Column: Pick your battles or all-out opposition? Our columnists debate Trump vs. the Democratic resistance
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- Trump and his right-hand man, Elon Musk, bring Silicon Valley’s disruptive mindset to Washington.
- Should Democrats do everything they can to thwart the president or take victories where they can?
These are times that try Democratic souls.
Shut out of power in Washington and facing an unbridled president taking a sledgehammer to parts of the federal government and a chain saw to others, the existential question for the party and its leaders is how — and how hard — to fight back.
Mark Z. Barabak, a political columnist, and Sammy Roth, who writes about climate issues and helms The Times’ Boiling Point podcast and newsletter, have differing perspectives on the best way to respond to the chaos and past several weeks of upheaval, which have been unlike anything the country’s seen in living memory.
Here they hash things out.
Barabak: There’s a saying attributed to Mark Zuckerberg — “Move fast and break things” — that became a manifesto for the moon-shot innovators and buccaneering capitalists of Silicon Valley.
Now Trump has brought that mindset to the Oval Office which, I suppose, isn’t surprising given the subleasing of his presidency to the hyperactive and assertively transgressive Elon Musk.
Roth: Not surprising, but not smart to shrug and act like it’s normal or safe, either. Moving fast and breaking things is a fun way to make money in Silicon Valley, but it’s a recipe for disaster when you’re playing around with a federal government that employs millions of people and undergirds economic and social support systems for hundreds of millions more.
Seeking common ground with Elon Musk’s chief enabler is a terrible idea.
Barabak: Agreed. It’s hard to say which is the more appalling: the recklessness or the heartlessness with which Musk and his preternaturally powerful posse of 20-somethings are scything their way through Washington.
A great many people will suffer; we’ve already seen that with the cutoff of foreign aid, arguably one of the most effective and least understood of federal programs.
Polls routinely show Americans believing as much as a quarter of the federal budget goes to foreign aid when, in fact, it’s less than 1%. And we purchase an awful lot of good will with that relatively meager sum; as one military chief told Congress, we can spend a relative pittance now on food and medical relief or shell out a whole lot more later on weapons systems and anti-terrorism efforts.
But, alas, soft power is about as fashionable in Trump’s red-meat Washington as veganism and green energy. I know the latter is something particularly close to your heart.
But let’s get to our differences. You seem to favor a no-holds-barred resistance, while I favor what I’d call a more nuanced, choose-your-battles approach.
Roth: Well, it’s funny you say “green” energy is close to my heart. I’d say it’s close to everyone’s hearts, whether they know it or not. Scientists have found air pollution from coal, oil and gas combustion kills millions of people around the world every year, in large part by exacerbating heart disease. The less fossil fuel we burn, the fewer people die. That’s even before accounting for all the deaths from worsening heat waves, wildfires and storms spurred by climate change.
But, yes, to get back to your question, I don’t think “choosing their battles” is the right approach for Democrats. Partly it’s a question of morality. Who or what do you throw under the bus: Trans people? Immigrants? Journalists? Folks on the front lines of the climate crisis, including L.A. County wildfire victims? And who gets to make these decisions?
Given Trump’s track record, I don’t know how many folks are safe. Musk mimicked a “Heil Hitler” gesture on Inauguration Day.
I’m also thinking practically. The Democratic Party put up a hell of a lot more resistance to Trump eight years ago than they have so far this time around. Then they took back the House from Republicans in the 2018 midterms, and they beat Trump in 2020.
And it’s not like Trump won some resounding victory last year, either. He likes to talk about a mandate, and a lot of Democrats seem to have accepted that idea. But he won the popular vote by a mere 1.5 percentage points.
Barabak: No, not exactly a landslide. In fact, it’s a pretty middling performance by historical standards. That said, I don’t think Democratic pushback is an either/or proposition. And I don’t see the party as playing the patsy, either.
Democratic attorneys general and their political allies have already bombarded the Trump administration with a megaton of lawsuits, several of which have successfully halted Musk and his co-president’s flagrant overreach.
For the time being, anyway.
And then there is, to give just one example, Gavin Newsom, who’s taken what I consider to be a more deliberate and pragmatic approach.
California’s governor used to be among the loudest and fiercest critics of Trump and national Republicans — “Where the hell is my party?” he demanded at one point, scolding fellow Democrats for being too timorous in response to the Supreme Court erasure of federal abortion rights.
But lately Newsom has largely muzzled himself. In fact, he’s gone out of his way to make nice with Trump — flattery seemingly getting you just about anywhere with our most vain president — to see to it those wiped out by wildfire get the federal relief they need.
It may be personally unpalatable, but it helps the people Newsom was elected to serve.
Rather than confronting Trump, California’s governor is showing restraint and using flattery to ensure the state gets the federal disaster relief it needs and deserves. That’s a smart strategy.
Also, I think it’s important to note we’re not even a month into Trump’s presidency. I wouldn’t exactly call it a honeymoon. His mediocre approval ratings pale compared to past presidents. But I do think he’s being given a grace period by voters.
Let’s see how things look a few months from now, or by the time the 2026 midterm election rolls around. By then Trump’s actions will have had a meaningful effect on the lives of voters — and, crucially, not just people residing overseas.
It’s one thing to cheer the firing of federal employees if you consider them a bunch of slothful layabouts. It’s another when your Social Security check doesn’t get delivered on time, or you go to the VA and it takes three hours to check in at the understaffed front desk.
Roth: I don’t think waiting until 2026 to see how bad things get is a good idea.
Sure, Social Security checks are going out. But Trump’s actions are already hurting people. Federal prosecutors are being fired for defending democracy against violent insurrection. The dismantling of health and science agencies will have long-lasting consequences for our physical well-being. And who knows what Musk will do with all the sensitive personal information he’s gotten access to?
The list goes on. Immigrants are being deported en masse. The Federal Communications Commission is working hard to intimidate the free press. In the private sector, companies are abandoning people of color by dismantling their DEI policies to appease Trump. And, oh yeah, we’ll be living with a lot of additional climate pollution for centuries.
I’m sympathetic to Newsom for wanting to secure wildfire aid. Hopefully his strategy works.
But how can anyone believe stoking Trump’s ego is more than a loose-fitting bandage on a hemorrhaging democracy? Trump never admitted he lost the 2020 election. His administration is openly defying court orders. His advisors are questioning the judiciary’s authority to check his powers.
Democrats should ditch their normal routine of worrying about whether they’re reading the room right. They should stop acting like these are normal times and start acting like the coming months and years will determine the course of American democracy.
Otherwise, they’re sending voters the message that Trump is a loud, obnoxious but essentially legitimate leader who happens to be wrong on how to lower the price of eggs.
Barabak: I agree with all you say about a clear and present danger. But a lot of what Trump is doing are things he threatened, er, promised to do while running for reinstatement to the White House.
And he won.
As unfortunate as I found it, the price of eggs, bacon and gasoline seemed to matter a whole lot more to voters than, say, condoning an attempted insurrection and undermining faith in our democracy by lying about the 2020 election.
The fact is Trump is president and will be for the next four years, barring some extraordinary development. I fear a lot of pain and misery as a result. I certainly hope I’m wrong.
I do know plenty of folks will quite gladly wag a finger in my face and tell me if I am.
Roth: I hope you’re wrong, too. But all the evidence suggests otherwise. And I don’t think the fact that Trump won on a platform of subverting democracy and inflicting harm on lots of Americans means Democrats have an obligation or a strategic imperative to stay quiet while he does so. If anything, the opposite.
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