Passive Democrats Fail To Convene Emergency Meeting To Confront Trump’s Assault On Democracy

Interview with Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, conducted by Scott Harris

By Scott Harris and Alan Minsky, Between The Lines

Almost five months after taking back the White House, Donald Trump and his regime are working at a frenetic pace in a deliberate attempt to demolish the foundations of American democracy. From their unconstitutional dissolving of entire federal agencies; illegally firing tens of thousands of civil servants; deporting of migrants and even U.S. citizens without due process; conducting white supremacist-inspired attacks on diversity that’s erased the accomplishments of Blacks, Latinos, LGBTQ and women from federal websites, libraries and museums to making threats against judges and filing lawsuits, defunding and arrests — they are driven by revenge that’s targeting law firms, universities, news outlets, artists, politicians and anyone who dissents from MAGA’s authoritarian agenda.

All these tyrannical actions and more are occurring on a daily basis while the Democratic party, the nation’s major opposition bloc, is perceived by millions of Americans to be weak, disorganized and incapable of launching an effective response on Trump and the Republican assault on the rule of law and civil society. A recent poll found that only 27 percent of voters say they have a positive view of the Democratic party.

For several months, progressive groups RootsAction.org and Progressive Democrats of America have called on the Democratic National Committee to convene an emergency national meeting of its members, that is open to the public to strategize on ways to effectively confront “the predatory, extreme and dictatorial actions of the Trump administration.” Despite growing dissatisfaction among their base, the DNC’s executive Committee met on May 30 in Arkansas but took no action.  Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, who talks about what he believes Democrats must urgently now do to confront Trump and the GOP’s unconstitutional abuse of power.

ALAN MINSKY: Why the petition? Because we’re at a state of emergency where the Democratic party, I think, is going through its extended stretch of the lowest public opinion polls ever.

We’ve heard whisperings from sort of the consultancy class and the leaks. (Democratic party strategist James) Carville sort of said and then retracted, “Well, the strategy is just let Trump destroy the country and we’ll win the midterms because it’ll be so horrible.”

And I think that’s some of the general sentiment that people feel about the Democratic party. I think the base of the Democratic party is cognizant of the damage being done by Trump. And we’ve all seen Trump’s opinion polls themselves go down. Public opinion polling for the Republican party is not very high either, though it’s not as low as it is for the Democrats because of the MAGA base still supporting Trump.

But the response had been well short of heroic that there is an appetite among the Democratic party establishment to not really announced this as a, you know, catastrophic moment, but to go along to expect a victory in the midterms.

And that’s rather appalling considering the nature of the crisis. And I think that (Sen. Bernie) Sanders and the Fight Oligarchy tour are an absolute night and day contrast. People recognize that Sanders is taking his public policy platform out to the public. He is announcing that the great discontent with the political establishment that led to the election of Trump is not going to produce anything that will rectify the central economic and social concerns of the American people that his platform will and people are responsive to it.

But the Democratic party establishment, of course, is not supportive of the Sanders platform. And this speaks to a split within the Democratic party again, in which I think a minority faction that is supported by the majority of money that flows into the coffers of the Democratic party is at odds with the base of Democratic party voters. And this is why we are calling for an emergency session.

We think if the Democratic party, broadly speaking, not only stands up and makes clear to the American public about the nature of the constitutional crisis and the crisis for our political and entire social and economic system that we’re living in — the freedoms that we have assumed to be a part and parcel of life in America — are under threat and combine it with clarity, a set of economic proposals that will improve the lives of the average American.

But I can’t produce the same size of the deficit as what Trump is putting on the table right now. Arguably, of course, in a progressive Keynesian way, you’ll generate a larger tax base if you have generalized prosperity among the working class and the middle class, which, of course, is the proposal that we put forward.

Dissatisfaction with the cost of housing, the costs of college, the costs of childcare, the absolutely atrocious health care system and inhumane health care system we have in this society. These are not being addressed, only being made worse by Trump’s policies.

SCOTT HARRIS: So I guess the big question hanging over the Democratic party, given the fact that the leaders of the House and Senate basically remind us all the time that they don’t have any power in those bodies, they say, because they’re outvoted — but what would you have Ken Martin and the Democrats do at this point to try to dramatize the urgency of opposition to this authoritarian takeover we’re seeing proceed day by day, by the Trump regime.

ALAN MINSKY: The public wants to see a rebirth of the Democratic party. But look, what are the countervailing forces in the Democratic party? You know what they are.

And that’s that the party is largely split ideologically. We as progressives, we have to try to convince, cajole, persuade even careerist Democratic centrists to join with moving the party to the progressive left. The necessity of doing how it will be good for society, I imagine many of them will not follow with us, because they are committed to a Democratic party that raises all this money from corporate America and wealthy Americans who, of course, do not want to see a transformation of our socioeconomic system along more populist lines which would serve the average person.

We can convince the people in charge of the DNC to embrace it to show the public that the Democratic party will be responsive to their needs across the entire country from rural to rural America, small town America, to urban core, to people who are living precarious lives in the once prosperous suburbs. In other words, 80 percent of the population. And not prioritize an economic and social agenda that is a status quo agenda.

But it requires the mobilization and enthusiasm of the general public to engage with the Democratic party in that way. And a first step would be to call for an emergency meeting that we’ve asked to be called for.

For more information visit Progressive Democrats of America at pdamerica.org.

Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Alan Minsky (27:18) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. For periodic updates on the Trump authoritarian playbook, subscribe here to our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack newsletter to get updates to our “Hey AmeriKKKa, It’s Not Normal” compilation.

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