The obvious question has been “What can we do?” Our humble organization was created in response to this question and we’ve tried to provide a fairly clear list of activities to do this. But what can congress, your local Representative or your Senators, do?
As promised Trump has ‘flooded the zone’, created a mess of fires across our democracy that the Democrats are scrambling to put out. These involve multiple instances of illegal or unconstitutional behavior that Trump’s hoping they can’t respond to.
If you have Republican legislators then the task is clear – flood THEIR zone with your voice, your face (at their offices?), your social media posts, your letters (yes, snail mail is still read), your signs, your (peaceful) demonstrations, your personal stories, etc, etc. It’s not easy, but at least the task is clear. However, if your legislators are Democrats then the answer is not quite as simple.
After attending several town hall meetings recently with our Democratic Representatives, the following question has come up a number of times. “What’s your plan for keeping Trump from (pick one): slashing Medicaid, killing Head Start, closing the Dept of Education, ruining the economy with tariffs, threatening our universities, disregarding court orders, trashing the Constitution, etc., etc.?
The answer is usually the same. They start out by emphasizing how strongly they feel about the problem and then kind of fade off into examples of how people have been hurt by the problem, how bad the problem could be and how people need to be rising up against this situation. They never really say exactly WHAT they are doing or plan to do. Here’s the reason: There’s not much they can do. As tough as it is to accept, they’re in the minority to Republicans in congress who won’t do ANYTHING to stop it because they are terrified of Donald Trump.
In the past, when one party had control over both houses, the minority party had at least some leverage. There were members of the majority party with whom they shared some issues and there were some moderate members who didn’t necessarily vote the party line. With Trump, that’s all gone. The result is effectively no congressional oversight of the Executive branch (the President).
That leaves the Judicial branch as the lone check against this President. Fortunately, the courts have been very busy processing the over 120 lawsuits filed against the administration’s 143 executive orders, as of May 1. In nine of the more significant ones, the judge has issued restraining orders, blocking implementation of certain parts of these orders, including: birthright citizenship, the freezing of federal grants and loans, removing collective bargaining for federal workers, protecting transgender rights, targeting law firms, etc.
The point here is that the courts are acting as they should and that’s a good thing since it’s essentially the only direct, constitutionally-designed process to control an out-of-control Executive branch. What we wish our representatives would do when answering these questions is to just say: “As legislators in the minority party we don’t have much real power to block a President who is bent on breaking the law and ignoring the Constitution. (This assumes the majority party is voting together). Right now the most effective tool is the Judiciary (and we’re on it). However, what we CAN do, and what you (citizens) can do, is call as much attention as possible to this blatant disregard for the law and for our democracy.”
Democrats in Congress have recently held multiple lengthy debate sessions, including an all-night session with Sen Cory Booker speaking for 24+ hours. They’re also calling out the Republicans as often as possible on the floor of the congress to emphasize the fact the Republicans are staying silent as this damage is being inflicted by Trump and Musk. This action puts these details into the congressional record so they can be used to hold Republicans accountable. As citizens we can do the same with demonstrations, calls, emails and letters to legislators, letters to the editor of newspapers, and especially, social media.
Until the Democrats can regain control of at least one house of congress, the only hope for any congressional help with this outlaw administration is to get a few Republican Representatives or Senators to vote against any of these actions, when they come up. This isn’t out of the question, if enough pressure can be brought to bear on them. Obviously, if the Democrats get control of both houses of Congress in 2026, there will be a lot more ways they can fight Trump’s agenda. And, if they get enough seats, this could include impeachment.