What’s happening now is worse than January 6th. It’s an active coup d’etat, and no one, not even the people carrying it out, are really denying it. No one is being arrested or charged with anything. And Democrats’ relative silence and lack of action on the matter — with some growing if not terribly hopeful exceptions — is deafening.
During my 2022 campaign for San Diego City Council I warned that Democratic elected officials, especially in California but also around the nation, MUST be prepared to stand up to Trump. During my first campaign in 2018 that was a foregone conclusion, but by 2022 Joe Biden was the 46th president, and I suppose no one thought Trump would be back. But after four years of normalcy Trump is back, he’s wasted no time in invading our lives and defying our laws, and what I warned about has become terribly prescient.
If you’re a Democratic elected official hoping all this blows over so you don’t have to stick your neck out or risk getting put up against a wall, you’ve already failed in the oath you took to protect our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and acknowledged the rapid erosion of freedom, liberty, and democracy over the last two weeks will be permanent. As I recently said on my podcast, your Republican colleagues long ago quit holding themselves to their oath, to any sense of fealty to the American tradition of government over the last 249 years, or any higher standard of governance other than slavishly doing what Dictator Trump wants them to do. You are not obliged to do so.
But unless you show active, forceful, engaged leadership against the dictatorship settling over us like a dome blocking out the sun, not only might you be out of a job if Americans ever get to vote again, but with the FBI neutered in the wake of the Friday Night Massacre and agents who worked on Jan. 6th investigations being rooted out, it won’t be long before Trump, having gotten what he needs from the historically razor-thin majorities Republicans have in the House and the Senate, sics Elon Musk and his tech terrorists on you to declare Congress “government waste” and shuts the legislative branch down à la the Reichstag. And with the closure of Congress goes the impartiality of the federal courts, the rule of law — the ability to vote at all. Don’t forget when Trump told a gathering of Christian nationalists in July, to thunderous applause, “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
That Republicans long ago ceased being active partners in democracy and have refused to govern in good faith isn’t your fault. That Fox News and right-ring media have initiated millions of American minds into a reason-free cult isn’t your fault either. But if you fail the ultimate test of leadership because you couldn’t be bothered to show spine and lead on what over half of Americans who despise Trump and his anti-American agenda are begging you to lead on, then yes, that will collectively be on you too.
If you’ll pardon the cliché, I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, but I’m an American first. I love my country, and I’m sick at how it’s been co-opted by a weird right-wing alliance of oligarchs, kleptocrats, and religious fanatics over the last two weeks. They’re weaponizing what they have access to in order to advance their agenda. They don’t care about history, norms, or laws. They are dismantling law enforcement and instituting loyalty tests and oaths at this very moment to ensure only the most fanatical Trump supporters are in those positions. I hate seeing everything great about our nation given over to grifters, seditionists, cowardly billionaires, tech megalomaniacs, phony Christians, and literal Nazis.
I’ve long been sick of the idea of red states and blue states too. As the United States, we must never be in state vs. state contests. We’re all Americans, and we’re supposed to be here for each other, as we are under normal circumstances when disaster strikes. But when it comes to whatever it takes to keep us divided, our malignant narcissist president who dismisses the basic concept of the “United States,” the Republicans who bow at the very mention of his name, and the right-wing media machine have demonstrated over and over they will always, gladly, fan the flames of division.
In fact, Trump is now “governing” almost as retribution for having been elected president at all. He’s demonstrated impeachable recklessness with his threats to withhold federal aid for California wildfire victims, and the pointless release — and absolute waste — of millions of gallons of water into the San Joaquin Valley by the Army Corps of Engineers, who were apparently ordered to open the dams for no purpose other than to make it appear to Fox News addicts and people unfamiliar with California geography that Trump was “sending” water to Los Angeles, where the fires are already out (thanks to the help of hundreds of Mexican and Canadian firefighters who came to help). In fact, Trump made the move to deliberately waste water so California farmers have less to use, so the state goes further into drought, and so there isn’t water to fight wildfires. What’s psychotic is how many adults turned a blind eye along the way to that decision.
Trump has already defied his oath of office. He never took it seriously, of course. In fact, Trump couldn’t even be bothered to symbolically put his hand on the Bible to take his oath. Why? He meant to demonstrate he didn’t mean a word of it. Imagine if a Democratic president didn’t have their hand on the Bible while they were taking the oath of office. Imagine if a Democratic president was doing ANY of this. The delusions of Trump’s nihilistic, bitter, dementia-addled mind, coupled with a lifetime of bullying and conning without ever being held to account for his boorishness and stupidity is on full display, as usual. In a normal United States, he would’ve already been in jail for formenting an insurrection.
After everything you and I have come to know about Trump over the last 10 years, even after his calamitous four-year administration that Americans thankfully put a stop to by razor-thin margins in 2020, and even after he attempted an overthrow of the country on Jan. 6th, 2021, it’s beyond mystifying why 49 percent of the electorate voted for Trump in November. But I’d argue most of those voters didn’t bargain for or intend to vote for what’s happening now. As things get worse, those voters will also be desperate for something constructive to be done. If Democrats ever hope to forge a connection with Americans who actually work for a living again, now is the moment.
But the failure of Democrats to lead — to block the doorways of federal agencies, to appear on local and national TV, to use the very bully pulpit they’re standing on, to confront Musk and his band of terrorists and present meaningful, forceful, determined opposition to the Trump-Musk coup d’etat beyond social media, funding solicitations, and fecklessly inadequate statements — may be one of their greatest derelictions of duty. Democrats don’t have power in D.C. right now, we get it, but they still have a bullhorn if they care to use it. If the Democratic Party can’t embrace leaders in their ranks who are actively addressing the crisis and organizing opposition, then the party must get out of their way.
Even after Election Day, Congressional Democrats had two whole months to prepare for Trump 2.0 and the Project 2025 implementation that the entire planet knew was coming. But they still appear to be playing D.C. cocktail games. That world is over. Trump has shattered the American social contract and declared war on We the People, enacted useless trade wars against our long-time allies and closest neighbors in Canada and Mexico, threatened invasions of Panama and Greenland, all while airplanes crash, the FBI is declawed, Jan. 6th insurrectionists roam the streets, and Elon Musk’s unelected, unprecedented invasion of our nation’s finances continues.
Had Musk’s move been done by anyone else without the “cover” of the administration’s support, it would be considered the terrorist assault or act of war that it so clearly is. Spies go to jail for lifetimes for less. Russia and China, our actual adversaries, are wetting themselves with laughter from the chaos of Trump’s rule. They can’t believe the self-inflicted wound the U.S. is allowing to incur on itself a second time. Every moment Trump is in office our nation grows weaker, our enemies grow more emboldened, and time runs out for Ukraine and Taiwan.
Neighbors and friends keep telling me they can’t believe we have to deal with four more years of this. Forget four more years. Does anyone really think at this point, after Jan. 6th and this assault on our own government, that the ruling Republican cabal will ever willingly transfer power again without tanks in the street and mass casualties? We’ll be lucky if we make it to the midterm elections scheduled for November 2026. And how bad will it be by then? How normalized will the illegality and corruption have become?
Democrats, if you want a shred of relevance in whatever comes after this national nightmare, you have to act, forcefully, right now. The press won’t help. Law enforcement won’t help. It’s up to us. And we’re looking to you to lead the way to save our country with leadership and courage. To the detriment of all Americans, you’re lacking in both at this pivotal movement. Do better.