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GELFAND’S WORLD - The last time some country attacked an American city it was Imperial Japan and it was 1941. Back here in 2025, the current president brags about attacking Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland. He even refers directly to “the enemy within,” a page out of the Joe McCarthy playbook, and defends the use of the U.S. military against his perceived enemy.
And there is the constant insulting and verbal abuse aimed at half of this country’s people. And while all of this is going on, the Republicans – including that most sanctimonious of elected officials, Speaker Mike Johnson – are complaining that the Democrats aren’t helping them to do their dirty work.
Well, he doesn’t call it dirty work, but – listen closely here – this obfuscation is really the point. The Republicans have violated every once-sacred tradition, going back to when Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court appointment from President Obama, and continuing through the present day. They continue to engage in abusive speech and abusive legislation and then pretend that it is fully justified. The Republicans are trying to create a different reality in which Democrats are portrayed as the enemy and they pretend to be our protectors. Democrats in the Senate have been inadequate in confronting this latest version of the Big Lie.
Meanwhile, those same Republicans are trying to take away medical care from our nation’s poorest people.
So why, I ask, would the Democrats in the U.S. Senate even begin to think about cooperating with the other party or their president. And I meant that last sentence in a literal way: Donald Trump makes clear that he represents and works for Republicans and those states that voted for him. Just the other night, the evening news showed a U.S. map highlighting states that voted against Trump – mainly on the coasts and Illinois – and explained that Trump is threatening to engage in mass firings of federal workers in these particular states. Trump makes clear that he is engaged in his own private war with those who have wronged him and with Democrats in particular.
OK, remember all that brave talk by previous administrations about how we don’t negotiate with terrorists? Don’t you think the Democrats in Congress should adopt the same policy? They should just stop meeting with Trump and talking to their Republican colleagues while the ICE invasions of American cities continue, while the verbal abuse continues, and basically while the Republicans continue to show attitude, where that word is used in the sense that big city gangs and cops use it. As long as the Republicans talk like they are some superior breed who get to lord it over their opponents, the opponents should refuse to play.
One more thought: You’ve probably been hearing about all those midwestern farmers who are suffering because they can’t sell their soy harvests. Let’s remember two things that are directly pertinent: a) China stopped buying soy from American farmers in response to Trump’s tariffs and b) the majority of farm votes went to Trump. So why, I ask, should the Democrats in the Senate lift a finger to help out those farmers without getting something in return?
And what should that be? For one thing, the Republican senators who represent farm states and are looking for financial aid for their constituents need to understand that this has to be a two-way street when it comes to negotiations. And the negotiations need to include serious talks – and real concessions – on the imposition of those tariffs, on other Democratic issues such as health care, and frankly on whatever else the people of the United States and their Democratic representatives desire.
(And by the way, why in the world should health care be only a Democratic issue, considering that more red state people use Medicaid than blue state people.)
The Democrats in the Senate ought to take a page from Nancy Reagan and Just Say No. Better yet, point out that it’s hard to have serious discussions with a president and congressional leadership that is doing its best to destroy the economy, put people out of work, and misuse the criminal justice system as just one more political tool. And when Donald Trump points out that the criminal justice system was used against him, hold a press conference to point out that this was because he was guilty.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected].)
