Senator Bennet and the Struggle of the Democratic Party

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

It was a Tuesday evening in Greeley, Colorado – the democratic epicenter of otherwise deep red Weld county – and the mood in room was optimistic. Senator Michael Bennet had unleashed his inner “team fight!”, was championing a progressive vision of remaking America in the future ruins of the Trump Administration, and the assembled crowd enthusiastically backed his sly comments about how leaders of the party should “not stay too long” while offering the loudest cheers of the night to an adamant questioner who stated “we can’t wait until the midterms to save our country!”

It was a Wednesday evening in Golden, Colorado – a college town in a reliable Democratic congressional district – and the mood in the room was tense. Senator Michael Bennet and Representative Brittany Peterson opened the night facing a combative “the words are great but I am really not seeing any action” and, after a peppering of rowdy protests interspersed with support for Bennet’s not so tacit Schumer scapegoating as the party’s future “may not be with the same old people”, nearly ended on the same note: “Come on I feel like you are talking pretty…it is frustrating, it’s really frustrating that there doesn’t seem like there is a plan, can you get down to the details?”

Reader, they absolutely could not get down to the details.

The high of Tuesday was met with the low of Wednesday at a crossroads of indecision and contradiction which brought the deepening crisis within the Democratic coalition forward in stark relief.

To the Streets!

This is the plan. This is their WHOLE plan. The American people will get so disenchanted they will protest en masse and eventually that will put pressure on the administration in some way and at some point, possibly, elected Republicans will turn on them and start to vote with Democrats on some yet undisclosed legislation which will somehow make it better. Maybe.

If they declare martial law (which Peterson says they might), take to the streets! If they defy the courts (which Bennet says they will), take to the streets! If they fire more workers, take to the streets! If they cut entitlements, take to the streets! If they continue to persecute any group of minorities, take to the streets!

But for a party calling on this they don’t seem particularly prepared to deal with the extreme instability, urgency, and risk all this involves. Nor based on they way Bennet and Peterson handled youthful protesters interrupting a town hall attended mostly by the over 40 crowd, do they have a clear understanding of who is likely to be in those streets and what kind of action that is likely to lead to. There was something tremendously bleak about shushing and removing passionately youthful protesters who broke with decorum just so they could return to their calm and respectably managed dulcet calls for everyone to, yes, take to the streets.

They want to maintain stability in congress and continue working with their Republican colleagues through all this on bipartisan bills like water rights and child tax credits or whatever else. They want to secure those norms and dialogue with cabinet secretaries to beg for already appropriated funds or eke carve outs in heinous bills for core programs here and there to mitigate the damage being done.

They want us talking to our republican neighbors about how we know they aren’t so bad. I mean some of them might want to see us arrested for thought crimes or even would prefer we were deported or dead, but what we really have to remember is that we are all in this together and we need to stay respectful of all points of view through this time in our history. Unless they are yelling at you from the left in which case would they please shut up already because we are good people who are fighting, we swear! But also, be in those damn streets because that’s the only hope we’ve got and it’s the only concrete thing any of us can do or recommend.

So. Academically, take to the streets! To, uh, push! Just push harder! But, like, with respect for our fellow republicans. And um please be mindful of those of us in congress even if we can’t really help you. And don’t forget to show up! But don’t ask us where or when or how because we don’t actually know. And if you implore us to help you organize in this way we will be completely confused about it and instruct our staff to look into putting something on our website, maybe. And don’t use social media and don’t respond to every bad thing Trump does but also stay connected. Just be sure to, well, show up! Wherever up is! I am sure you will figure it out, just not from us and ideally not from the internet either and probably not on TV. But you know, the important thing is we will deal with this in the streets, some streets, somewhere, someday.

This is not a message of people who take their own words seriously. Because if they took all of this seriously they would be acting differently. And that is the precise criticism that nearly everyone across the political spectrum within their coalition has to say. Mock calls for them to “do something!” as much as you want but if your political message is “this is dark and we are legislatively powerless and there is nothing much to do about it than to take to the streets”, you best be ready to back that up! Because if we are all being honest here that is a very frightening and destabilizing message to offer.

