War Footing

We need a Winston Churchill strategy to deal with Trump

No, this column is not going to be about foreign policy and national security. The Trump/Musk/MAGA administration is, naturally, making a huge mess of everything they touch in that realm. They have already – less than a month out! – caused huge humiliation to the USA with their venal, pro-Nazi, pro-Putin blundering around. This ridiculousness may soon ensnare us in one or more wars, but I try to avoid subjects about which I’m not an expert, so that’s not the war footing of which my headline speaks.

What my reference to war footing is about relates to the way Democratic Parry and progressive movement leaders need to be thinking in relation to Trump, Musk, and MAGA. Trump has declared war on our form of government and the way things are usually done in America. Democrats have to not act like things are business as usual, or else our entire system of government is in danger.

For men of a certain age (okay, mine), we quote the Godfather movies a lot. My friend Steve Rosenthal recently said to me “It’s like Michael said to Tom Hagen, ‘I need a wartime consigliere right now’.” Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer need to make damn sure everybody – their caucuses, the Republicans, the media, and most of all rank and file Democrats knows that they are wartime leaders, with wartime consiglieres advising them.

I have always believed that each major political party in our country in the modern era, beyond their respective policy positions and ideologies, has one big flaw that keeps them from long term political success. With Republicans, it’s that they over-reach. With Democrats, it’s that they are over-cautious.

We are seeing those flaws play out in technicolor right now. The Republicans, dominated by a narcissistic megalomaniac with no regard for the law or human decency, are moving to destroy every good thing his opponents – Democrats, the labor movement, and progressives – have ever done. They are declaring total war on every good thing government tries to do, and moving at blitzkrieg speed, even as it harms their own constituents

Democrats need to get over being careful and cautious and slow moving. They need to stop waiting for the right pitch to swing at. They need to be out there every frickin’ day calling the Republicans out for their war on the things we hold dear. Every single day, one of the top Democratic leaders needs to be holding a press conference denouncing the violence and corruption and utter lack of compassion in what the Republicans are doing.

Thankfully, labor and the progressive movement are pushing back. The number of lawsuits and demonstrations grow every day. People are getting fired up, they are getting ready to go.

I want to encourage everyone reading to play a role. I have seen some commentary that only really big things like general strikes or massive civil disobedience will matter, or that we just need to keep focused on calling our members of Congress, or that only lawsuits can stop Trump, or that only the next elections will matter.

No.

We need it all. We need the big ideas and big events. We need demonstrations of every size in every corner of the land. We need people to keep calling their members of Congress, and keep filing lawsuits. We need an all of the above strategy, a multi-front campaign, because the MAGA forces will never stop until they have tried every way possible to burn down our government.

We need to be like Winston Churchill:

We shall go on to the end… we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”