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Apr 2, 2025
There is a pat answer from stalwart Democrats that you hear if you admit to being scared about what to expect next from the Trump/Musk junta. They confidently say, with a smirk of self-satisfaction, “Just wait for 2026.” There is a “blue wave” that is coming, and it will return us to an undefined golden age of Democratic rule. Such magical thinking passes as wisdom in today’s Democratic Party.
What is wrong with this message? Well, first off it shows that the leaders of the Democratic Party are lazy. Why water, prune or cultivate a fruit tree if you can just enjoy the fruit that falls into your lap? Second, it shows what the DNC is all about. Money. Period. The DNC is not a real leadership. It is not working to develop new messaging, new ideas, campaigns or policies. The Democratic National Committee is a boiler room operation that wishes to grab every Democratic voter by their ankles and shake them until their wallets and pocket change fall to the ground. “Empty your purses, empty your bank accounts, max out your credit cards, empty your pockets! We only want one thing from you. Money! Money! Money!” Don’t suggest changes in messaging, campaign strategies, or policies from the DNC. They are not interested, because they have a stable of campaign consultants who will take care of that concern. And those consultants don’t come cheap!
Add to this an old observation, that the Republican Party is afraid of their voters, and when those voters say “Jump!” the GOP jumps. No such relationship exists with the Democrats. The relationship between the leadership and the base of the Democratic Party is like a loveless marriage. The base does not like the leadership, and the leadership does not like the base. This loveless marriage continues because the mortgage must be paid, we have a car note, there is no one else to run off with, the kids are not ready to leave home, and we have gotten used to each other. So, we stay together.
It is a fact that the bases of both parties have declined in importance because of the monetization of the American political system. Politics in America is like what they used to say about raising racehorses, or fielding polo teams. It is the sport of Kings. The voter pawns are still needed, but the wisdom of “Dollar” Mark Hanna that politics is about money has only gained in relevance since the Supreme Court opened up the floodgates of cash in its recent decisions.
There is something else that is wrong with the mid-term delusion of 2026. It shows just how barren the imagination of the Democratic Party is. It has not dawned on the party that maybe the same old, same old will not work anymore. It has a death grip on normalcy, when normalcy is dead. The Trump/Musk junta is playing a new game, and the Democrats refuse to recognize this fact. They refuse to admit that the game they are playing has to change. There is nothing that they hate more than change. Every time the base demands that they reform and change to meet the challenge of Trump/Musk, the DNC responds by saying, “Send us money.”
There is a greater question that few have the guts to ask. Why does the Democratic Party exist? What is its purpose? Who does it represent? What is its goal, its vision, its dream? Why does it exist other than to hound its unappreciated base for more money?
The GOP exists to conquer. It does not care about being loved. It wants to be feared. The Democrats want to be loved because they are nice (please, Lord God, save us from “nice” Democrats!). If the parties were different breeds of dogs, the Democrats would be the happy, let's have fun labs. The GOP would be a fierce Pit Bull, still dripping with the blood of its rival from the fighting ring.
There is one comment that critics have made that might be right. The Democrats are a governing party, not an opposition party. It is also said that only Democrats would go to a gun battle with a pocketknife. Another folly of the Democrats is the childlike faith they have in the legal system to protect them or advance policy ideas they cannot advance any other way. Starting with the Supreme Court’s decisions in the 1930s to approve Social Security and to legalize collective bargaining through the Wagner Act, we entered an era of judicial activism where Democrats relied on the courts to carry their water. The Supreme Court that they relied on was an aberration. Throughout most of its history, the Supreme Court was reliably on the side of reaction. Now the old reactionary tradition of the Supreme Court has reasserted itself, and the Democrats have more to fear than cheer about its decisions.
The base does not share the leadership’s faith in 2026. It knows that at the rate the Trump/Musk administration is moving, by 2026 the legal and institutional infrastructure created by the New Deal and the Great Society eras will be destroyed, which means that any Democratic future that aspires to create a just, democratic, and sustainable society will be impossible for the foreseeable future. The GOP will not only destroy the infrastructure that we will need, but they will also dig up the foundations, and plow salt into our fields. 2026 will not be a blue wave. 2026 will be a blue funeral. Even if we make gains in the midterms, it will be like winning an election in Gaza.
What has been most disheartening to me are my conversations with other Democrats and other progressives on what we do now that we are under the boot of the Trump/Musk junta. There is a long silence, a shrug of the shoulders, and an answer of, “I don’t know.” It is the look on their faces that kills me. A look of fear and fatalism. The fact is that no one has any answers other than the time-worn standards of giving money to groups and candidates, writing to your representatives, or going to yet another march or rally. This will not do, but maybe this should be no surprise. We now face a situation where if the junta can consolidate its power, and not undo itself with its own craziness, then we may face generations under this regime.
We face the political equivalent of trench warfare and house-to-house fighting for an indeterminate length of time. We cannot afford to tell ourselves happy stories about our future. As African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral said, “Accept no easy victories. Tell no lies.” There are no blue waves ahead of us. The Democratic Party in its current state is useless. No court is going to save us. We and the organizations we build in this difficult time are what will save us. We are the ones who will rebuild a just, democratic, and sustainable America on the rubble of the present. No one else is going to do it.
If you think there is anything new about the issues we are currently dealing with, be sure to read Eric Foner’s The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. We are still dealing with both events. Randy’s Rants will return to a weekly format in April in honor of Earth Day in the face of the Trump/Musk junta’s war on the environment. I have some stuff I have been working on that is relevant to the topic that I hope you’ll enjoy. — Randy Cunningham
