nine scariest words and Brian Tyler Cohen's Shameless. Another example, the Democrats are often accused of practicing identity politics, whatever that means. Yet we never hear the GOP being vilified for practicing incitement politics which in my view is actually far more accurate, divisive, and dangerous. Maybe you can get that started. Third, was there ever any introspection on the part of conservatives that rigid embrace of the Friedman Doctrine WOULDN'T turn into the multiple decades of income inequality that we have experienced? Finally, had Nixon not been caught red handed, would all of you be talking today wistfully about being Nixon conservatives.
I agree the Dem senators should not boycott. I don't think they should fight and make life miserable for their colleagues as Bill urges. Nor should they slip back into the comfortable language of business as usual as Eggers puts it. They should oppose unqualified nominees by making clear in their hearing questions and and press appearances that the nominee before them is [1] not qualified and [2] what their incompetence will look like. They can use that to bolster their case when Trump 2.O starts hurting Americans.
Forget creating outrage and "nauseating and worth gagging at". The Dem party brand has been beaten, so they don't have much to stand on in such outrage. Instead, Dems now should "focus on the voters we lost in 2024 . . . work backward from what they care about and why they left our party" [https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/how-to-break-up-trumps-winning-coalition], which was the cost of goods and services and the broken border. Yes, rhey didn't care about competence in the Executive Branch when they cast their vote, but the Dems have an opportunity to reach them in focusing on how incompetence affects THEM. Everything Dems should say should show how Trump 2.O affects them personally. That they'll listen to.
I didn't know the Senate Judiciary Committee could call for the House ethics panel investigative records for the Senate’s use. I thought that evidence was done and put away, so good to know.
The voters we lost in 2024 came primarily from among young Biden voters who stayed home as they usually do. Their average turn-out is 40%, except once in the last 45 years when turn out reached about 50%--and that was in 2020.
"...the Dems have an opportunity to reach them in focusing on how incompetence affects THEM. " I agree with this sentiment yet wonder why the Harris campaign did not try hard enough to show voters how a 2nd Trump erm would affect them.
Just read Daniel McGraw's column from today. No comments section, but it's relevant here. My worst fears were confirmed. Not of the cabinet picks but of the top 3 reasons Trump won in the first place, which are are turnout, turnout and turnout. Particularly turnout in swing-state cities were Harris won, as expected, but by margins not large enough to take the state, as Biden did in '20. Turnout was much LESS than in 2020, despite every urgent reason to INCREASE it among Never-Trump and swing voters. Pick one (or more): the 1/6/21 insurrection, lies that the '20 election was stolen despite all the evidence to the contrary, classified documents that WERE stolen (and their return obstructed), and the appalling SCOTUS "immunity" ruling. Millions just didn't care. They just didn't take that issue seriously enough. But they, and many who did vote for Trump, will come to regret it.
Step aside Democrats…. Trump is choosing these morons to create outrage. Don’t fall for it. Let them burn it down and they can own it. America is resilient and will rebuild.
Now is the time for the House of Representatives to finally write some laws beyond kitchen appliances.
Now Representatives Greene and Boebert can co-write a law proclaiming the United States to be a white, Christian nation exclusively.
Start producing those felt patches—yellow stars for Jews and green crescents for Muslims, of course; but what about those darn coloreds? Black lynching rope? Brown walls? Lemon railroad tracks?
Oh, and maybe bring back slavery? Property cannot vote … nor be sexually abused. Also, AG Gaetz can abolish statutory rape and perhaps rape itself … as long as it produces (white) children.
Daniel McGraw might have it backwards. "...underlying inflation exacerbated by massive government spending during and after COVID didn’t help." Trump voters did not recognize ANY underlying inflation. The inflation caused by Trump policies like the tariffs got overwhelm by the Covid spending. They would have hated the recession and the hard landing but for that Covid spending. Instead the Cod spending helped them through the crisis and contributed to the soft landing. The post-Covid spending, like infrastructure, was sorely needed. Trump's administration, after inheriting the Obama economy was in a good position to spend the necessary money, but squandered the opportunity on tax cuts for the rich.
Remember too, that the sort of progressive leftists blaming Biden and Harris for Gaza, who didn't think the debt loan forgiveness they got was enough, and vilified Harris for daring to campaign with Never-Trumpers tend to live in the cities. They were threatening to stay home throughout the campaign. They forgot the lesson of 2016--that voting third party or staying homes will most likely give you the outcome you least desire even though we tried to remind them may times.
