The Spire

Ian Sykes ‘28

Staff Writer

Recently, Democratic pundit James Carville wrote a New York Times opinion titled “It’s Time for a Daring Political Maneuver, Democrats.” Carville, an 80-year-old political consultant who oversees left-leaning campaigns, suggested that “it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead.” This approach, which he deemed the “tactical pause,” suggests that Democratic opposition to Trump should involve allowing Republicans to “crumble beneath their own weight” by doing a poor job at governing. Ultimately, through inactivity and submission, this so-called “tactical pause” is supposed to “make the American people miss [the Democratic party]” because of the current Republican administration’s failure to serve them. 

This is not the way.

Although my opinion here is conjecture, I can’t possibly be alone in thinking that this is not how we oppose Trump. In what world is letting our government fail and sacrificing the well-being of the American people an appropriate means to the end of winning the next election? How do we let the party in power fail without allowing our nation to follow suit? At what point do we collectively decide that we’ve allowed the Republican party to crumble enough and that it’s now time to fight back? Currently, the Trump agenda firmly has the reins on all three branches of our government, and should all of those branches “crumble beneath their own weight,” the governed will inevitably fall with them.

Take the looming government shutdown, for example. If some Democrats, who remain hungry for a shutdown due to political benefit, engage in “tactical retreat,” the American people will suffer. When our representatives fail to reach a timely agreement on how to budget money for government programs, those programs lose their staff and functionality. Hundreds upon thousands of federal workers will not be able to provide for their families during it. National parks will be closed, and further gutted. FDA food inspections will be halted. Support for veterans will be delayed. Families will run low on food because the programs that help them purchase it, like SNAP and WIC, will quickly run out of funding.

In short, what Carville is suggesting here is that no matter how poorly Republicans govern, Democrats should roll over and let them fail their nation. This invariably means that those who work for the government and rely on these programs will suffer – but that’s okay because that’s what they should consider cannon fodder for political victory. How does this benefit the American people? How? Is it justified for Democrats to let their constituency suffer, just so they can secure another victory?

I don’t think so, and thankfully, there are some representatives in Congress who share this sentiment. Al Green, a representative from Texas, recently belted out at Trump during his joint address last Tuesday. Unlike his colleagues, who chose to wear pink and wave little plastic signs in some sort of sanctimonious, sad act of opposition, Green showed his spine. He stood up, lashed his cane in Trump’s direction, and scorned him, saying “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” 

This is the kind of opposition we need.

Green’s pink-suited, sign-wielding, do-nothing colleagues are doing exactly what Carville suggested: they’re engaging in a tactical retreat. In other words, they’re doing nothing to defend us. Although what Green did was surprisingly simple, it was also disruptive, and disruption is what we need. Green’s protest should serve as a baseline for what opposition to Trump needs to look like going forward. We need to be angry. It’s not unlikely that Trump and his billionaire oligarchy will indeed take aim at crucial programs like Medicaid, so why should we sit around and let them take from us what they please?

The responsibility of our public servants, whether or not they hold the prevailing power, is to serve us. That’s their one job. If they don’t do so, they don’t deserve their job. Take a look at what Democratic leaders are doing, or what your representative might be doing. Are they defending our nation from destruction? Are they representing you and me? Or, are they just engaging in a tactical retreat at the cost of our future?

Featured image courtesy of WWNO

Web Edited by Zexuan Qu ’28