Democrats are now the party of ‘no.’ Is that enough to win back the country?
After three months wandering in a post-election wilderness, Democrats in Washington are coalescing around a new mission, courtesy of President Trump: “Resist.” That’s the one-word slogan progressives began using after Trump’s election, but even establishment Democrats have begun to take it up.
“Where we can engage, we certainly will,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said last week. But if cooperation is fruitless, she added, “We must stand our ground — we must
approach to an untested new president. They were ready to work with Trump, they said, if he met them halfway. Democratic senators confirmed a few of Trump’s Cabinet nominees without much fuss.
Then their base erupted.
Thousands of pink-hatted demonstrators poured into the streets to renounce the president and all his works. Democratic senators’ switchboards lit up with demands that they stop voting for Trump’s nominees. Outside the Capitol, demonstrators crashed a speech by the Senate Democratic leader, Charles E. Schumer of New York, chanting “Do your job.” In Brooklyn, demonstrators gathered outside Schumer’s home, chanting “Resist or resign.”