We Want
POST 1163
How Can Democrats Not Get This?
Reported by history Professor Heather Cox Richardson in her post of March 22, quoting Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) in 1950, speaking in opposition to the fascist smear campaign being conducted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI):
“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear,” she said. “As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.”
Senator Smith ended with a warning: “It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
Read Sen. Smith’s words again, now imagining a traditional Republican (if any are left) standing in the well of the Senate today speaking those words.
It feels good to hear of someone standing up to the fascist bully, right? What follows is in stark contrast to the courage of Sen. Smith.
From Jennifer Rubin in her Contrarian post of March 24, Cowardice and Capitulation Stain the Legacy of Once-Esteemed Mega Law Firm
[Law firm] Paul Weiss joins the list of institutions and individuals with ample resources to defend themselves, who nevertheless have refused to stand up for justice in the face of MAGA intimidation.
Chuck Schumer caved in to MAGA, too. He claimed that agreeing to the abhorrent Continuing Resolution that gave Trump everything he wants to destroy our democracy was better than voting it down. He said that if the CR were voted down, Trump could claim all the same things by fiat.
All together: “HUH?“
When courage for the fight was needed, Schumer caved.
And check out this AP headline:
ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
ABC could have won that idiot lawsuit, but they decided not to even fight. They caved. Capitulation as strategy.
What Paul Weiss, Schumer and ABC and so many others are doing is exactly what We The People don’t want them to do. Let’s focus now not on wimpy corporations, but on wimpy Democrats.
Democrats make reasoned choices and take sensible actions. They chant awkwardly to lead a crowd that ignores them. They call for bi-partisanship and make brave predictions that the sun will come up some day. They are everything their fathers feared they would become.
Brace yourself now, as I grab turf to speak to Democrats on behalf of We The People.
Democrats:
We Don’t Want
Your reasoned choices or your useless sunny weather predictions. The time for those politics ended 40 years ago. It was quite violently demolished 9 years ago. Those days are gone and so will you be if you keep acting like it’s yesterday.
.
Your pathetic, passionless talking points or your “We must” powerless verbal dribblings.
.
Your campaign platform of “Send me money and vote for me because I’m not Trump.”
.
Your lofty list of esoteric concepts that disrespect us by treating us like you think we’re stupid and which display your ignorance of what our lives really are like right now.
.
We Do Want
To know what you are doing – and what you will do – to restore our lives to something livable and to reclaim our America.
.
To know what you’ll do to make a middle class income sufficient for a family to live.
.
To know what you’ll do to ensure our safety in a world where competitors want to crush us and our way of life and replace us on the world stage.
.
And Most Of All
WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A SPINE!
.
WE WANT YOU TO PUNCH THE BULLY IN THE NOSE!
.
WE WANT YOU TO CRUSH HIS ARMY OF CRUELTY!
.
Is any of this unclear, Democrats? We want you to be strong, to stand up and to fight. We want you to stop hiding behind policy positions and talking points. We want you to charge into this street fight and win – not for your career –
FOR US – FOR WE THE PEOPLE!
.
You cannot win a street fight with reasoned policies or by talking the enemy bully into a coma. You have to punch him in the nose!
Let’s try this another way.
David Brooks recently wrote about Trump destroying our international relations and making us a pariah state. His paragraph below captures his point.
President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us — the stripping away of illusions, the exposure of an existential threat. The Europeans have realized that America, the nation they thought was their friend, is actually a rogue superpower.

Click me for the story
Now read Brooks’ first sentence again, slightly modified:
Democrats don’t seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you.
That’s what a 29% approval rating (or less) says about how people feel about Democrats.
Somebody has to tell me why this is hard for Democrats to understand and why they don’t even show up for the fight.
Someone has to tell me why they violate Prof. Timothy Snyder’s lessons about tyranny:
Rule #1: DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE. Obeying in advance is exactly what Paul Weiss and ABC did, when instead of fighting, they just turned over millions of dollars to Trump; then Schumer gave Trump his CR.
Rule #8: STAND OUT. Speak up. Take a stand. Take action. Democrats where are you and what are you doing?
We’re not at grandma’s birthday party. We are in an existential fight for our national life. Where are the Democrats with their knuckles bare, charging at our domestic terrorists and punching them in the nose?
WHO WILL LEAD?
-
TAKE ACTION
-
T
here will be a huge demonstration in DC on April 5 organized by Indivisible, 50-50-1, mobilize.us, Women’s March and many more organizations, all demanding of TrumpMusk, “HANDS OFF!“
The beauty is that you don’t have to be in DC to stand and be counted. There will be rallies that day all across the nation. Stand tall. Make your voice heard. Being passive is the same as making yourself a victim and losing everything. You don’t want that to happen.
Click here or on the map to the right to find a rally near you. Then SHOW UP on April 5!
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.
And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.
Thanks!
The Fine Print:
- Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
- There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
- Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
- Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
- Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
- Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
JA
Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.