I must still be in the anger phase of grieving, because I agree with many of the comments here: Why the HELL are the Democrats always expected to be the adults in the room and clean up the shit that that the Republicans create??
The problem is not Trump; he is just the symptom. He is the Frankenstein monster that Republicans created after 50 years of White identity politics, anti-intellectualism, and authoritarianism. Republicans convinced 51% of Americans to vote for that monster. Fine. They need to roll in the manure that they voted for.
Having said that, I think Democrats should try to protect the Ukrainians. They didn't vote for this. They don't deserve the death and suffering.
actually only 50.1%. And when the last votes from California are finally tallied, it may be even less.
If you were to ask Trump supporters if Biden won in a landslide, assuming you could find any that agreed he won, they would say no, but somehow, Trump with 5 million fewer votes than Biden's 2020 total, and a 2% margin of victory vs Biden's 4.5% margin, won in a landslide.
Democrats are just awful at messaging. They should be challenging the ridiculous Trump landslide claim. And on platforms where MAGA nuts hang out.
The GOP just won everything. If not a single GOP Senator will help, this isn't on the Democrats. The Country's problems are the Republicans. Democrats can just pointlessly make noise.
“Do Not Ho Gentle” redux: Not even in his worst dreams, not even after that eighteenth shot, would Dylan Thomas dream such a nightmare!
A wealth of pointedly absurd nominations, a Senate without morals (recall the Grim Reaper’s only wish, to deter that black man from functioning), a House Leader who, taking a quick break from some decent Christian pornography) wants to bury that Gaetz ethics report … welcome to the loony bin!
Johnathan Cowan's post-mortem has some good points but goes over board. Yes, "defund the police" was stupid and most Dems rejected it as soon as it was uttered. Right-wing propaganda kept pushing it as id it was part of the Democratic platform. Same with the rest of it. It never was. "Medicare for All" is also a poor slogan because if you read the annual Medicare handbook carefully, you will see that Medicare can bankrupt you. Trump wants to replace it with private Medicare Advantage plans which are nothing but scams. Nevertheless, our health care system needs a huge overhaul, top to bottom. Maybe something like the Japanese system where cost are reasonable, the patient pays 30% of those reasonable costs, and patients can go to any provider they want. The Green New Deal was not about restrictions on energy development. Just the opposite. It was all about developing alternative sources of energy. God ain't making no more oil. There was NEVER an open border policy. The only criticism of merit is college debt cancellation (and Biden managed to deliver billions of dollars of that). The GOP accused Biden of buying votes, but the Biden voters who stayed home are never satisfied, like the working class voters who voted for Trump anyway.
"Sure, Fox often gins up pseudo-scandals. But that doesn’t mean everything they harp on is bogus." But enough is bogus that they must be viewed as having no credibility. However Cowan's examples don't fly. The very first thing Biden did on Jan 21, 2020 was propose a border bill to fix Trump's out-of-control border and the GOP blocked it. Then the GOP blocked their own border bill so Trump could run on the border. So I guess he should have forsook legislative action, used executive order right away and taken that political hit when FOX calls him n authoritarian for using executive order. Then Cowan admits that (mostly rural) Americans (in Trump's base) are leery about urban chaos as presented to them by right -wing propaganda. How exactly are the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland supposed sip[posed to combat propaganda?
"Of course, Democrats should continue to embrace racial justice, freedom, and equality and to protect the vulnerable." As long as Dems do that, right-wing propaganda will call them "woke." Voters have shown time and again they tend to simplistic thinkers who eschew nuance. There was just one "woke" issue that Dems were unable to to make the nuance clear. They had difficulty separating the freedom, equality and protection of the vulnerable of trans people from the extremism of some in the trans community. It is a fact the the recent number of trans people far outnumber the sum of off all the statistical variations in biology that could lead to trans. How do you separate the genuine from the fake? Medicine still cannot tell us.
Dems take a very common American attitude here. Society has agreed to to take the risk of letting a criminal go free if it means we avoid convicting an innocent. That why the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt. That's why defense lawyers rely on technicalities if they don't think they can overcome the standard. Should we take the chance of letting a fake trans get by to avoid protecting genuine trans? So far we don't know enough, and the worst part I see, is the suppression of any attempt to ask for more information.
Harris did not make much of a leftward turn, less than the rest of the primary challengers except Biden. Amazing the forget voters can't Harris, but seem to have forgotten Trump's chaos, corruption, and incompetence and don't care about his criminality and cognitive decline. I don't think Dems should blame themselves. It is also amazing we never see introspection from the GOP in spite of one loss after another. Nope, and then they win.
