Put your body on the line or find a different job
If it makes elected Democrats uncomfortable that they might need to be willing to get arrested to fight the Trump regime, I would suggest they perhaps should not have run for elected office.
It’s easy, at this point, to understand the Democratic voter base’s frustration with party leadership.
And I’m saying this as the person perhaps most likely among my friends to defend the Democratic Party.
When my comrades with more leftist sympathies suggest the party is a useless contraption of controlled opposition to the capitalist state, I defend it as merely one of two vehicles toward achieving political objectives in this country. The party itself is neither good nor evil; the people who run it are those who we are judging. Contesting primary elections within the existing Democratic Party apparatus is the easiest way for anyone left of center, from Blue Dog to socialist, to achieve political power in this country. If you win the most votes, no one can stop you. Just look at how effective all the money thrown at stopping Zohran Mamdani was when confronted with an effective campaign.
So I tend to scoff when it’s suggested that we must simply create a new party — it’s like if you suggested building an entirely new car from scratch, rather than evicting the elderly driver of the one you already have the keys to.
But that’s just it. It’s become clearer than ever that the elderly driver does need to get the hell out of the driver’s seat.
Democratic lawmakers have apparently grown increasingly frustrated with voters’ demands to “fight harder,” Axios reports, with these elected officials arguing the base doesn’t understand the lack of power Democrats currently have, locked out of the White House and the minority party in both houses of Congress.
One House Democrat told the online news outlet that expectations are “unreal” and “dangerous.”
“What I have seen is a demand that we get ourselves arrested intentionally or allow ourselves to be victims of violence, and … a lot of times that’s coming from economically very secure white people,” this elected Democrat said to Axios.
Well, unfortunately, that’s why I’d recommend not running for elected office as a member of the left-of-center party during the rise of American fascism if you’re not prepared to fight.
Comfort is not something one should expect anymore while representing the majority of Americans who are opposed to an increasingly authoritarian state. The Trump regime has already arrested elected Democrats like Sen. Alex Padilla, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for resisting federal power. It’s even charged U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, on very shaky evidence, with “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers.”
That is the standard other Democrats must be held to. Fight or be forced out.
On July 9, Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar tweeted that after giving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 24 hours’ notice of her intention to inspect an ICE facility in El Paso, federal agents turned her away.
Federal law bars the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, from preventing members of Congress from conducting oversight of “any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.” In fact, the law bars DHS from even requiring any prior notice from members of Congress in the first place.
Nevertheless, DHS said as of June 26, according to Democracy Docket, that new guidelines require members of Congress to give at least 72 hours’ notice before any inspections of detention.
In a tweet, DHS alluded to these guidelines, claiming Escobar “did not give sufficient notice to facilitate a visit.”
Escobar tweeted: “You can tweet it from a government account, that doesn’t make it legal.”
Here’s the thing. This sort of resistance — walking away and sending snarky replies on X/Twitter — is perhaps fine in less-than-fascist times. Those are not, however, the times that we are living in.
Democratic voters are right to expect a lot more from elected Democrats. To be totally honest, when I read Escobar’s account of events, I scoffed.
If you are an elected official who is prevented by federal agents from conducting your perfectly legitimate oversight duties of the executive branch, your response should not be: Oh, alrighty then, I guess I’ll just go home!
What you must say instead, if you are willing to offer any semblance of the fight that the anti-fascist majority deserves, is this: I am either going to enter this facility or you are going to forcibly prevent me from doing so. The choice is entirely up to you.
The stakes have never been higher. Put your body on the line for the United States of America or find a career that suits you better. RV sales, perhaps.