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Dem response to Trump speech - Not good enough. Not even close. [1]

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Date: 2025-03-05

Democrats had a chance to punch back last night. One of the very few opportunities they get to punch back on a widely watched, national stage.

And they failed to do so.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to credibly argue (rightfully) that this criminal president is lawless, corrupt, and a direct and immediate threat too our democracy and our constitutional order (all of which are clearly true) if you treat this prime-time speech as just a normal address to a Joint session to Congress. Nothing to see here, move along. As Rep. Stansbury rightfully noted on her sign, “This is NOT Normal.”

To the extent that any visuals are remembered from this Castro-esque ghastly compendium of self-congratulatory gloating and lies, it will be the fact that one Democrat, stood up, and got kicked out. And that another had her small handwritten sign swatted out of her hands like a small fly by a seditious Republican coward and morally bankrupt worshipper of a traitor. That’s it.

I realize, of course, that the party out of power is always at a significant disadvantage in these settings. The trappings, etc. There are only a very limited number of options at their disposal. And I don’t believe a steady stream of individual democrats yelling like Al Green would have been a productive use of one of them. And I also note that, after all is said and done, this was just one speech. All style, no substance. There are obviously much, much, much bigger fights on the horizon.

But a “very limited number” of options is not no options. And while just a speech, it also a very prominent one, one of the very few opportunities that Democrats are going to have to reach a large audience outside of the MSNBC watching crowd …. An opportunity to vividly demonstrate that things indeed are not normal — and that half the country is very much opposed to all of these abuses and lawlessness.



Trump got to speak for an hour an 40 minutes before a mindless, treasonous, spineless, morally bankrupt Republican Party, basking in pathetic adulation and what did the Democrats’ posture earn them? The audience saw most Democrats being mature. The adults in the room. Sitting and listening. They saw one Democrat stand up and stand out — and get kicked out for his good trouble. They saw another being dismissed with her protest paper being swatted away. They heard some democrats heckle or boo or laugh at certain times. They saw some pink clothes. And eventually, they saw some other Dems belatedly walk out. They also heard of some Dems not attending at all. And they got their Democratic response — Senator Slotkin who I believe started speaking at around 11:00 p.m EST. In short, folks got a sense of Democrats being a little bit all over the place… no United front. Scattered . Pretty weak. No coherent voice. At all. And in return, they sat there and listened to the treasonous president who treats them, their entire legislative body, and their constitutional prerogatives with absolute lawless contempt and disdain gratuitously insult many of the special guests that Dems brought to the event. And they are taking some political hits for not having stood up to clap for sympathetic, cheap GOP political props.

Time and time again, elected Dems fail to meet the urgency of this particular moment. It is maddening. Infuriating. Profoundly frustrating. Today’s Republican Party is defined by its cowardice, spinelessness, seditiousness, contempt for democratic values, lack of empathy, profound lack of patriotism, stunning hypocrisies and craving tor power above all else. But for all its treason, and cowardice, and as unfairly as it is, the party is not viewed as weak.



The Democratic Party , by contrast — at least the leadership — seems to be defined by timidity, diversity of thought — which is one of our greatest strengths and at the same time, often makes it much harder for us to be bold — and respect for norms, institutions, rules and decorum and traditions, which no longer apply in the Trump era and really, are now a joke. Fairly or unfairly, the Democratic Party on the national level is viewed as weak, as not willing to truly fight for what we believe in.

People need to see Democrats fighting for something. Really fighting, when the issues we are fighting for are so real, and urgent, and country-altering. The urgency of now. The ‘’what” they’re fighting for is less important than actually just doing so, although there are obviously some simple, easily explainable major causes we have on our side. With precious few exceptions — there have been some — they largely haven’t so far. Democrats have most certainly not used all the tools at their disposal to delay or block action in the Senate While the Senate minority can’t present key folks from being confirmed, it can create many more obstacles for the majority than democrats have been doing. (Mitch McConnell stole 2 Supreme Court seats for god’s sake. Yes, of course he was able to do so only because they had the majority which Democrats lack, but my point is he thought big. He wasn’t timid)

I don’t subscribe to the notion that a bolder, more united, much more memorable response in real-time last night would have grossly offended large numbers of people. Or at least significant numbers of REACHABLE people. We’re talking Trump here. Those people who are willing to tolerate Trump’s rudeness and contempt for norms but somehow are grossly offended by a Democratic response were never going to be dazzled by Democratic “adulting” in the room.



We can and need to do better. Much, much better. We have to.

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