Democrats can’t just be anti-Trump. They must also put country over party.
Several good friends of mine have signed on to two-time Georgia gubernatorial Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams’ 10 Steps campaign to stop authoritarianism.
I was talking with one the other day, and he seemed a bit accusatory that I sounded cool to this program. After all, am I not against authoritarianism? Do I not see President Donald Trump as a wannabe authoritarian?
For better or worse, I have come to feel a visceral dislike of this kind of appeal, particularly from Democratic leaders.
I don’t think I’m alone in this, and perhaps it’s worth taking a moment to examine how I got here, because when I started running for office in the seventh congressional district in 2017, this was exactly what was on my mind. If you asked me the fundamental reason that I ran for office, it was because I thought Trump was an imminent threat to our democracy and future well-being of this country.
And Donald Trump has not disappointed. I was on the Capitol grounds during Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump incited a mob to march on the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results.
Is anti-authoritarian rhetoric a different type of grift?
Now I get to watch the new Trump administration do one anti-democratic, corrupt, chaotic thing after the next.
I will be white-knuckling the next three years of Trump’s term with the rest of the country and hoping my family, my community, this country and really the entire free world make it to the other side reasonably intact.
So, I can honestly say, when I looked at Stacey Abrams’ plan, I see exactly the same problems she identifies. To some degree, I see the same solutions, largely civic engagement.
But what has changed for me is my faith in the overall strategy, and sadly, my faith in the messenger. It’s not Abrams per se, but the Democratic Party writ large.
Here is my question for my Democratic friends: What makes this “anti-authoritarian” rhetoric anything other than another kind of grift: the flip side of Trump’s grift that whips up the party faithful into a frenzy of fear and anxiety in order to seek power?
Do Democrats really believe Trump is an existential threat to democracy? Or do they groove on him, funding a political-industrial complex of pundits, interest groups and political consultants who make money hand over fist from the frantic donations of Americans who are desperately hoping they will “save democracy”?
A case in point is a party and party leadership that thought it was OK to allow a geriatric president who was clearly failing to be their nominee against Trump: Democracy was on the line, they told us.
Never mind that former President Joe Biden had no business running for president a second time, regardless of whether his opponent was Donald Trump or not. Meanwhile those who dared to point this out, even after his disastrous debate performance, were dismissed. Those individuals or organizations who came out before the debate to question his age and capacity were savaged by the Democratic Party apparatchiks.
Then these same leaders piled on in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black woman, because it was “her turn.” No matter she had run to the far left in 2020, taking positions wildly out of alignment with the American electorate, and hailed from San Francisco, widely perceived by many Americans as the capital of left-wing insanity. To challenge her was racism(!).
Hitting the outrage button alone does not win elections
I could go on with any number of policies advanced during the Biden administration where Democratic leaders let their party slide into excess and did nothing to course correct. And what has been the result?
Not only has Trump been reelected, but as far as I can tell Democrats are worse off on almost every single issue that they claim to care about than they were in 2017 when I started running for the 7th Congressional District and Stacey Abrams launched her historic bid for governor as a Black woman running for the state’s highest position.
Despite this, has there been any serious effort to recalibrate their strategy toward actually winning the day? Not really. Democratic leaders hit the outrage button over and over again, the money pours in, people take to the streets, and nothing changes.
Why is this? Because most Democratic leaders are no more likely to sacrifice their own narrow political self-interest for the common good or put themselves on the line to correct the excesses of their own party, than Republicans who they so sanctimoniously call on “put country over party” and to “stand up to Trump” at great political and personal cost.
They, like all politicians, prefer to shake their fist at Trump before the adoring crowds more than the hard work of telling those in their own party “no” or persuading those with a different worldview to join the cause.
Bipartisan collaboration is the way forward
Democrats will most likely perform well in the midterms – it is hard to imagine the American people going along with the chaos and corruption of the current regime.
“Affordability” will undoubtedly play a role as well. But in the years ahead, this country is going to need something more than marginal victories granted by voters picking the least bad option. But our democracy is in very bad shape right now.
The consensus required to renew our democracy is going to need to be broad, bold, and yes, bipartisan.
It is going to have to tackle issues that long predate this current presidential administration.
As for me, for better or worse, my outrage button is broken. I am looking for a new way forward. I am looking for leaders who have truly shown that they will put the country first, over party, over self-interest, over shrill interest group demands, and who can forge a new vision of what America can be.
Carolyn Bourdeaux is a former Democratic member of Congress from Georgia’s 7th District. She is a contributor to the AJC.