I am perfectly fine with the response from Democrats right now. I mean, the current president and party leader just had a cozy meeting with Trump in the White House on Wednesday. That kind of undercut all of those warnings made during the campaign about Trump being dangerous.
I think it is best for Democrats to warn their voters of the dangers of these nominees and, obviously vote against them. But I don’t agree with doing much beyond that until those nominees actually prove that they are dangerous. Nobody who voted for Trump would listen or care about what they are saying anyway.
I know this sounds like I am throwing my hands up in the air, and I suppose I am. But we don’t live in the same world we lived in back in January 2017. Trump mismanaged a pandemic so badly that hundreds of thousands died needlessly. And then he staged a coup. Trump has been indicted, found guilty of sexual assault, convicted of multiple felonies, and acted in the most inappropriate and hateful ways imaginable. And Americans voted for that. They are attracted to the danger. So yelling ‘danger’ will only make them happy in their choice. And, frankly, I am at a loss on how to fight that.
"Should Democrats help bring these nominees to a quick vote?"
No.
Democrats should insist that Musrump's nominees come to a vote in *normal order*--with full committee hearings followed by floor votes. The process can be our friend when we fight back on the substance.Tactics that simply delay and obstruct the inevitable would only create Republican attack opportunities.
By now, Schumer should be putting committee investigative staffs to work full-time on opposition dossiers for all Musrump nominees. Current committee chairs should be preparing to quarterback Democratic interrogation of nominees when they become ranking members.
By all means, Democrats: MAKE SOME STINKIN' NOISE!
Bill, you're wrong. The Dems should not be loud and vigorous in their opposition to the Trump appointees. They should grill them in hearings, sure, and vote no for the bad ones. The last thing we need as was mentioned would be an excuse for recess appointments. That will likely happen anyway if the Republicans block any appointments. As JVL says, make the GOP own this clown show.
With just a shrug,
Dems slip comfortably into
the role of the good German.
"Meanwhile, the New York Times notes that consumer confidence has surged among Republicans and cratered among Democrats practically overnight—a reversal that pretty much always happens after an election where parties switch power."
In my next life I want to be one of those people who are short on reason and long on instant gratification. On second thought, no I don't.
I'm not sure it makes any sense for Democrats to boycott the hearings but rather prepare for two things. 1.) Make sure each nominee needs to step through some very hot coals and 2.) be prepared to flood media including folks like Brett Beier and Joe Rogan to make sure the world knows the risks of the people that Trump has nominated.
I would also like to give the folks at The Bulwark some food for thought. It took courage to break from your roots as Republicans. I'd prefer to see much more from you about reforming your former party than your advice or complaints about what Democrats should be doing or are not doing. For example, using your long time contacts in the GOP, how many interviews do you have lined up with GOP senators regarding the nominees?
I'd also like to see you grapple with the question of whether Trump transformed the GOP or whether he revealed the GOP for what it largely has been for decades. For example, I think there is a fairly clear through line between Reagan's nine scariest words and Brian Tyler Cohen's Shameless. Another example, the Democrats are often accused of practicing identity politics, whatever that means. Yet we never hear the GOP being vilified for practicing incitement politics which in my view is actually far more accurate, divisive, and dangerous. Maybe you can get that started. Third, was there ever any introspection on the part of conservatives that rigid embrace of the Friedman Doctrine WOULDN'T turn into the multiple decades of income inequality that we have experienced? Finally, had Nixon not been caught red handed, would all of you be talking today wistfully about being Nixon conservatives.
Trump was very stressed the last couple of years. Now it’s our turn to be stressed.
I agree the Dem senators should not boycott. I don't think they should fight and make life miserable for their colleagues as Bill urges. Nor should they slip back into the comfortable language of business as usual as Eggers puts it. They should oppose unqualified nominees by making clear in their hearing questions and and press appearances that the nominee before them is [1] not qualified and [2] what their incompetence will look like. They can use that to bolster their case when Trump 2.O starts hurting Americans.
Forget creating outrage and "nauseating and worth gagging at". The Dem party brand has been beaten, so they don't have much to stand on in such outrage. Instead, Dems now should "focus on the voters we lost in 2024 . . . work backward from what they care about and why they left our party" [https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/how-to-break-up-trumps-winning-coalition], which was the cost of goods and services and the broken border. Yes, rhey didn't care about competence in the Executive Branch when they cast their vote, but the Dems have an opportunity to reach them in focusing on how incompetence affects THEM. Everything Dems should say should show how Trump 2.O affects them personally. That they'll listen to.
