There was not a lot for Democrats to cheer about during Donald Trump’s not-quite-State-of-the-Union speech before Congress on Tuesday, or in the days since. He was predictably dark and unhinged; Democrats were predictably floundering in their response. (Some wore pink, while others waved wee signs with slogans like “Musk Steals” and “Save Medicaid.” Congressman Al Green was kicked out for heckling; ten members of his own caucus later joined Republicans in a vote to censure him.)
And so, again, those of us sickened and horrified by this administration were again stricken by twin despairs: That we are living through this moment, and that the Democratic Party is so spectacularly unprepared for it.
It is difficult to muster up anything other than despondency at the party’s impotency. But even as I want to scream, I know that I do not envy any Democratic politician in the second age of Trump. Advice on how to deal with his increasingly authoritarian government is often contradictory: Buckle down, but also obstruct! Move to the middle, but don’t alienate your donor base! Focus on governing, but you can’t govern so focus on messaging—and, also, the public hates your message so re-tool it!
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan—one of only two Democratic senators who won election in 2024 in a state where Trump also triumphed—gave her party’s formal response, and took quite a different tone than many of the Democrats in the chamber. Her competence, directness and reasonableness was a refreshing counter to the president’s angry, rambling puffery. She met the moment.
But Slotkin’s strategy is not the only path forward, and while she represents one model for Democrats, she shouldn’t—and can’t—be the only one. Trump has been in office for six weeks; trying to find the Democratic Party’s Next Great Hope is a waste of time, and a distraction from the real goal: Keeping American democracy afloat, and the U.S. government intact.
What Democrats need to understand is that the next four years will be less a marathon race than an entire Olympics—a series of moments, each of which demand different skills. Some will demand the kind of grounded coherence Slotkin offered on Tuesday. Others will demand much more aggression; others again, in the face of a farcical administration, a degree of theatrics.
The lesson is not that there is one, and only one, way Democrats must respond to Trump. The U.S. is an enormous country, and the average Democratic voter in Brooklyn is different from the average Democratic voter in rural Georgia, and different still from the average Democrat in Slotkin’s Michigan. You wouldn’t ask a Greco-Roman wrestler to take on the gymnast’s balance beam, after all. The lesson is that the responses—the many, many responses—must be calibrated to the moment. They must be purposeful. They must be smart.
One very obvious path forward for Democrats, and one that should please both institution-preserving moderates and resistance-demanding progressives, is also relatively simple: Behave with dignity and don’t back the crazy stuff.
Take, for example, Trump’s administration. His appointments are a joke. While the job of sitting senators is not to pick their own Cabinet members, they should draw the line at people who are nakedly unqualified for their roles. Telling Trump that no, he does not have your consent to further demolish the nation with a court full of jesters is every senator’s obligation. Too many of them—including Slotkin, who has so far voted to confirm eight of Trump’s nominees—have failed that test.
Across the board, the Democratic Party has significant talent among its ranks, including members who are able to capture the public’s attention, with varying levels of heft behind their communications abilities. Pete Buttigieg is so great on cable news he has redeemed debate club kids nationwide; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett remain social media favorites for their conversational, cut-to-the-chase approach. None of these figures is immune from misstep—just this week, both Ocasio-Cortez and Crockett appeared in a truly cringeworthy (and widely derided) TikTok video montage, one of many own goals the party has scored with its messaging—as if walking through a field of rakes and, wait, no, that’s a good meme! As a general rule, Democrats need to leverage their authentic talents without trying to perform for some imagined audience. Especially not when they’re desperately looking to regain their real audience.
They should double down on what they’re good at, whether that’s capturing the public’s attention in easy-to-follow missives or focusing on the details of lawmaking and the obscure rules of governance to limit the damage Trump and MAGA can do. What they can’t do is idle.
None of this is easy; if there was an obvious and failsafe path forward, Democrats would already be on it. But just as the American Olympics team has gymnasts and sprinters and boxers and fencers, those competing in the political arena also needs to excel on different playing fields and with different talents, but maintaining the same goal: Be the party of sanity, of competence, of popular policies, and of defending what’s actually great about the United States.
