Where to Raise Your Voice

ESSAY: Democrats have lost voice & power in Washington. They need to find extra-governmental truth-telling forums elsewhere. They need to abandon the Capitol and go preaching out across America.

(Veteran Sam Bingham points at Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., before a congressional town hall meeting Thursday in Asheville, N.C. PHOTO: Sean Rayford / Getty Images)

Dear Democrats? Do you want to stop the dismantling of our democracy? Do you want to stop the neutering of Congress? Do you want to thwart Trump’s establishment of The Unitary Executive? Do you want to save America from itself?

Then, leave your ineffective offices on Capitol Hill and return to your constituent offices and town squares across America. Spend little to no time getting little to nothing done in the nation’s capital. Spend the majority of your time directly educating and mobilizing the electorate in your states and districts.

As the minority in Congress and the defeated party in the Executive Branch, you have lost your power. Democrats no longer hold committee chairmanships. You no longer determine what bills are brought to the Senate & House floors for debate & amendment. You no longer control if or when legislation is introduced or enacted. You can not hold hearings or invite witnesses to testify before Congress. So, in practical terms, you are powerless to do anything substantive, other than obstruct the bad and protect the good.

Meet the Republican and Democratic senators of the 119th Congress

One of the lessons American politicians have learned from Donald Trump is that norms and standards, those not codified into law, can be broken or ignored at will. And those norms and standards, apparently, can be dismissed without political or electoral consequence. Trump ignores the rules. Republicans lie about them. Democrats need to start playing by new rules - rules of your own making.

So, what in the world can Democrats do to find a way that works? You can create new, robust conventions in which to reveal the truth, uncover malfeasance & wrongdoing and propose cogent, comprehensive, common causes that are popular with the voters.

To that end, I suggest Democrats initiate nationwide events which I would call TRUTH SESSIONS.

These un-official hearings and forums would be extra-congressional, extra-governmental, voter-accessible gatherings run by elected representatives of the Democratic party with truth-telling witnesses and attended by concerned truth-seeking constituents. The most prominent and powerful ones should be mirrors of legitimate Senate investigative hearings, but held outside of Washington.

The most important of these would be the RANKING MEMBERS’ TRUTH HEARINGS.

Every standing committee in Congress has a Ranking Member from the minority party. These are senators with wisdom who speak with experience and authority.

Some of the well-known Democratic senators who are Ranking Members on critical committees of the 119th Congress: Amy Kobuchar, Patty Murray, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Maria Cantrell, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ron Wyden, Jeanne Shaheen, Bernie Sanders, Margaret Hassan, Chris Coon, Mark Warner, Ed Markey, Kirsten Gillibrand & Richard Blumenthal.

These veterans of Congress are not shrinking violets. They are not afraid to raise their voices and speak truth to the voters.

Task those Senate Ranking Members to fan out across the country and hold their own hearings, with their own witnesses, before their own constituents. Make a big splash of them. Book blockbuster whistle-blower witnesses. Reveal, reveal, reveal.

Stream them live and counter-program them opposite the sham hearings the Republicans will surely mount in Washington against their make-believe enemies. I guarantee the press will eat this up, providing lots of free media.

The MAGA-compromised Republicans will scream and yell that the Democrats are delinquent. But you won’t be. You will be facing your voters, hearing their problems and offering your solutions, which are all being ignored by MAGA in Washington, as you will reveal.

Let the Democratic congressional leadership stay in the Capital and handle whatever needs to be handled in the halls of Congress. Leave this protective work to the elected men and women who sought those leadership positions. This is the work of Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and their associates.

Let the party leaders do the hand-to-hand and face-to-face fighting with Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. The MAGA cultists in Republican leadership, like John Barrasso, Tom Cotton, Shelly Moore, James Lankford & Tim Scott, have really no inclination to work across the aisle with their willing counterparts. They have no mind to consult or compromise with any Democrats. So, let them sink their own ship. You don’t need to be there. Your leadership is there. Instead, go to your people where they live.

(Senate Democratic Leadership of the 119th Congress. Left to right, Senate Democratic Leadership, U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Chris Murphy (D-CT). PHOTO: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/TNS)

Democratic leadership could call back your elected senators and representatives out working across the country any time their presence, votes or influence are truly needed in their respective chambers. Those Ranking Members don’t need to be in the halls of Congress every day if their votes are only going to be defeated by an entrenched, unyielding, uncompromising MAGA majority and their input on committees is to be ignored.

