F*ck Trump Up

Democrats are finally free. We spent four years trying to wield power responsibly amid bad-faith Republican attacks and obstruction. Democrats can return the favor from the politically more comfortable position of opposition party: Trump and the GOP will now own whatever havoc they wreak on the country. Some Democrats – especially online – seem not to understand this, however. To hear them tell it, Democrats need to save USAID. Democrats need to protect the Department of Education. Democrats need to keep the planes in the air. And sure, Democrats can and should do everything they can to protect the American people from Donald Trump’s misrule.

The American people however are getting the government they voted for. That is, they didn’t vote for Democrats, so why are Democrats taking responsibility for someone else’s mess? It’s not only logically confounding but politically self-defeating. If we ever want to win Americans back to our side, we have to stop knifing each other publicly and remind them nonstop that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are responsible for their multiplying sufferings.

In short, we need message discipline.

History’s liberals have always been bad at unity in the face of authoritarian threats on the right: Germany in the 1930s, Russia in the early 21st century, Hungary, Turkey, and India today. It probably has something to do with the fact that liberals by definition value pluralism – that is, tolerance of a diversity of views – and hence set less store by party discipline.

This fractiousness on the left, however, opens the way for the right to divide and conquer. This threat is made all the more acute by the fact that the new American right values order even more than it does freedom, making its party loyalty virtually bottomless. (Think of how many times Republicans ultimately fell in line after each and every Trumpian outrage, Access Hollywood Tape, Impeachment #1, Impeachment #2, Trump’s Meme Coin…)

This is not a call for Democrats to copy Republicans’ spineless deference to authority with a Blue MAGA movement of their own; our strength as Democrats must always be our big-tent openness to debate and the meritocracy of good ideas. It does mean, however, that Democrats must adopt a tactic that Republicans have long practiced: blaming the party in power for everything. 

The difference is, of course, the blame is very much warranted.

Already, Trump’s laziness, corruption, and incompetence are starting to hurt ordinary Americans, as are their dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy and with Elon Musk’s smash-and-grab of the U.S. government. This will only get worse with time. As it does, Democrats everywhere – both in and out of government – must continually remind their fellow citizens under whose watch it happened. When a plane goes down? It’s because of the hacks Trump installed at the FAA. When American farmers can’t buy equipment, it’s because Trump took away government loan-assistance programs. Most importantly, when prices go up, Trump, Trump, TRUMP.

Like all forms of marketing, effective political communication requires you to repeat yourself to ensure your message sinks in. And then again and again and again and again. Remember: the American people aren’t freaks like us glued to their newsfeeds at all hours of the day. This is going to take time. Think back to Fox News’ nonstop “MIGRANT CARAVAN” chyrons under President Biden. Think of how long Republicans beat the drum over Hunter Biden’s stupid laptop. Think of how hard Republicans – and the media – worked to smear Hillary Clinton over her goddamn emails! If Democrats want their message to outcompete Republicans’ (because they’ll have theirs too), it’s going to have to be consistent, persistent, and personal. These efforts will not immediately bear fruit, so we need to start now.

Consistency and persistence does not mean reflexive opposition to everything Donald Trump does, however. No, this is not about “finding common ground” with him; the more his agenda emerges, the more unambiguously awful we see it to be. It’s because being the party of Not-Trump is a trap, and Trump loves to set it. Republicans salivate at the idea of Democrats defending foreign aid or fired bureaucrats, because it allows them to distract from their own unpopularity. 

So rather than opposing Trump’s every move, Democrats need to supplement their blaming of him and the GOP with positive messaging of their own. What should Democrats’ message be? I wrote a couple weeks ago that Democrats need to rebuild their brand with the American people by putting the American people first, and some Democrats appear to be listening. It is laser-focused on working people, without wading into culture-war topics. This is a good start, but we need a lot more of it. A people-focused message doesn't mean we don't care about women or trans rights or undocumented immigrants, but we can't protect these groups if we don't win elections.

Democrats’ exile in the political wilderness will be trying. Donald Trump will continue to undermine America’s standing in the world. The state of American democracy will deteriorate. Ordinary Americans will suffer. But whether this trial lasts two years or four years or longer turns largely on whether Democrats remember the maxim: “When Trump fucks up, fuck Trump up.” 😃