WHEREVER ARE DEMOCRATS GOING?

LISA LERER, NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, recently described “four categories to explain how to make sense of the fractured Democratic opposition.” I found her analysis particularly cogent. Here are tidbits gleaned from her 2:57 presentation.

“How Are Democrats Responding to Trump?,” by Lisa Lerer, Alexandra Ortasiewicz, and Laura Salaberry, The New York Times, March 23, 2025.

The Challenge. Lerer begins, “How do Democrats oppose the second Trump administration? No Democrats have the answer. It looks messy. It looks disorganized. It looks really leaderless.”

“But,” she says, “this is pretty normal for parties who are out of power, plunged into a political wilderness and seeking a way forward. They just have to try different things.”

Four Broad Categories. “We broke the approaches,” she observes, “into four broad categories. None of these are totally inclusive. But this is a way to understand what the Democratic Party is trying to do right now.”

Resisters. “This,” describes Lerer, “is a group of largely younger, more liberal Democrats who believe the Trump administration must be fiercely opposed at every turn. This can kind of be seen as a reboot of the tactics Democrats used during the first Trump administration.”

She cites Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, “who’s really emerged as a leader of this resistance movement.” I would include Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes and Representative Jasmine Crockett, whose putdown of “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch-body” Marjorie Taylor Greene (she, of Jewish space lasers) endears her to many—me included as exemplified here at SimanaitisSays.

Compromisers. “This,” Lerer says, “is a group largely made up of governors who’ve tried to find some common ground with the administration, both publicly and privately. Democrats in this camp argue that Trump did win the election, so voters are buying something that he’s selling.”

So far, it seems…. Though it hasn’t all hit the fan yet.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom of California,” Lerer notes, “once a standard-bearer for liberal Democrats, had done some really conspicuous outreach to the MAGA world.”

Sorry, Gov. But you may have just visited a metaphorical French Laundry once too often.   

Lawyers. Lerer says, “Democrats lost control of Congress and the White House in November, so the most effective way to really fight the Trump administration’s policies is through the courts. These are people like Letitia James of New York, Rob Bonta in California and Keith Ellison in Minnesota, Democratic attorneys general who prepared for months before the election to sue the Trump administration should Donald Trump win the presidency and now are enacting those plans.”

I find a good sign in Justice Roberts’ recent acknowledgement of our country’s three-part federal structure. Otherwise, the attorneys general haven’t a chance. And the country’s leading legal firms may be no match for the Queens felon and his mob. 

Pragmatists. “And finally,” Lerer recounts, “we have the pragmatists. This is where Schumer would fit. This group believes that they can’t possibly oppose everything the Trump administration is doing, so they have to select fights that are either politically favorable to them or where they can have an actual policy impact.”

“Schumer argued,” she says, “that shutting down the government would hurt Democrats politically and would actually give the Trump administration more power because they could just decide to never reopen the government at all.”

Far-fetched though this last point may seem, who would have guessed a year ago Trump’s abject sucking up to Putin, his lies about Ukraine invasion, his peddling cars on the White House South Lawn, or a non-elected Musk and his chainsaw?

Lisa Lerer’s Conclusions. “Even though it looks really messy,” Lerer concludes, “what we might be watching is the start of something new for Democrats, and maybe just the beginnings of a new political coalition that they’ll take into the midterms and beyond.”

Thanks, Lisa, for this thoughtful analysis. Let’s pray we can afford to wait for this “beyond.” And in the interim, count me among the Resisters. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com 2025