Do Something!
An open letter to congressional opposition leaders Schumer and Jeffries
To:
Sen. Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader)
Cc:
Sen. Gary Peters (MI)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (MI)
Rep. Hillary Scholten (MI-03)
Dear Senator Schumer and Representative Jeffries,
I’m writing to you as the leaders of the opposition party in Washington, D.C., where Republicans control the White House, both chambers of Congress, and the Supreme Court.
My husband Andrew and I are Michigan voters; we own a home in Rep. Scholten’s district in Grand Rapids. However, since 2022, we have lived in Milan, Italy. We are two of millions of U.S. citizens who live outside the United States.
Over the last decade, Andrew and I have raised and donated a lot of money to help elect Democratic candidates up and down the ballot—including the three folks cc’d here. I don’t say that to congratulate ourselves; we love our country and were happy to do our part.
Democrats have been saying for years that Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and our freedom. I believed them when they said it, and I believe it to be true now more than ever. Do you? Because you certainly don’t seem to be acting like it.
We are in a national emergency. START ACTING ACCORDINGLY!
Trump is openly attacking and extorting our Ukrainian ally, while brazenly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. This behavior is transparently against American values and American interests, and it endangers all of Europe—particularly Poland, my husband’s country of origin, where many of our family and friends still live.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL, and I do not understand why the response from Democrats in Congress has been so weak. If this isn’t your red line, what is?!?
Donald Trump is doing this in my name. And he’s doing it in your name, quite literally, since every single Democratic senator voted to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Is this what you voted for? Are you okay with Rubio “negotiating peace” with Russia when Ukraine and Europe aren’t even allowed at the table? If not, what are you doing about it?
We all just lived through a long campaign where Trump literally said he would be a dictator on Day 1, and where his radical plans for a second term were published in the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page “Project 2025” document. Did you read it? Did you prepare, even a little bit, for January 20th and the days to follow? Because I’ve got to tell you, what I’ve seen from you over the last six weeks as the opposition leaders is pathetic. You appear to be utterly unprepared to meet this moment of crisis in our country, as Trump positions himself as a king while betraying our global allies, including our neighbors to the north and the south.
From outside the D.C. bubble, it looks like you’ve brought a spatula to a gun fight. People’s lives are on the line! Stop playing politics as usual! Press releases and MSNBC appearances and subcommittee meetings are not going to cut it. Waiting for Donald Trump to “screw up” is not a plan. Waiting for the courts to save us is a fool’s errand. Focusing all your attention on retaking the House or Senate in the 2026 midterm elections—assuming free and fair elections are even still possible by that point—is too little, too late.
Rise to Meet the Moment
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Every day of Trump 2.0 is a five-alarm fire from dawn to dusk, and it’s happening on your watch. So we need you to do something dramatic to change the narrative, to give people a reason to sit up and pay attention. And you need to do it NOW.
You are the guardrails of our democracy. NO ONE ELSE IS COMING TO SAVE US. It’s you. And you are running out of time. Ukraine and Europe are running out of time. We are all running out of time.
We live in an attention economy, so you need to hijack people’s attention. (That means EVERYONE’s attention. Not just high-information voters like me.) You have to find ways to wrest the spotlight away from Trump and Elon Musk and onto you. You need to get Democrats onto the front pages of newspapers and magazines worldwide. You need to be the lead story for every evening newscast, every political podcast. You need to convince Americans at home and abroad, as well as people of goodwill worldwide, that there actually is a viable opposition party in the United States that understands the severe gravity of this situation and is willing and able to fight hard for what they believe in and what our country has historically stood for.
As Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark often says, Democrats need to learn to fight like Republicans. You need to be willing to ruthlessly wield every ounce of power you possess. You need to be strong. You need to be nimble. You need to be loud. And you need to be everywhere.
I know there are limits to what you can do as the minority party. But you are in the literal halls of power, and short of Trump and Musk, you have perhaps the biggest platforms and microphones in the world right now. Use them.
Rally your colleagues. There are 215 of you in the House, 47 of you in the Senate. You can make a LOT of good trouble with that much people power.
I’m no political expert, but here are some ideas:
Use Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night to change the conversation! For starters, you could show visual solidarity with Ukraine by having half of you wear blue, the other half yellow. You could stand up and turn around in your seats in protest when the President repeats his truly insane lie about Ukraine starting the war. Or maybe all of you should walk out in protest, and then stand together and speak to the cameras about why what Trump is saying and doing is wrong, and why you are fighting back. (Or, as Brian Beutler suggested today, maybe Democrats should skip the address entirely in a dramatic bid to drive home to the American people that THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES and that they need to pay closer attention.)
Grind routine Capitol business to a halt. Use the power of peaceful protest to grab eyeballs. Lock hands and encircle threatened offices. Stage a mass sit-in to protest the cruel, haphazard, and dangerous cuts being made to our federal workforce. Let the D.C. police arrest every Democratic member of Congress for civil disobedience on live television.
When Speaker Johnson comes to you for help in funding the government, as he almost certainly will in the next week or two, name your price—and let it be a very high price indeed. Use your leverage to roll back some of Trump’s most alarming moves before you’ll give Johnson even one Democratic vote. And then talk everywhere about how you used your power to minimize some of the harm Trump and Republicans are doing. Show people how it’s done. Lead the way.
Or, Don’t
If you think this just isn’t what you signed up for when you got into politics, or if all of this just sounds like too much, or if you’re just too tired and you don’t have that much fight left in you, then fine. But don’t just be a butt-in-the-seat until the end of your term. Step down NOW from your leadership positions and let someone with the talent, passion, and tenacity step up and lead the opposition. I’m completely serious.
I do not expect to see another six weeks like the six we’ve just endured. It’s (past) time for you to lead, or get out of the way. And if you don’t, I’d remind you of the energy rightwing Tea Party activists brought against Republicans 15 years ago. Democratic voters can do the same to you in 2026. They toppled Eric Cantor; we can certainly topple Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. And it won’t be a case of Democrats eating their own; it will be Democrats fighting for the very survival of their party and their country.
History is Watching
The stakes are incredibly high, and the whole world is looking on—including my and Andrew’s family and friends in Poland, in Lithuania, in France, in the UK. People all across Europe—most of whom love America, by the way—are standing up and speaking out in support of Ukraine and against Russia. People are angry, they’re afraid, they’re bewildered.
Two weekends ago I was in Prague, where a huge rally of thousands convened in the main square. Tears welled in my eyes as the march passed us by.
Right now, though things are dire, America still has a government of the people. We cannot let the ship go down on our watch. I am aware that the situation is grave, that the odds are long, and that despite our collective efforts, we may not ultimately win this war. But we have to at least give it everything we have.
So Senator Schumer, Representative Jeffries: We are looking to you for leadership. We are doing our part. Now you need to do yours. Start playing hardball, today.
History is watching, and it will remember you, for better or worse.
A fellow W@W Mastermind attendee, checking in, Michael. Schumer's time as Leader is done. Jeffries is a HUGE disappointment.
It's hard to know what it takes for them to get it when people internationally are protesting every day. Sadly, this inaction is one of the worst qualities of the Democratic party.
I have two SS publications, yet a solid 30% of my day - every day - is spent using my voice to defend our Constitution.
I was highly encouraged this week to read Mark Carney's strategic purchase of U.S Treasury bonds as a way of silencing Dump and eliciting his respect. Brilliant. Solid evidence that what we're doing internally has a structure internationally.
Have you received any responses to your efforts so far?