The Political Castration of the Democrats

By: Maximo Legaspi

Members of the Democratic Party hold signs and participate in a silent protest against President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 2025 (Pete Kiehart for POLITICO)

We find ourselves in a time of great upheaval in the country.

With President Donald Trump at the helm, long-standing government institutions are in the process of being torn down, important alliances have been dismantled, tens of thousands of federal workers, integral to maintaining the efficiency of the nation, find themselves without jobs, and the stock market is on an ever-steady decline. 

Personal rights have also been continuously restricted over the past few years. Beginning with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, 19 states have now outlawed or restricted access to abortion.

Many international students and legal U.S. residents involved in protests against Israeli military action in Gaza have been detained, had their visas revoked, or have been deported since Trump took office. 

Efforts from the Trump administration have limited diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in both the public and private sectors.

Pages on the Department of Defense’s website that had tributes to American servicemembers like baseball player Jackie Robinson, Ira Hamilton Hayes, a marine of the Pima tribe who helped raise an American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the Tuskegee Airmen were mistakenly removed and eventually republished under a purge of content relating to DEI search terms. 

Additionally, the Republican Party continues to exert greater control over the government. Many high-ranking and important positions, such as the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Education, and more, are all filled by inexperienced and unqualified yes-men.

In recent weeks, many of these figures have shown dangerous levels of incompetence, with war plans being unintentionally leaked through the messaging app Signal by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a former newscaster with no government experience.

With control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, there’s little in the way of opposition for Republicans.

As their political opponents have exerted nearly free rein on the country, the Democratic Party has, on the whole, seemed to be quite complacent and even supportive in some cases. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently voted to allow a Republican spending bill to pass in the Senate, reneging on a past promise to block it. While he claims that he passed it to avoid “throwing America into the chaos” of a government shutdown, many see it as a bending of the knee to the current administration.

Dozens of other Democrats also helped to pass the Laken Riley Act, a border security measure that requires federal authorities to detain migrants involved in violent crimes. One can’t help but see a capitulation of sorts.

As Republicans become more conservative, Democrats trail closely behind, trying, in vain, to get more voters. The Democratic Party should not—and cannot—keep this trend up. The Republican Party is constantly granted blank checks in the name of finding common ground, and Democrats must be able to refuse.

Even the retaliatory actions from the Democrats come off as lackluster. Following a chaotic first month of the Trump administration, in which thousands lost jobs, were deported, and more, the Democratic Women’s Caucus decided to wear pink clothes to Trump’s address to Congress in March. Additionally, others carried small signs or wore stickers that decried key figures in the administration. A commendable action, yet it left many wanting a more concrete form of protest.

If, in the face of an increasingly far-right government, the best a majority of our elected officials can do is to change their wardrobe, how will they respond to worse threats? 

The Democrats are not incapable of meaningful protest. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was thrown out of the same speech for verbally interrupting the proceedings, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) recently completed the longest filibuster in U.S. history, giving a 25-hour speech in protest. There are other elected officials who are taking serious action, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who are hosting a series of anti-oligarchy rallies.

These, however, seem to be the exception rather than the norm. 

For all the posturing the Democrats do as the “party of the people,” they continue to let those same people down by barely putting up a fight in a pivotal moment in history. There is a degree of difficulty in getting things done in government, especially in a Republican-controlled one.

However, coming off of several years of growing discontent with the party and a disastrous loss in the previous election, the Democrats desperately need to show, both to themselves and to their voters, that they are still able to function as representatives of the people.