I think it also might be the truthful answer, but if you are going to offer it you need to be prepared to guide people through it, to explain why it is necessary in the clearest terms, to offer a roadmap for how it can eventually end, and to provide a vision for what this country can look like if we are willing to fight – to literally fight – for it in the coming months and even years.

Use The Words!

Here’s something that was missing from both of these town halls, a frank admission of what exactly we are talking about. Bennet loves to frame this as a vital conversation we are all having and an unpleasant one at that. But a conversation about…what exactly? Yes, about Donald Trump. Yes, about Elon Musk. Yes, about all those crazy developments Bennet is sure could never happen if only we still lived in the days of Walter Cronkite. But what is “it” that they are doing? Crimes, yes, he says crimes. Constitutional challenge, yes. Threat to democracy, yes (although perhaps we are not clear here on just how much of one or how active it is or what this may or not mean for future elections).

But what does all that add up to again? What is the nature of this enemy we are dealing with here? And actually, who is the enemy? Just this one man? Or two? Or is it the whole cabinet including those people Bennet voted to confirm? Or is it, dare we suggest, the entire Republican Party?

It’s a tenuously coordinated dance to acknowledge this horrible thing is happening but still make calculated choices in language which avoid calling out the coup as a coup or the fascist authoritarians as fascist authoritarians. There is a noticeable reluctance to directly define this struggle we are all in, one so extraordinary it demands a series of conversations around the state and the country and yet does not possess a label or a clearly defined opponent.

And I suppose you could say that is just the responsible thing for leaders to do, to be careful with their words or not overstate a situation. But over and over as part of this same conversation they called upon the American people to “take to the streets”, suggesting the only real way to deal with THIS is in protest. So if we are already at that remarkable breathtaking assertion of powerlessness from the legislative branch of government, and have all but the most tentative hope in our judicial branch, perhaps the honest and morally correct thing to do as a leader is to name this thing we are all afraid of right now. There is a kind of cruel dishonesty in saying it is dark and terrifying and we don’t know when it will end but not even wanting to name our monster.

Missing from this discussion were the words fascist, coup, authoritarian take over, democratic erosion, and nazi (and you could probably add in many others). Bennet appropriately critiqued the billionaire tech goons at the inauguration but didn’t – so far as I recall – address the Nazi salute, lest perhaps we get too bogged down by acknowledging the fascism bit to, well, “fight back” against the fascists.

There is something crucial omitted from this narrative offered by the Democratic Party right now and that something is a clear admission that we are fighting not just “real bad guys” but literal fascist authoritarians whose stated goal is to destroy our democracy, eradicate our core values, and use our own government against us. It’s not a question of if but when. And those fascist authoritarians are represented by the entire political arm of the Republican Party which we might as well call the American Nazi Party at this point, because this is the place where we have hard grown up conversations about very dark things that go bump in the night. It’s time to deal with that threat concretely.

Impeach and Remove the Bastard!

Speaking of dealing with the threat concretely, our legislators do have a constitutionally mandated remedy, one they should discuss, propose, and work to advance relentlessly until the day it becomes feasible to achieve: impeachment and removal.

I already know what they would say to that, as it is the same thing they will say to anything anyone demands of them in Congress. They are in the minority and therefore they don’t have the votes.

Leaving aside that this reality apparently then extends them a hall pass to sometimes vote alongside the American Nazi Party to hypothetically help curry future favors, it also means they are stuck and can’t do anything on their own.

But are they really so stuck they can’t talk about or introduce articles of impeachment? Because don’t legislators frequently introduce bills they know will fail? Don’t they like to create messaging bills or bills compelled by moral conviction and use those “lost causes” as a catalyst for sending a point via the media or to introduce it repeatedly overtime to win support?

It is a bit baffling why, in normal circumstances, this lost cause type of work is seen as a legitimate use of their authority, but in these extraordinary times it is not worth their energy as a party because “it doesn’t have the votes” or it might be used against them by the political party they are meant to be attacking not coddling.

The people are hungry for signs that this opposition party is serious about addressing the threat we now face, the threat of an unconstitutional (techno)fascist authoritarian take over of our entire system of government.

What the voters, the citizens, against the fascist authoritarians in power want to hear is that yes, this is happening and yes, the correct solution and the only way to actually make any of this get any better is through impeachment and removal. That was what these town halls were missing. That is what the people need to hear.

