These are not ordinary times. It’s not just that the Trump administration is taking actions that horrify and offend us. It’s that in just seven months, President Trump has all but dismantled a democratic system that took more than 200 years to build.
He and his team have failed to comply with nearly a third of major judicial rulings against them. They have created heavily-armed goon squads that seize people off the streets without warrants or due process.
They have eliminated, intimidated or coerced into submission all the institutions — the free press, academia, the courts, independent inspectors general, regulators, scientific panels and data — that used to guard against corruption and abuse.
Republicans in Congress have completely abdicated their power of the purse. Whatever checks and balances that once existed are ceasing to function.
We are now, for all intents and purposes, living in a dictatorship where the rules are made and changed at the whim of a single person, and the only beneficiaries are the ultra-rich.
Yet Democrats in Congress are largely conducting business as usual, as if this were merely a policy squabble. They continue to attend sham hearings, cooperate with Republicans in drafting legislation that will be ignored or circumvented by the administration and allow nominations to go through without a serious fight.
Lacking the votes to stop the worst excesses of Trump and his sycophants, Democratic legislators seem to think their options are limited to negotiating deals that are less horrendous or voting “no.”
But there is more that Democrats can and should do if they want to demonstrate a credible alternative to the current mayhem and win back the trust and support of the American people.
First, they should stop playing ball with Republicans and adopt a policy of strategic non-cooperation. They should refuse to help Republicans make a quorum, negotiate budget deals and pass legislation.
There is no point in making terrible bills marginally less bad when money they add goes unspent, restrictions they insert go unheeded and protections they demand are subverted. Instead, they should use the rules to obstruct and delay proceedings that are likely to end in further erosion of our rights.
As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) put it, “every time that we go along with these appropriations bills, we’re putting a bipartisan veneer of endorsement on an illegal process that’s ultimately part of his campaign to destroy our democracy.”
Second, they should show who and what they stand for and how they would govern differently.
Congressional Democrats should establish caucuses that function as shadow committees, holding their own hearings, issuing their own reports, and conducting their own investigations on issues of key importance to the American public.
Together with governors and party leadership, they should create a shadow cabinet, akin to the United Kingdom’s Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet. This would give Democrats an opportunity to show what they would do if they were in charge.
The shadow secretaries would lay out their vision and budget for their respective departments and issue detailed critiques of the current administration’s actions and omissions.
The party should adopt a clear and simple set of priorities, such as increasing affordability, improving family health and security and limiting the power of big money.
Third, Democrats in Washington should spend more time in their home states and districts, listening to local communities and supporting local leaders. With nothing useful happening in the nation’s capital, the momentum for change has shifted to municipal governments and civic campaigns.
National legislators can do more good by learning from and lending their voice to local movements than by giving floor speeches and proposing federal legislation that goes nowhere.
Finally, Democrats should build closer relationships with their counterparts in countries that have successfully emerged from authoritarian rule.
Organized resistance movements in Spain, Chile, Poland, South Africa and South Korea helped bring about peaceful democratic transitions, and they have much to teach us about preventing, countering and surviving tyranny.
If the last seven months have taught us anything, it should be that democracy is fragile and requires vigilance. Fascism can happen here, too.
Diana Ohlbaum served as a professional staff member in the U.S. House and Senate for two decades. She currently chairs the board of the Center for International Policy.