I didn't know the Senate Judiciary Committee could call for the House ethics panel investigative records for the Senate’s use. I thought that evidence was done and put away, so good to know.
The voters we lost in 2024 came primarily from among young Biden voters who stayed home as they usually do. Their average turn-out is 40%, except once in the last 45 years when turn out reached about 50%--and that was in 2020.
"...the Dems have an opportunity to reach them in focusing on how incompetence affects THEM. " I agree with this sentiment yet wonder why the Harris campaign did not try hard enough to show voters how a 2nd Trump erm would affect them.
You don't think she tried hard enough? Really?
Just read Daniel McGraw's column from today. No comments section, but it's relevant here. My worst fears were confirmed. Not of the cabinet picks but of the top 3 reasons Trump won in the first place, which are are turnout, turnout and turnout. Particularly turnout in swing-state cities were Harris won, as expected, but by margins not large enough to take the state, as Biden did in '20. Turnout was much LESS than in 2020, despite every urgent reason to INCREASE it among Never-Trump and swing voters. Pick one (or more): the 1/6/21 insurrection, lies that the '20 election was stolen despite all the evidence to the contrary, classified documents that WERE stolen (and their return obstructed), and the appalling SCOTUS "immunity" ruling. Millions just didn't care. They just didn't take that issue seriously enough. But they, and many who did vote for Trump, will come to regret it.
For the Biden voters who stayed home, Trump's autocracy was not a deal- breaker.
Step aside Democrats…. Trump is choosing these morons to create outrage. Don’t fall for it. Let them burn it down and they can own it. America is resilient and will rebuild.
On the other hand, do we want Dems to be good Germans?
Agree with the first part. Hope like hell you are right on the last.
Now is the time for the House of Representatives to finally write some laws beyond kitchen appliances.
Now Representatives Greene and Boebert can co-write a law proclaiming the United States to be a white, Christian nation exclusively.
Start producing those felt patches—yellow stars for Jews and green crescents for Muslims, of course; but what about those darn coloreds? Black lynching rope? Brown walls? Lemon railroad tracks?
Oh, and maybe bring back slavery? Property cannot vote … nor be sexually abused. Also, AG Gaetz can abolish statutory rape and perhaps rape itself … as long as it produces (white) children.
Daniel McGraw might have it backwards. "...underlying inflation exacerbated by massive government spending during and after COVID didn’t help." Trump voters did not recognize ANY underlying inflation. The inflation caused by Trump policies like the tariffs got overwhelm by the Covid spending. They would have hated the recession and the hard landing but for that Covid spending. Instead the Cod spending helped them through the crisis and contributed to the soft landing. The post-Covid spending, like infrastructure, was sorely needed. Trump's administration, after inheriting the Obama economy was in a good position to spend the necessary money, but squandered the opportunity on tax cuts for the rich.
Remember too, that the sort of progressive leftists blaming Biden and Harris for Gaza, who didn't think the debt loan forgiveness they got was enough, and vilified Harris for daring to campaign with Never-Trumpers tend to live in the cities. They were threatening to stay home throughout the campaign. They forgot the lesson of 2016--that voting third party or staying homes will most likely give you the outcome you least desire even though we tried to remind them may times.
I must still be in the anger phase of grieving, because I agree with many of the comments here: Why the HELL are the Democrats always expected to be the adults in the room and clean up the shit that that the Republicans create??
The problem is not Trump; he is just the symptom. He is the Frankenstein monster that Republicans created after 50 years of White identity politics, anti-intellectualism, and authoritarianism. Republicans convinced 51% of Americans to vote for that monster. Fine. They need to roll in the manure that they voted for.
Having said that, I think Democrats should try to protect the Ukrainians. They didn't vote for this. They don't deserve the death and suffering.
actually only 50.1%. And when the last votes from California are finally tallied, it may be even less.
If you were to ask Trump supporters if Biden won in a landslide, assuming you could find any that agreed he won, they would say no, but somehow, Trump with 5 million fewer votes than Biden's 2020 total, and a 2% margin of victory vs Biden's 4.5% margin, won in a landslide.
Democrats are just awful at messaging. They should be challenging the ridiculous Trump landslide claim. And on platforms where MAGA nuts hang out.
The GOP just won everything. If not a single GOP Senator will help, this isn't on the Democrats. The Country's problems are the Republicans. Democrats can just pointlessly make noise.
