We've waited long enough: It's time to put public pressure on Democrats to act

Six ways everyday citizens can force elected leaders to fight back against fascism

I’ve been a Democrat for as long as I can remember. In fact, the first full sentence I spoke, which my parents taught me as a toddler, was: “Nixon lied to the people” (it was 1973). Since turning 18, there hasn’t been an election cycle when I haven’t supported or donated to Democratic candidates. During college, I campaigned for Bill Clinton. After I graduated, I went to work for Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan. In my 40s, I started Moms Demand Action. And during the last half of last year, I spent every waking hour campaigning and raising millions of dollars for the Harris/Walz ticket. In summary, I’m a loyal, mainstream, middle-aged liberal—someone kids might call a “normie Democrat.”

So, it’s been dismaying, to say the least, to watch too many Democratic leaders mostly fail to meet the moment after Donald Trump was reelected. Instead of speaking from a place of outrage, they’re going on Sunday cable shows and spewing consultant speak. Instead of pushing back on Trump’s reckless and dangerous orders, some are voting to pass his legislation and approve his cabinet picks. Instead of giving the 75 million voters who supported them their marching orders, they’re either ignoring us or sending emails asking for money.

Despite all of the warnings and the polling and the three-month planning period between the election and the inauguration, Democratic leaders decided to show up for a knife fight with a cheese stick.

My anger about this finally came to a head after I read that seven Democrats had voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem, a Trump acolyte, has vowed to carry out Trump’s shameless and despicable mass migration operation. As I am wont to do when angry, I posted a rant online, which included this complaint: “…to watch Democrats make millions off of stock trades, cozy up to people they admitted were fascists, trade obligation for access, and play internal politics while democracy is destroyed is a disappointment I don't have words for.”

To be clear, my disappointment doesn’t mean I’m not a Democrat anymore. I continue to believe in the party’s platform, promise and potential. However, my experience as an activist has taught me that if voters demand a course correction, loudly and publicly, it can force change.

For example, back in 2012, about a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an A-rating from the NRA—until our volunteers started calling them out online and in real life. In Virginia, Sen. Mark Warner was voting for the gun lobby’s priority legislation. Our volunteers started showing up wherever he went, including fundraisers. At one such event, a group of women in our red shirts cornered the Senator inside someone’s home and told him they would not tolerate his allegiance to the NRA and would hold him accountable if he didn’t publicly separate himself from their agenda. Lo and behold, weeks later, Warner did exactly that, and an entire army of women in red shirts helped get him reelected in November. And he’s been on the right side of history ever since.

It’s on all of us to demand our leaders fight back against fascism and for democracy. To force them to listen to their constituents and get creative with their solutions. And to make them pull out all of the stops and learn how to become an opposition party—quickly.

However, some of the responses from lawmakers about why they’re not acting sound a lot like the reasons lawmakers used to give Moms Demand Action volunteers for siding with the gun lobby, including:

There’s nothing Democrats can do; we don’t any have power

You don’t have to have legislative power to oppose and protest; to educate and resist; to organize and galvanize supporters. In fact, it’s often easier to oppose than it is to lead.

For example, Trump has essentially declared war on cancer patients by delaying the study-section meetings where grant money gets doled out to cancer studies. As a result, crucial research is likely to be delayed or abandoned due to a lack of funding. This arbitrary freeze is outrageous and Democrats shouldn’t wait for focus groups or polling or consultant input to create a campaign that calls out this betrayal of Americans, regardless of their political party.

What would Trump do if he was the one in the opposition party? He’d concoct some kind of stunt to harness public attention and anger. He might draft resolutions, show up at lawmakers’ offices accompanied by cameras, or bring cancer patients and doctors to a press conference. In that same vein, Democrats should stop faxing wonky statements into the ether and start showing up where Americans are paying attention. As former White House communications staffer Aaron Huertes posted online, “Every Trump outrage is an opportunity to communicate core messages to different constituencies.”

Party leaders need to be less concerned about controlling the message and more invested in communicating authenticity to the broadest audience possible.

We’re letting Republicans hang themselves; Trump’s behavior is a distraction

Elder Democrats seem to think doing nothing will win them the midterm elections (just like they thought letting Roe v Wade get overturned would give them a blue wave). Obviously, we can cut our time in hell in half if we win the midterms, but that’s only IF THERE ARE EVEN MIDTERM ELECTIONS. Nothing is a given, and it isn’t safe to assume anything in this volatile political environment.

As columnist Jamelle Bouie recently wrote, “It is not a distraction to vocally oppose Trump’s would-be nominees or highlight his extreme intentions. Democrats should look at every aspect of the next Trump administration as an opportunity to do, well, politics—to demonstrate their values and show the extent to which this president has no plan to pursue the public good. The quiet and supposedly responsible approach of the past four years is a dead end.”

We need to stop playing from a 1992 playbook. Democrats will not win the news cycle, let alone the next election cycle, by keeping their head down or going into hiding.

Democrats shouldn’t criticize each other

Over and over, I hear that the reason Republicans win is because they sing from the same hymnal. That they don’t hold each other accountable and, therefore, are indivisible. Maybe that does give them more political power, but I personally do not want to belong to a cult. As Democrats, we have the freedom and even an obligation to put pressure on party leaders to lead, follow, or get out of the way. Especially when democracy is on the line.

