Lifelong Dems Ditch Party Over Inaction as Trump 2.0 Surges

Just a week into Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, prominent Democratic allies voiced their exasperation over the Democratic Congress’s tepid response to Trump’s recent unconstitutional, xenophobic, and discriminatory executive orders.

“Democrats in Congress: WHAT IS THE PLAN?” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, voiced her frustration on Monday.

Watts pointed to Trump’s recent dismissal of at least 12 federal agency inspectors general on Friday—a move that sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), yet resulted in minimal concrete action from party leaders.

“No sit-in? No filibuster? No guidance for voters? And actually, some of you are supporting Trump’s agenda?” Watts questioned, referring indirectly to Democrats such as Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who last week supported some of Trump’s Cabinet picks and the controversial anti-immigration Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation approved for Trump’s desk.

On the social media platform X, Watts, who typically identifies with the Democratic establishment, described herself as a “loyal ‘normie Dem.'”

Leah Greenberg, a former Democratic congressional staffer and co-founder of the grassroots group Indivisible, echoed Watts’s sentiment, which she noted is widespread among group members nationwide.

In his first week, Trump not only purged key federal officials but also pardoned over 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack, initiated an aggressive immigration crackdown in Chicago, and attempted to end birthright citizenship—a move promptly blocked by a federal judge as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Last week, as reported by Common Dreams, the Democratic Party’s reluctance to firmly oppose the now GOP-dominated Congress and White House has left progressive figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) calling for a bolder, more confrontational approach. During Jon Stewart’s podcast, “The Weekly Show,” she argued for a transformation within the party to genuinely represent working-class interests, a shift seemingly hindered by the party’s ongoing financial ties to corporate lobbyists and the ultra-wealthy.

Highlighting Ocasio-Cortez’s recent House floor opposition to the Laken Riley Act—which mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants accused of theft and allows state legal challenges to detain specific immigrants—Watts praised what she described as “the energy we need.”

The act was passed with 46 Democrats siding with Republicans in the House, and 12 in the Senate.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) faced criticism for his tepid summary of Trump’s first week, which one detractor likened to offering “thoughts and prayers.”

Civil rights lawyer Scott Hechinger criticized the Democratic response as insufficient against Trump’s actions, which he characterized as historically racist and fascist.

Watts, Greenberg, and Ezra Levin, also a co-founder of Indivisible, have urged voters to pressure their representatives to adopt a more assertive stance against the Republicans, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo emphasized last week. He suggested that Democrats should not be courting potential GOP defectors with mild criticism but should instead intensify their opposition to make GOP support costly at the polls.

“The job of the opposition is quite literally to oppose,” Marshall noted. “Get to it.”

Greenberg on Monday stressed the importance of constituents demanding action from their Democratic representatives to overcome their apparent fear of Trump.

“It would be amazing if we had a party of principled, authentic leaders who could oppose without needing constant prodding from us,” Greenberg stated. “We do not have that right now! So we need to keep pushing them!”

Contrary to some media reports, Levin indicated that voters nationwide are motivated to challenge the Trump administration and insist Democratic leaders do the same.

“At the Chicago Indivisible meeting I attended yesterday, not only was the main theater full, but so was an overflow room,” Levin reported. “In North Carolina, where Leah Greenberg was yesterday, there was standing room only. Since the election, we’ve seen about 250 *new* Indivisible groups start, and leaders are reporting a surge in membership.”