“Do Not Ho Gentle” redux: Not even in his worst dreams, not even after that eighteenth shot, would Dylan Thomas dream such a nightmare!
A wealth of pointedly absurd nominations, a Senate without morals (recall the Grim Reaper’s only wish, to deter that black man from functioning), a House Leader who, taking a quick break from some decent Christian pornography) wants to bury that Gaetz ethics report … welcome to the loony bin!
That’s “Do Not GO Gentle” …
Johnathan Cowan's post-mortem has some good points but goes over board. Yes, "defund the police" was stupid and most Dems rejected it as soon as it was uttered. Right-wing propaganda kept pushing it as id it was part of the Democratic platform. Same with the rest of it. It never was. "Medicare for All" is also a poor slogan because if you read the annual Medicare handbook carefully, you will see that Medicare can bankrupt you. Trump wants to replace it with private Medicare Advantage plans which are nothing but scams. Nevertheless, our health care system needs a huge overhaul, top to bottom. Maybe something like the Japanese system where cost are reasonable, the patient pays 30% of those reasonable costs, and patients can go to any provider they want. The Green New Deal was not about restrictions on energy development. Just the opposite. It was all about developing alternative sources of energy. God ain't making no more oil. There was NEVER an open border policy. The only criticism of merit is college debt cancellation (and Biden managed to deliver billions of dollars of that). The GOP accused Biden of buying votes, but the Biden voters who stayed home are never satisfied, like the working class voters who voted for Trump anyway.
"Sure, Fox often gins up pseudo-scandals. But that doesn’t mean everything they harp on is bogus." But enough is bogus that they must be viewed as having no credibility. However Cowan's examples don't fly. The very first thing Biden did on Jan 21, 2020 was propose a border bill to fix Trump's out-of-control border and the GOP blocked it. Then the GOP blocked their own border bill so Trump could run on the border. So I guess he should have forsook legislative action, used executive order right away and taken that political hit when FOX calls him n authoritarian for using executive order. Then Cowan admits that (mostly rural) Americans (in Trump's base) are leery about urban chaos as presented to them by right -wing propaganda. How exactly are the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland supposed sip[posed to combat propaganda?
"Of course, Democrats should continue to embrace racial justice, freedom, and equality and to protect the vulnerable." As long as Dems do that, right-wing propaganda will call them "woke." Voters have shown time and again they tend to simplistic thinkers who eschew nuance. There was just one "woke" issue that Dems were unable to to make the nuance clear. They had difficulty separating the freedom, equality and protection of the vulnerable of trans people from the extremism of some in the trans community. It is a fact the the recent number of trans people far outnumber the sum of off all the statistical variations in biology that could lead to trans. How do you separate the genuine from the fake? Medicine still cannot tell us.
Dems take a very common American attitude here. Society has agreed to to take the risk of letting a criminal go free if it means we avoid convicting an innocent. That why the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt. That's why defense lawyers rely on technicalities if they don't think they can overcome the standard. Should we take the chance of letting a fake trans get by to avoid protecting genuine trans? So far we don't know enough, and the worst part I see, is the suppression of any attempt to ask for more information.
Harris did not make much of a leftward turn, less than the rest of the primary challengers except Biden. Amazing the forget voters can't Harris, but seem to have forgotten Trump's chaos, corruption, and incompetence and don't care about his criminality and cognitive decline. I don't think Dems should blame themselves. It is also amazing we never see introspection from the GOP in spite of one loss after another. Nope, and then they win.
I am perfectly fine with the response from Democrats right now. I mean, the current president and party leader just had a cozy meeting with Trump in the White House on Wednesday. That kind of undercut all of those warnings made during the campaign about Trump being dangerous.
I think it is best for Democrats to warn their voters of the dangers of these nominees and, obviously vote against them. But I don’t agree with doing much beyond that until those nominees actually prove that they are dangerous. Nobody who voted for Trump would listen or care about what they are saying anyway.
I know this sounds like I am throwing my hands up in the air, and I suppose I am. But we don’t live in the same world we lived in back in January 2017. Trump mismanaged a pandemic so badly that hundreds of thousands died needlessly. And then he staged a coup. Trump has been indicted, found guilty of sexual assault, convicted of multiple felonies, and acted in the most inappropriate and hateful ways imaginable. And Americans voted for that. They are attracted to the danger. So yelling ‘danger’ will only make them happy in their choice. And, frankly, I am at a loss on how to fight that.