(2025-03-10) Balko Three Things The Democrats Can Do Right Now

Radley Balko: Three things the Democrats can do right now. When Texas Rep. Al Green stood to interrupt Donald Trump’s address to Congress last week, I had the faint glimmer of hope that maybe — just maybe — the Democrats were finally prepared to meet this crisis with the urgency it demands.

the party made clear that Green was on his own. No one followed up when he was removed from the floor. No one backed up him. He was later censured with a majority vote that included an embarrassing number of Democrats.

here are concrete things Democrats should do to better meet the moment.

Opposition town halls

The party should send its best communicators to hold these events in red districts and states — in addition to the three above, I’d suggest Pete Buttigieg, Jay Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, and Julian Castro

Video from these events will make clear that the anger isn’t coming from paid actors, but bonafide constituents, most of them Trump supporters. This is also the sort of triangulation/engagement with the other side that actually works. Common ground is already there to be claimed. You need only show up and listen.

Daily briefings

Rudy Giuliani’s popularity soared after September 11 because of his empathetic, straight-talk press conferences. Ditto for Andrew Cuomo during the earliest days of Covid. That both proved to be terrible public servants — and worse human beings — only underscores the point. If even the most unlikeable politicians can earn public trust by simply providing information and making themselves available, imagine what a likable politician can do.

The Democrats should assemble a rotating mix of trusted, high-ranking politicians — in addition to the people already named, I’d suggest popular governors like Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer — to hold regular briefings to inform the public about what Trump and Musk are doing. Stream these briefings on every social media platform. They could be as frequent as daily at first, then adjusted accordingly.

There’s no reason why the Democrats couldn’t hire a team of researchers and produce a regular briefing about what’s going on. Break things down so people can understand them. Use visual aids. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and his producers do a version of this every night.

If necessary, bring in an expert or two — a food safety specialist, a retired air traffic controller, an infectious disease scholar — to provide some context about the ramifications of Trump’s latest destructive policy

The shadow cabinet

In other Western democracies, the opposition party typically assembles a shadow cabinet to track and monitor what the party in power is doing. The Democrats should adopt this tradition.

Trump’s cabinet isn’t just the least qualified in U.S. history, it is aggressively unqualified. Unfortunately, holding office also lends built-in credibility, whether it’s deserved or not. Designating someone as a vetted expert who speaks for the minority party for a given policy area can help overcome that built-in credibility

Our democracy is staggering. It is not the time for cowardice.