Democrats Don Hairshirts To Punish Themselves For Lack Of Civility As Trump Tears Down Entire Government

A plea to stop being polite and start getting ANGRY.

People who follow politics closely these days know that some new atrocity has leaked out of Donald Trump’s dumpy anus about every 15 seconds since he took power on January 20. This week it was, among other things, pretty much every single word of his Tuesday-evening address to Congress, including the articles.

As has been widely reported, Democratic leadership had told congressional members to sit and meekly listen to the speech like good boys and girls. The protests were supposed to be limited to such attention-getters as color-coordinating their outfits and holding up little Ping Pong paddles like they were bidding on a set of Mr. Ed novelty shot glasses at a charity auction.

What Democrats were forbidden to do was get into what John Lewis used to call “good trouble.”

To which Rep. Al Green said “fuck that” on Tuesday night, when he stood up in the middle of Trump’s speech and yelled at Lardo Calrissian that no, he did not have a mandate to slash Medicaid and end access to medical coverage for the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

For his bravery, Green was first escorted out of the chamber by security to the obnoxious cheers of the GOP cultists on the other side of the aisle. Two days later, he was censured by the House of Representatives.

Whenever a House member is censured, he is required to stand in the well of the chamber while the Speaker pronounces his punishment. In Green’s case, a whole bunch of his fellow Democrats stood up in the well and brought the process to a halt by singing “We Shall Overcome” until Mike Johnson, who is a weak and cowardly pus-bag, recessed the House. We fully expect censure resolutions to be filed at all the singers by next week as well.

But to add insult to injury, Axios has a report that certain Democratic congresscritters were chewed out by leadership in a “come to Jesus” meeting after the speech:

Jeffries, in a dear colleague letter ahead of the speech, urged a “strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.”

Trump's speech was instead rocked by constant heckling. Democrats held up signs and other props, and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was ejected.

In meetings and discussions with leadership this week, Democrats who heckled, walked out in protest or were otherwise disruptive were given a talking to about their tactics, sources said.

Granted, Wonkette refused to watch the fucking thing, but we feel like if there had been “constant heckling,” beyond silent ping pong paddles and one (1) Al Green interjection, we would have heard something about it. But never let facts get in the way of a good Axios piece! Republicans are now talking about kicking the Democrats who sang “We Shall Overcome” off their congressional committees. Jeffries at least put out a statemen on X calling Andy Ogles, the backbencher leading the effort, a “complete and total fraud.” Though that reads a hell of a lot angrier and more determined than it sounds in the video, in which Jeffries looks awkward and uncomfortable making the threat.

There was also some talk in the Axios piece that such misbehavior would never have been tolerated under Nancy Pelosi back during Trump’s first term. Oh, the same Nancy Pelosi who was so disgusted by all the lying in one of his State of the Union speeches that she literally ripped up a copy of the speech on camera while sitting behind him on the dais in the House chamber?

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Sure, Pelosi was big on decorum from her members. But even first-term Trump was not the hostile, full-fledged assault on the government that his second term has been. And we are in all of week seven. So perhaps Dem leadership COULD GROW MORE OF A FUCKING SPINE ALREADY, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.

Because with the caveat that we pay closer attention to this stuff than the vast majority of voters do, we really think the party is badly misreading the mood among the base of the party. We have recently talked with a couple of elderly acquaintances who are heavily into local Democratic politics, and they are Not Happy. And Editrix has some “normie wine-grandma friends” who have been Democrats for 70 years as were their parents before them and their children after, and they are making noises about going independent, which should embarrass the hell out of Democrats.

In short, people are angry. And they would like to see that anger reflected in the words and actions of their nominal leaders.

And it is the base of the party that Democrats should most want to see engaged right now, to get some momentum going into the midterms. Maybe you even sweep in a few previously unengaged folks who are now losing their jobs and their healthcare and their dependable weather forecasts and every other government service they have ever counted on and saying, “Wait a minute, who put Mr. ExplodeyRocket McGillicutty in charge of everything? Don’t we have a Congress to do ... anything?”

Instead, you have stuff like this:

A shutdown is now a week away, and all eyes are on Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.

Democratic leaders have insisted that, if they are going to help advance a spending bill, they’ll receive assurances that Trump will use congressionally appropriated funds for their intended purposes and that they’ll be treated as serious negotiating partners.

Christ, they sound like our niece when she was three and told us we weren’t allowed to pick her up anymore because she was a big girl now, and big girls don’t get picked up and carried around like babies.

There are like several thousand lawsuits working their way through the courts right now trying to force the Trump administration to spend congressionally appropriated funds for their intended purpose. Russ Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, sat in his fucking confirmation hearing and told senators to their faces that the president had every right to not spend said congressionally appropriated funds the way Congress directed and that he did not plan to do so. Republican congressmen and senators have stopped doing town halls in their districts because so many of their constituents are yelling at them about the actions resulting from this particular issue.

And it is Republicans who have majorities in both chambers of Congress! They should not need any Democratic help. If they must have Democratic votes to do literally anything — pass a continuing resolution, pass appropriations bills, restock the salad bar in the cafeteria — tell them to rein in the tsunami of illegality emanating from the White House and from Elon Musk’s squad of adult virgins first. Then you can talk.

“Stop doing illegal shit” seems to us like a fairly minimal ask!

Meanwhile, the Trump administration will keep on with its bullshit. It will continue to take over federal agencies and change the locks on the doors. (Literally.) It will continue trying to resegregate the military, for God’s sake:

[A] new memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), dated March 5th, 2025, directs all acquisitions executives through the military to stop including language which requires contractors to agree that they will not use segregated facilities as a condition of being a DOD contractor. [...]

This is a provision which dates back to 1965 and has been updated by a series of Executive Orders over the years adding additional forms of restricted segregation.

Well, just so long as Republicans are polite about it! While we’re at it, maybe Jeffries and Schumer could order Harry Truman’s moldering corpse to remain in its grave instead of clawing its way out and yelling “WHAT THE FUCK!!!”

Christ. Get it together, guys. Get into some good trouble. The people will respect you a lot more when you stop being such milquetoasts. You might even get your voters excited to support you, as alien a concept as that seems to be to you right now.

[Axios / CNN / TPM]

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