Liberals can’t confront authoritarianism
The failures of the Democratic Party in the second Trump administration
The second Trump administration has demonstrated an unprecedented degree of authoritarianism in its first 10 months in office. The president has bombed boats in international waters without trial or evidence, dictated a large portion of economic policy through questionable tariffs and international bailout policies, has sent national guard troops to major cities and—most recently—hinted at the possibility of breaking the 22nd Amendment by running for a third term in office.
Congress’s inability to deal with Trump is not surprising, considering their record; most Americans view Congress as useless anyway. What is new, however, is the Democratic opposition’s inability to meet the moment. Failed strategies and complicity have led to record-low approval ratings, and a complete lack of strategy for the near, medium, or far future.
The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) failed strategy has been in place for years. After rejecting a populist in Bernie Sanders to run a moderate, “normalcy” candidate in 2016, Hilary Clinton lost what should have been a lay-up election, and Americans voted in Donald Trump for the first time. This election should have been a wake-up call for the DNC and shown the changing political sphere. Americans were evidently tired of establishment candidates and looked to Trump despite his “solutions,” like building a physical wall to stop drug and human smuggling, seemed laughable.
But the US did not learn from this.
Joe Biden, Obama’s Vice President and a member of the Democratic establishment, ran in 2020. Although he won, the election results were closer than expected and, in large, had less to do with Biden’s appeal and more to do with the timing of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden tried to run again in 2024, but was eventually pressured out due to old age, and the incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris took his place. Although polling seemed close, Harris’s 107-day campaign exploded on election night when Trump swept all major states in a blowout election.
While the moderate president approach has been a failure at defanging Donald Trump, this failure pales compared to the DNC “strategy” in combating Trump since he took office. I placed the word in quotations because any strategy is nonexistent. In fact, Congressional Democrats have found themselves completely incapable of delivering effective counter-messaging. Two instances have demonstrated this clearly.
The first relates to the release of files relating to government collusion with notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It is not uncommon knowledge that Epstein worked with several prominent politicians in his sex-trafficking ring involving children. Ample evidence exists showing us that Donald Trump was on excellent terms with the financier, with pictures of the two at parties and a very positive letter written by Trump to Epstein on his birthday. When House Democrats finally attempted to release several files in July, Mike Johnson—the Republican speaker of the House—shut down the House until September, to cool off the matter.
Since then, pressure from the DNC has cooled off dramatically, with no new bills passing through the House regarding this matter. The Democrats should have used this very obvious political move to shield the President from pedophilic accusations to push strong messaging, but this did not occur. I cannot imagine any reason why this would be the case, striking out the possibility that establishment members of the DNC are also involved; something we know is true, as seen with Bill Clinton’s close affiliations to Epstein.
The second case of DNC silence has come in the delayed swearing-in of Arizona House Representative Adelita Grijalva. After winning a special election in late September, Grijalva was supposed to be sworn into the House shortly after. However, Johnson has delayed her swearing-in for over a month, making it a record. He has also delivered no clear reason for this. This move is simply just a way to prevent the Democrats from having more influence in the House, and throughout this whole ordeal, the DNC has failed to stand up for one of their own, focusing on the ongoing government shutdown—as though they cannot address multiple issues at once. Although we do not have a president to compare this to, no doubt had the situation been reversed—had Nancy Pelosi delayed the swearing-in of an elected GOP House member—there would be outrage from the Party and their pendants. Yet in the other case, legacy Democrats are found silent.
At times, the DNC has been complicit with much of Trump’s takeover of the government. In March, Congressional Republicans forced a vote to push through a bill that would legally allow for financial cuts to several social services that Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, had advised the Trump administration through the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency. While the leader of the Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer initially said he would not support these cuts, he changed his mind the day of the vote, supporting a bill. This did not only slash government to people in need, but also gave a boost to the budget of ICE and Border Patrol, likely leading to the deportation and detention of several innocent Americans, a decision which was met with condemnation from within the party.
New solutions are presenting themselves, but the DNC remains stubborn in adopting changes that may compromise their positions.
In New York, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani swept the Democratic Primary for the Mayoral race against the legacy Democrat and disgraced former New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Despite Cuomo resigning in 2021 over allegations of sexually harassing women employees, he received a flurry of endorsements from “progressive” Democrats, such as Ritchie Torres. Despite the DNC working against him, Mamdani—a democratic socialist—won the primary decisively. Since then, however, not only has he not received an endorsement from Schumer,who is the state representative for New York, but he has had to deal with several legacy democrats accusing him of being a “Jihadist,” and a religious extremist, despite his progressive ideals like his unwavering support for LGBTQ+ rights. He has also come under attack for his critical stance on Israel and the genocide they are committing in Gaza. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand accused him of saying “globalize the intifada”: something he never said.
Cuomo, now running as an independent, has joined in on these attacks, making a now-deleted AI ad of Mamdani eating rice with his hands and joining other racist attacks from Republicans. Despite these very clear racist remarks against their candidate, the DNC has remained silent, and the closest sign of solidarity has come from a silent endorsement from Hakeem Jeffries.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented moves to consolidate power and pursue an authoritarian agenda. Through this, the Democratic Party’s elite has remained silent, or often complicit. Apart from running poor candidates who lost to Trump, they have been woefully unable to meet the current moment.
Silence in critical moments, poor endorsements, and complicity have led to record low approvals, with no clear candidate for the 2028 federal elections. At the time of writing this, the Democrats swept a series of elections, including hard conservative races, signalling a good sign for the midterms. But this does not mean they have learned, and if they are incapable of building on their momentum, the failures of the DNC will remain open. Unless they can find a good footing, they will be doomed to the same failures for decades to come.
