POLI•RANT: Post Trump Speech Thoughts

What Democrats could (and should) have done.

Since I made a big deal about what Democrats should have done with Trump’s address before it happened, I think I should let folks know my thoughts after.

I don’t want to retread too much from my pre-speech posts and memes. In a nutshell I called for a boycott but many people added the idea of a walkout which I fully embraced. A vocal minority were totally against that idea, wanting Dems to basically disrupt the speech. I was against that for many strategic reason, although I totally get emotional desire.

But, as it became clear that my party wasn’t going to do anything to rise to this dangerous moment I became more and more distraught. That Leader Jefferies pushed his members to be on their best behavior, like this was a President Mitt Romney speech, made me feel sick to my stomach. I started to think that maybe wholesale disruption was at least better than nothing smart and coordinated.

What we got on the floor was the worst of both worlds. Some “bingo card” signs, members wearing pink (breast cancer?) one member getting kicked out, and others leaving near the end but making no impact with the general public.

This moment called for two different solutions, both of which seem out of our grasp. Lighting your hair on fire is not a strategy. And only getting the Democratic base riled up is not enough.

Understand that millions of Americans who voted for Biden either sat on their hands or voted for Trump last fall. Making the speech a circus makes it even easier for millions of Americans to revert to their predisposed ideology — that both parties are corrupt and not on their side. And it gives MAGA media days and days of hypocritically making Democrats the issue.

I advocated for a walkout soon after the speech began because it would have been the most “respectful to the office” move and make the most news. And it very likely could have totally thrown Trump off his already rambling, lie-filled speech.

But, I also didn’t call for a fire-breathing rant of a response.

We can do two things at once. When the strategy calls for both inspiring the Democratic base and reaching out to low information voters there was a pretty simple way to do that. Imagine how many more people would have waited to see what the Democratic response was after they walked out in protest.

I disagreed with the choice of Senator Slotkin giving the response. I would have liked something on the steps of the Capitol that included real Americans who are already being hurt by Trump policies. But, from the clips I saw and what I’ve read, Senator Slotkin hit many of those themes and did it well. I’m very glad she did.

But, imagine her on the steps with her colleagues and real Americans opening her speech with something along these lines:

My fellow Americans, tonight President Trump gave a speech to a joint session of Congress and to you the American people. And tonight, my party silently walked out of that speech because it was not worthy of our hallowed institutions or the great people of this great nation.

[goes off prompter and reads from index card]

President Trump started lying immediately and he did not stop for more than two hours.

He lied about Social Security because he wants and excuse to go after your benefits. He lied about the amount of money we have spent helping our ally Ukraine supporting Putin against a Democracy. He lied about fraud in our federal government because he wants to cripple programs that help everyday people and use that money to give more tax cuts to billionaires, while still exploding our deficit.

You get the idea. Everyone knew the lies that were coming. Do a couple more of these, each time tying them to the lives of real Americans.

My Democratic colleagues did not want to disrupt the speech by yelling and screaming, but pretending that any of this is normal is simply impossible because it is not.

Then pretty much continue the speech she gave.

See how that works?

It successfully hits two very different audiences and makes a ton of news. Beyond keeping people glued to their seats in real time, the narrative alone would have given it much more coverage than typical responses get after the fact.

And the lie litany at the beginning would almost force TV producers to cover it as a lie/truth back-and-forth. That’s the kind of impact the party out of power never gets in these situations.

I just don’t understand why Democrats can’t seem to step up to the moment. There are smart, smart, savvy people in our party — so much more than Republicans. But, they are either too timid or too insulated to see the extreme danger we are in.

I hope they get their shit together soon.