Democrats are not following the successful Republican 2009 'oppose everything' playbook

Rss@dailykos.com (laura Clawson) · Wednesday, January 25, 2017, 12:42 pm

Congressional Democrats aren’t going to do what Republicans did in 2009, and what many progressives have called for. They’re not going to oppose everything. That’s true of progressive leaders like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, who have announced they’ll vote for Ben Carson as HUD secretary, as well as of the party’s leadership. Instead, Democrats are focusing on specific fights:

“I think people out there are feeling terrified and they’re feeling unsupported, and they want us to feel as desperate as the people we’re here to represent,” said [Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)]. “My argument to this is people got persuaded that this administration and these Republicans were going to fight for regular folks. And they’re not. It was a lie.”

“I think our argument has to be, ‘They’re screwing you,’” Schatz added.

To make that argument stick, Senate Democrats believe, they have to find the right battles first. Sometimes that means separating the substance from the noise, like not reacting to every eyebrow-raising comment from Trump’s Twitter account or to every gaffe by his nominees (like one who said guns are needed in schools to protect students from grizzly bears).

While a showdown over Carson may be viscerally satisfying, one top Senate Democratic aide said, the better play is to spotlight instances when a nominee is directly threatening Trump’s supporters. It’s no coincidence that Democratic leaders have been hyper-focused on health and human services secretary nominee Tom Price, treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. Democrats believe these nominees help them make the case that a Trump administration will cut health care, screw over homeowners and gut public education.

Republicans sure didn’t pay much of a price for opposing everything when it came to President Obama, and we’ve too often seen Democrats claim they’re picking their battles when really they’re backing down from a fight. That’s why it’s important to make sure Democrats know that we’re watching and that “picking our battles” cannot turn into surrender.

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