(C) Common Dreams
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‘Give us a little time’: Democrats search for a guiding principle against Trump [1]

['Https', 'Www.Semafor.Com Author Burgess-Everett']

Date: 2025-01

After a rudderless post-election run, Democrats are suddenly showing some fight against President Donald Trump.

Yet unlike the progressive ascendance of eight years ago, it’s not clear who is leading the charge.

“I can’t answer that. Give us a little time,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Semafor. “This is brand new.”

It’s not clear how much time they’ll get, however, as the fight to define Democrats’ future plays out in real time with unavoidable tests of clout for the party’s disparate wings. There’s a DNC chairmanship election around the corner, Senate Democrats are wrestling with how much resistance to mount to Trump’s Cabinet and House Democrats are gaming out how to use their significant leverage.

At this time in 2017, their base was literally marching in the streets and veteran Democrats responded by racing to airports to protest Trump’s travel ban. That’s not happening this time — yet this week’s sweeping Trump pardon of Jan. 6 defendants clearly reawakened the party’s moribund activist impulses.

“We’re obviously in a bit of disarray,” one Democratic senator told Semafor. “I don’t think people are really completely sure about what lesson is to be learned in this election.”

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Not only that, but the party is clearly divided over tactics. Many Democrats were willing to accommodate a quick approval of Trump’s nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency this week. But Sen. Chris Murphy put a stop to that and made clear he’s not interested in playing nice.

“Personally, I don’t want to give Republicans an inch on their claims they care about national security after their pardons,” said Murphy, D-Conn. “My hope is that we’re going to be down on the floor and on TV and back in our states talking about the danger of these pardons.”

Ratcliffe was still confirmed Thursday, 74-25, with significant Democratic support.

The Democratic split between antagonism and accommodation is playing out in full view among the party’s most prominent members: Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is striking a collaborative note while voting against Democratic delay efforts, Murphy is embracing aggressive opposition, and others are trying to do both.

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Take Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, among the dozen or so Democrats angling to be in the mix on border security negotiations. Even as he does that, he’s drawing red lines for Trump.

“I’m going to stand up against this guy when he does stupid stuff like he did the other day in pardoning these violent criminals,” Kelly told Semafor, referring to Jan. 6 offenders who attacked police officers. “Can I think of a worse decision that a president has made in recent history? I can’t come up with one.”

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[1] Url: https://www.semafor.com/article/01/23/2025/give-us-a-little-time-democrats-search-for-a-guiding-principle-against-trump

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