They want to see those charges drawn up. They want each new instance of criminality added as it arises to build an overwhelming case of lawlessness. They want to be validated that this is not just “not normal” or merely bad, but it is in fact unconstitutional and criminal and warrants calls for an end to this regime of destruction. They likely want to carry those articles of impeachment into those damn streets and they want to chant in support of the political party which is demanding this outcome at the very center of our halls of power.

I have no idea how or when any of this ends and neither does anyone else. But we all know there is only one constitutional remedy to these horrors and crimes which are now gripping our nation, and frankly the entire world, so it is vital that our representatives in congress fight for THAT. You can’t tell people to potentially risk everything to “take to the streets” if you don’t offer them a plan for how it this could end and who will commit to see it through.

Give Us a Vision Worth Hurting For!

Which circles back the highs of that night in Greeley, a night that surely left Senator Bennet feeling confident and the attendees at least somewhat more hopeful. It is admirable and perhaps necessary to see as part of all of this an aspirational discussion of what we are for, not just what we are against. Even Bennet’s dialectical observation that after historic periods of regression there are often movements of progressive advancement was helpful in a way.

But you have to be honest here. Some of us probably aren’t going to survive this (they already haven’t). People will be imprisoned (they already are). More people will lose their jobs (likely every day). So many people will lose out on their long worked for dreams.

But together we fight, not rhetorically like some t-shirt emblazoned slogan but with real life consequences and sacrifices, standing in solidarity against a fascist authoritarian challenge to our country’s entire future.

So yes, perhaps the only answer they have for us is the honest answer: we must “take to the streets”. But we must do so knowing that it is a great risk undertaken with the hope of a great reward. You need an opposition party because you need confidence that the potential loss of employment or relationships or life itself is backed by a will to make something of the people’s collective sacrifice.

No one believes that right now. No one believes the Democratic Party has the stomach for justice against the American Nazi Party currently inflicting so much pain or a will to build back social programs of reform and hope in the future. They couldn’t even symbolically filibuster the CR for a day or something to make a point, maybe win a lame concession, and then give in. They couldn’t even put on a convincing pantomime of opposition.

The message they send is one of fear of their own shadow, paranoia over what the American Nazi Party might do or say in response to their actions, and ultimately denial that this is even a crisis worth responding to anyway. So who is going to risk life and limb for that? And who is going to believe that a party which cannot take big risks when our entire future is up in the air would have the fortitude to use a post-Trump era to build a progressive future worth hurting for.

Multiple times at these town halls Bennet eloquently referenced the sacrifices of the American social movements who have come before us: Frederick Douglass and abolition, the suffragettes, and crescendoing with a call that we may need to risk having our own heads smashed in like John Lewis marching for civil rights on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

This is a powerful image and it is a worthy calling, but it is the kind of ask you need to make as part of a deeply serious and honest conversation about where we are as a country and how the political opposition must respond. You can’t drop in a call for people to risk having their heads bashed in as a rhetorical flourish, you have to recognize just how much pain and suffering this infers. You can’t suggest this is necessary while continuing to make excuses for the political party and their supporters who brought us to this point. And because you are speaking truthfully about the hurt coming our way, you must also speak truthfully about the costs it will require to overcome it and then, only then, can we also dream of what we can achieve together once we reach the other side.

Biden wasn’t wrong, this is a battle for the soul of our nation. Only it isn’t just an ideological battle anymore. Not when we have reached the point where the primary solution our opposition legislators are calling for is to have the people “take to the streets” to demand an end to a lawless authoritarian presidency.

Bennet’s apparent openness to new leadership in the Senate and perhaps the Democratic Party at large is encouraging, but only if it comes with a renewed focus and concrete demands. It does not help us to see Schumer pass the torch unless he passes it to someone who is ready to speak honestly about what and who we are fighting against, who will commit to doing everything possible every day to bring this national nightmare to an end through the removal from power of this president and his criminal enablers, and who promises to help rebuild this nation with boldness and pride in a genuinely progressive future.

If Michael Bennet and his colleagues in the House and Senate really want to help us have hope they will start taking notes. The time for calculated lecturing and equivocating is over. The time for honesty and action has begun. That is the lesson of the tale of these two town halls, if they have the courage to listen.