2025 Life Logs, Day 36: Options
Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Cold; Temp 30, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I have been writing this log every night for the past 7,050 days, and I have always tried to avoid politics. I’m sure I’ve noted major events, but not in long posts every night. That has just started happening this week. But things have changed, and I feel a civic duty to acknowledge what is happening to my country. Like many Americans, I am searching for what it is that I can do.
Today on Substack, Robert Reich posed a question and answered it. The question was, “What should Democratic lawmakers do now?” He said that he has spoken to a number of Democratic lawmakers and heard from them roughly four different strategic options.
Do Nothing … Negotiate … Express Public Resistance … Stop Everything
What follows are the four strategies under consideration as listed in Reich’s article.
1. Allow Trump to overplay his hand. Some Democratic lawmakers believe they should do little or nothing — and thereby let Trump, Musk, and the MAGA Republican Party go wild. That way, say the Democrats I’ve spoken with, Trump and company are guaranteed to overplay their hand. By the same token, MAGA Republicans in Congress should get as much rope as they want because they’ll eventually hang themselves. “Don’t interfere!” they say. “Watch the fun!”
2. Negotiate to contain the damage. Other Democrats tell me they want to be at the table when Trump Republicans in Congress are making significant decisions, to help steer them in the least-damaging direction. So, for example, they’ll negotiate a budget agreement to prevent a shutdown in mid-March, try to lift the debt ceiling to prevent government from defaulting on paying its bills, and hold whatever hearings they’re able to.
3. Express loud public resistance. A third group of Democrats wants a more public show of activism in resistance to Trump. They’ve been talking to me about helping their constituents get more organized and activated, staging loud demonstrations that draw the attention of the media, and appealing Trump’s illegal moves to the federal courts, along with tons of publicity.
4. Gum up the works. A fourth group of Democratic lawmakers wants to block everything Trump and his Republicans lapdogs seek, including confirmations of Trump nominees, spending priorities, and funding authorizations. “Stop everything!” they say.
Again, these approaches are not mutually exclusive. Democrats could adapt any number of these — or others. But these four do reflect four different overall strategies.
It was exciting to see how many Americans came out today in protest of all that is happening. The public resistance has begun. And tonight, our Democratic Senators are pulling an all nighter prior “gum up the works” to confirm Russell Vought as Director of the Office of Management and Business. He will still get confirmed, but no Republican Senator will be able to claim that they did not know what this man has said he will do if confirmed. I heard Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz talk about why this is so important. I had never heard the name Brian Schatz before, but tonight he is my quiet-spoken, but determined hero. His advice to all of us is to “Be angry, but don’t give-up.”
