By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
Everyone appears to have figured out that a dangerous, stupid fascist with no knowledge of how the federal government works is now the President of the United States. Everyone, that is, accept members of the Democratic Party, now serving in the 115th Congress.
You have to wonder how many dangerously incompetent, racist and blindly ideological decisions the executive branch has to make before Democratic in the United States Congress, who are supposedly in the opposition party, wake up. What is the strategy? What is the plan? Trump’s careless staff couldn’t even spell the name of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom correctly on a press release. What makes anyone think they’ll be more detailed on other initiatives they plan such as an “investigation of voting fraud” and selected members of the U.S. Supreme Court?
Be certain to take note of the Democrats who vote in favor of Trump’s cabinet nominees for Treasury, Education, Labor and Health and Human Services. If Democrats support Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos, Andrew Puzder and Rep. Tom Price, there is no resistance movement in the Democratic Party in Congress.
Senate Democrats have unified against exactly zero of Trump’s cabinet nominees. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who is allegedly a progressive leader, voted in favor of Dr. Ben Carson to lead a department he has no qualifications to run. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who has great Instagram posts of food, voted with Republicans to raise prescription drug prices.
Senators who have no re-election fears whatsoever in 2018 are lying down and showing no signs of resisting Trump when the easiest show of resistance is a simple “thumbs down” on the Senate floor.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who took over as Democratic Leader from retired Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), so far has decided to vote in favor of almost all of Trump’s nominees. What makes this even more confusing is that the messaging of Democratic leaders is the opposite of the action. The Democratic Party is at it’s lowest point in four decades in terms of seats held in the U.S. House of Representatives, governors’ houses and seats in state legislatures. With Trump’s arrival and no strategy to be seen, there has never been a better argument for younger and newer leadership. The decision between Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez for Democratic National Committee Chair will be a crucial benchmark for the party.
Over a million people took to the streets to participate in marches around the world, the day after Trump’s Inauguration, which drew far lower numbers than President Obama’s historic inauguration in 2009, with the Trump that needed to see resistance. There were protests in the streets of Washington on inauguration day. Thousands figured out there needed to be resistance to Trump before he took office, but Democrats standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate and House remain asleep.
Last weekend, Trump signed an executive order that blocked entry of all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days and barred Syrian refugees for the foreseeable future. The order also blocked entry to anyone from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — all Muslim majority countries. After confusion and protest at several major airports across the U.S., federal Judge Ann Donnelly granted a temporary stay so those in transit taken into custody could continue their travels.
On the evening on January 28, after a day of learning how airheaded and careless the Trump administration conducts itself, it was learned that Trump had installed his racist, anti-Semitic political advisor Steve Bannon as a member of the National Security Council. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford was removed from the NSC.
This happened a day after the Trump White House released a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that omitted the words “Jewish” or “Jews” from it and avoided mention of one of the worst mass murders in history because of their faith. They then doubled down on January 28 saying that not mentioning Jewish people was intentional because “others were killed too.”
On the day of Barack Obama’s first inauguration on January 20, 2009, top Republicans met for dinner to discuss strategy against his agenda. That strategy was eight years of obstruction against Obama’s agenda and it worked. Whether Democrats in the Senate and House like it or not, they are the first line of defense against the Trump Administration.
The careless refugee executive order was issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Trump will select a Supreme Court nominee this week. He will go after voting rights. Have Democrats seen enough yet? If so, need to stop crying over their election loss and start playing better defense.
Lauren Victoria Burke is a political analyst who speaks on politics and African American leadership. She is also a frequent contributor to the NNPA Newswire and BlackPressUSA.com. Connect with Lauren by email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @LVBurke.
