The worst piece of legislation since the Slave Fugitive Act passed 175 years ago rips a gash in the social safety net, delivers the largest transfer of wealth to the rich in memory, and supercharges a violent, reckless, and cruel deportation machine—one which approves of “spending tens of billions of dollars to expand the unconstitutional kidnapping, trafficking, and confinement of people who’ve committed no crime,” as Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren put it.
It
strangles our soft power in the world (hollowing out foreign aid, demolishing
the State Department); guts investment in science and green energy; and
consigns millions—many of them children—to a life bereft of decent nutrition
and medical care. It piles unsustainable, stupefying debt on future generations.
In total, the American people will have less access to healthcare, nutrition,
education, and economic opportunity.
This MAGA assault on working and middle-class Americans will reverberate for years, if not decades. As dire as that reality is, however, the monstrous legislation also could provide the unity and solidarity Democrats will need to regain power, remove the source of so many Americans’ sufferings, and reform our democracy.
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Democrats lost this bill because they lost too many seats
in 2024. Math is math.
It is time to focus instead on the
MAGA culprits. Democrats have a knack for infighting and back-biting. But the
mammoth horror inflicted on the United States and the moral and political
imperative to reverse it should push to the side less important chatter—for
example, focusing on the practicality of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promises as
the New York City Democratic nominee. (He’s running for mayor of New York,
making him reflective of, well, New York City.)
Progressives and moderates in the party need to lower the
temperature in intercine debates and conduct substantive discussions on the
best means of attaining common goals. Moderates have been too cautious in
response to demands for change, while the far left have been too dismissive of
concerns about immigration and crime.
Unlike the MAGA cult, Democrats must tolerate a range of
views to build a governing coalition. The urgent need to unify behind the
common goal of dislodging a neo-fascist party from power must take precedence
over every internal squabble. Frankly, if safe blue districts want
super-progressive representatives, the rest of the party should not care. If
moderate Democrats have the best shot to win back swing seats, they should
prevail in primaries.
It is time to tie every Republican
incumbent on the ballot to the monstrous human results of the bill. Alaskan
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Rep.
Nick Begich III, for example, will be responsible for every hospital closed in
Alaska, every family thrown off of Medicaid or SNAP, every person priced out of
the Affordable Care Act exchanges, every scientific researcher or green energy
worker thrown out of work, and every family who cannot afford to heat their
home or keep their electricity on that result from the hideous bill. (And that
is merely within the borders of their state.) They are responsible for the
worst excesses of ICE, which has been given tens of billions to terrorize
immigrants.
Democrats must lift up the stories of fellow Americans
and tie those “with a cord of steel” to every Republican responsible for
the suffering they have unleashed. In this effort, adept Democratic governors
(who must attend to the victims of MAGA’s cruelty) can tally the toll, denounce
by name their state’s GOP delegation, and rouse their residents to throw them
out.
It is time to change the contours of
the electorate. Mass mobilization in protests, marches and rallies must draw in
not just the already-committed but the never-before-engaged.
Donald Trump voters who insist they “Never voted for this” must be
allowed to return to the pro-democracy, pro-decency coalition. (Difficult as it
may be, Democrats would be wise to hold dear the story of the prodigal son.)
Democrats must convince millions of qualified but (as yet) nonvoting Americans to dispense with the fictions that “both parties are the same” or that their vote “won’t make a difference.” The choice now is not Democrat vs. Republican, or progressive vs. conservative; it is right vs. wrong, humane vs. cruel. Tens of millions of people will be harmed by this cruel legislation; tens of millions more will know someone who will be harmed. They are not just victims and witnesses, but foot soldiers in the battle to hold to account Republican tormentors.
It is time to focus on gubernatorial
and state legislative elections in New Jersey and Virginia this year, where
Democratic women with stellar credentials face off against MAGA Republicans who
have wrapped their arms around Donald Trump.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), according to a Rutgers University poll, has a 20-pt. lead over Trump flunky
Jack Ciattarelli. A win of that magnitude and a sweep of New Jersey’s
legislative races would send a powerful signal that New Jersey Republican
congressmen who voted for the bill (e.g., Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Thomas Kean,
Jr.) will face a tsunami of opposition in the 2026 midterms.
Likewise, in Virginia, former congresswoman Abigail
Spanberger, Democratic nominee for governor, seized on the big, ugly bill after
its passage in a written statement decrying its damage. “More than 322,000 Virginians would lose their
healthcare coverage. More than 388,000 Virginians on the Marketplace would see
their premiums increase significantly—if they don’t lose coverage entirely,”
she explained. “At least six rural hospitals, including four in Southwest and
Southside Virginia, one in Hampton Roads, and one in the Northern Neck—would be
at risk of closure.”
With such statistics, she and other Democrats on the
Virginia ballot in 2025 could rack up significant wins. That in turn would send
a powerful signal to House Republicans such as Rep. Jen Kiggans and Rep. Rob
Wittman, and Sen. John McGuire that their days in Congress will end in 2026.
At the end of his inspiring, record-setting “magic
minute” speech on the House floor on Jeffries (D-N.Y.) declared, “As I take my
seat, I just want to say to the American people that no matter what the outcome
is on this singular day, we’re going to press on.” He pledged that Democrats
would “[p]ress on for the left behind. Press on for the rule of law. Press on
for the American way of life. Press on for democracy. We’re going to press on
until victory is won.”
And so must all patriotic Americans.
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