The votes for social justice and democratic resiliency will mostly be lost in this complicit Trump Congress. But, there are critical battles to be fought and won across the nation. Those are the hills to die on.

And, Democrats, writ large, should not stop there. Democratic members of the House of Representatives also need to get out of Washington, D.C. to host weekly town hall meetings in their districts. Especially those young crowd-pleasing, press-drawing, policy-pushing, ambition-seeking, constituent-gathering young, liberal members of Congress.

Folks like Ro Khana, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell, Jason Crow, Maxwell Frost, Jamie Raskin, Seth Moulton, Joaquin Castro, Rick Larson & Jasmine Crockett. They are the Democratic party’s missionaries.

The American working class voters need to see themselves in the future of America. They need to see and hear the party’s young leaders, who both listen to their constituencies and have something to offer them. Their honest voices are needed to drown out the dishonest ones heard and amplified and believed by MAGA cultists.

These Democratic evangelical political gatherings should also be live-streamed at hours convenient & conducive for voter viewing and/or reposting. Let the voters vent. Tell them with your presence that you hear them. Show them you have their interests at heart with your practical solutions. Educate them on what is being destroyed of the American dream with your knowledge of the facts and workable remedies. Do this, not on the steps of the Capitol for CNN or FOX. Do this in voters’ schools and workplaces and homes. Get you popular message on the local news. And do it relentlessly & consistently & honestly. Make your voices viral.

There is also a critical role to be played by Democratic governors. Many of whom, undoubtably, are going to be seeking the presidency in 2028. So, there is already a built-in hesitancy to give too much voice (or credit) to their potential political rivals. But, governors solve problems. And seeing those governors institute workable solutions for the next four years will only strengthen the political capital of each governor and the national Democratic brand as a whole.

So, I would hope to see a joining of forces, especially amongst states’ attorneys general and sitting Democratic governors for policies to support and promote across state lines. I want to see significant cooperation between the likes of Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz, Andy Beshear, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Bob Ferguson, Katie Hobbs, Phil Murphy, JB Pritzker, Jared Polis and Wes Moore.

Then there are the former Democratic cabinet members and administration officials. I would love to see them get together and start a combined speaking circuit, a media blitz. They are the ones with knowledge & experience who can and should bring the truth directly to MAGA outlets, like Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network. These are men and women who are unafraid to face the Hannitys and Carlsons of the far-right media with well-articulated truths. Send them into the lions’ dens.

Lastly, perhaps, are the political organizations - the Democratic National Committee, the congressional campaign committees, political action committees and individual campaign organizations. I am not so politically naive to think that they aren’t already figuring out the horse races, donor inclinations and campaign priorities for 2026 & 2028. They are already identifying and strategizing against their potential intra-party rivals. This is the sad truth of politics.

But, I am going to hope, Democrats, that you see the strategic worth right now of party unity. That you see the value in policy solidarity. That you see the victory in elevating all the strong voices within the wings of the party. Now is not the time to start arming your typical circular firing squads. Now is the time to listen and learn and to SHOOT BACK against the real enemy - MAGA.

Now is the critical time to do whatever can be done to keep the three branches of the federal government, now firmly in the grip and thrall of Donald Trump, from being decimated or destroyed. Your chief task, Democrats, is to preserve and protect the Constitution and the very existence of the United States of America.

But, you also have to build the future of the Democratic party by convincing the electorate that you are capable of being the inventor, the fuel and the engine of prosperity, peace, empathy, justice, opportunity, tolerance, global citizenship, security and national pride. That is no small task.

So, I believe, the work to be done now is in not in occupied Washington. It is in your towns, suburbs, villages, farmlands, factories, corporate suites, schools, places of worship, health care facilities, military bases, embassies, sales floors, grocery stores, hearings, forums, town halls. It’s in your TRUTH SESSIONS.

So? Elected Democrats? Do you want to save America from itself? Go do it out amongst your fellow Americans? Go tell the truth. This is a “right now, all-hands-on-deck campaign.” Wage it!

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And the rest of us? Seek the truth. Learn the truth. Know the truth. Speak the truth. Spread the truth. And give money to news organizations reporting the truth and social justice organizations who are defending the truth. Speak up. Speak out. And put your money where your mouth is.

We will win this war in and through the courts of justice, the legal briefs of advocates, the homes of the brave, the schools of the educated, the houses of the empathetic and caring worshipers, the airwaves of the honest, the posts of the informed, the shares of the concerned, the actions of the warriors, the loyalties of our allies and the hearts of the citizens.

Solidarity Forever!