Moulitsas: Resisting is key for Dems

Last week, in the wake of an appellate court’s utter rejection of the Trump regime’s Muslim ban, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) spiked the football: “We just saw him in court and he got beat. He got thumped.”

With energized Americans rising up by the millions to resist the ruling Republicans, exulting in popular-vote loser Donald Trump’s humiliation was the pitch-perfect response.

{mosads}Yet back in Washington, D.C., the Democrats’ top elected official, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), resorted to the same loser playbook that has put his party into such a predicament. 

“Pres Trump ought to see the writing on the wall, abandon proposal, roll up his sleeves & come up w/ a real, bipartisan plan to keep us safe,” he tweeted, working hard to demobilize and demotivate the resistance movement. No one wants to see Trump roll up his sleeves and do anything. The less he does, the better our chances of surviving his tenure — both figuratively and literally.  And really, who does Schumer think he’s impressing with “bipartisan” talk?

Former President Obama spent most of his tenure preaching bipartisanship, yet it was the GOP’s relentless opposition that paid political benefits, netting the party the bulk of state houses and legislatures nationwide, as well as control of Congress. Obama Democrats argued the president was the “adult in the room,” but it was the children who reaped the benefits. Democrats argued that “when they go low, we go high.” And the inmates took over the asylum.

Beltway editorial boards and columnists might be impressed by “reaching across the aisle,” but there isn’t a single voter suddenly motivated to abandon Trump because of Schumer’s appeal to bipartisanship. There isn’t a single nonvoter who now finally has a reason to head to the ballot box, thanks to Schumer’s “bipartisan plan.”

And why would a Democratic senator indulge in Trump’s fantasy of a lawless nation under assault? Contrary to Trump’s “alternative facts,” our nation’s murder rate is the lowest it has been since 1963, and there hasn’t been an epidemic of terrorist attacks covered up by the media — not in Bowling Green nor anywhere else. Not a single refugee has carried out a fatal terrorist attack in the United States since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, and beforehand, only three fatal terrorist attacks were carried out by refugees—and all three were right-wing Cubans. Trump’s ban would not have prevented the attacks on 9/11, or in San Bernardino, at the Orlando Pulse nightclub or at the Boston Marathon. So why pretend we need to change our already tough immigration system to deter threats that have never materialized?

The reality is Trump is wrong about the problem and wrong about the solution. Pretty much, he’s wrong about everything, and in the most hateful, vengeful and harmful ways possible. It isn’t just Democratic voters who see this. The latest Gallup poll gives Trump a 40 percent approval rating among all Americans, down from only 46 percent after the inauguration. Republicans were smart enough to wage all-out war against Obama when he was popular, why would Democrats want to play nice with Trump when he’s already radioactive?

The Democratic base—the people itching to sweep the GOP out of power in 2018 and 2020—aren’t interested in bipartisanship. They are interested in fighting, in resistance, and in steadfast opposition. 

Schumer can join the resistance and ride the wave, or he can get the hell out of the way for someone who will.

Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.