We’re at a terrifying crossroads, but this inflection point is also an opportunity to overhaul what isn’t working. Now is the time to air our dirty laundry, sort out our differences, and build a better party and platform.

I’ll lose my job; Trump voters should face the consequences, not me

Democrats don’t lose because they’ve taken too many stands; they lose because they run on issues they care about, not issues voters care about. If Democrats want to win and attain power, they have to offer a transformative vision that resonates widely. That starts with explaining to their Trump-voting constituents why the Trump agenda isn’t what they actually voted for.

Yes, too many people voted for the cruelty we knew was coming, including mass deportations. However, those same voters likely didn’t realize they were also voting to defund medical research, or emergency grain storage assistance, or the rural crime initiative. And the more pain these voters feel because of Trump’s actions, the more they’ll listen to and follow lawmakers who actually want to help them, regardless of their political party. Democratic leaders are likelier to win if they find proactive ways to convert voters who are like-hearted, even if they’re not like-minded.

But some things are worth losing your job over. Take, for example, Colorado lawmaker John Morse, who was recalled in 2013 after voting for gun safety legislation after the mass shooting in an Aurora movie theater. Morse knew he was likely to lose his job, but before the recall vote he held firm, saying, “Keeping Coloradans safe from gun violence is very worth your political career.” And so is saving democracy.

Now that you know your Congressmembers’ concerns, hopefully you have the insight you need to do your part as a citizen in a democracy (for now) and light a fire under your lawmakers. Here’s how you can urge your elected officials to fight back:

Call first, email second: Call your Senators and Representatives every single day to thank or shame them.

If the lawmaker you call is a Democrat who’s aiding and abetting the Republican agenda, say this: “As a rank-and-file voter and an American, I feel exposed, unprotected, and unsupported by Democratic leaders. It feels like [NAME OF LAWMAKER] is in hiding. I want to be given a plan for resisting and assurances that [NAME OF LAWMAKER] will stand up and fight.”

If the lawmaker you call is a Republican, say: “I am being harmed by the Trump agenda and I demand [NAME OF LAWMAKER] stops kowtowing to the President and starts caring about his constituents.”

I promise you, these calls matter! The whole reason 15 Republican Senators voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is because they received so many calls from constituents that they became concerned about the consequences of ignoring them. So, this week, call your lawmakers every day—regardless of political party—and in addition to telling them to act, demand they VOTE NO on cabinet nominees Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy.

The number for the US Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.

Post online: Too many progressive people and groups are leaving social media spaces where they could be challenging Republican policy. After leaving Twitter/X in the post-Elon Musk era, groups like the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Planned Parenthood have ceded important ground to their opponents.

My posts this week on Twitter and Bluesky went viral and led to calls from lawmakers, fellow activists, and reporters from major publications. People are paying attention and looking for someone to say what they’re thinking. Did I get blowback? Sure—some people told me not to criticize Democrats, others told me I’d conveniently ignored party issues for a decade, others suggested I’ve gone MAGA. I’ll live.

Now it’s your turn. Make a video, write a Substack post, do an interpretive dance. Anything to keep the conversation going.

Share your story: Former Congresswoman Marie Newman recently wrote: “Share how badly the administration is affecting you directly and, specifically or perhaps someone you love. Tell that singular story. Offer clear stories about friends who are losing their business, house, car or insurance because of the cost associated with tariffs and deportations. Talk about how these issues have adversely affected you and your family. This should be something you do everywhere whenever you can.”

These stories bring data and policy to life. Craft a story you can tell in under a minute and share it online and in real life with everyone who will listen, including media.

Show up: I often wonder if we’d be in this dark place in America if people had taken to the streets en masse after Mitch McConnell stole Democrats’ Supreme Court appointment. By letting that slide without much blowback, we gave Republicans tacit permission to continue undermining democracy. We sent the signal that we might be mad, but there wouldn’t be real consequences.

It’s time for all of us to get off of the sidelines and show up your lawmakers’ in-district offices, at protests, in our communities and in Washington, DC.

Join an organization: I started and led a single-issue organization, but the truth is that none of us lead single-issue lives. There are so many organizations galvanizing voters and turning their anger into action right now; my personal favorite is Indivisible, and I’m certain there’s a chapter near you.

Sign up for Indivisible’s educational emails and seminars, attend in-person meetings, and volunteer for a leadership position. There’s strength in numbers.

Run for office yourself: If you’re fed up with the status quo, shake it up. Women only hold 25 percent of the 500,000 elected positions in America. I’m on the Board of Emerge America and I’ve seen firsthand that women who are compassionate and concerned make amazing elected officials.

If you’re elected office curious, join an Emerge seminar.

MSNBC news anchor Chris Hayes recently said, “We’re in this weird period between the lightning and the thunder. People haven’t yet gotten their wits about them, and the administration is taking advantage of that by attempting this blitzkrieg to mow everyone down. But public opinion and backlash still matter; it’s a question of whether it gets organized, formalized, and wielded in enough time to stop some of this damage.”

Sometimes activism is top down, with orders from generals to the troops; but it’s also often bottom-up, with orders coming from the grassroots. Given that Democratic leaders seem all too comfortable hanging in the weird period, it’s time to give them a shove. As we all know from middle school science, lightning generates the sound wave we experience as thunder. Let’s be the lightning so our elected officials finally bring the thunder.

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