President Donald Trump's threat to commit war crimes in Iran has left the public screaming at Democrats to do something.
Just look at the responses to Democratic lawmakers’ criticism of Trump’s latest disturbing threats; they’re filled with leftists demanding action from Democrats and slamming their statements as weak and ineffective.
But, sit down while I tell you this, that anger is severely misdirected and wildly unhelpful to actually stopping Trump.
Rather than blame Democrats for “not doing something”—as many on social media accounts have been doing since Trump issued his threat—the public's anger should be directed at Republican lawmakers, who have both the House and Senate majorities and thus the actual power to stop this insanity.
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes is seen in the town of Kara, Iran on April 3.
“Every single person in this country needs to be calling Republican members of Congress and senators relentlessly today. Of all of the issues that have come up over the last year, all have been devastating, but we're talking about the potential for nuclear war here,” Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona told MS NOW. “That is the language that Donald Trump is using, and we should not pretend that it's not.”
If Republicans refuse, as they likely will, then every drop of anger over the atrocities that Trump commits in Iran should be directed at the GOP.
Demanding successful action from Democrats—who are in the minority, do not control any levers of the federal government, and can’t do anything but criticize Trump and the GOP—unfairly cements the idea that Democrats are weak and the ones to blame.
And let's be fair, Democrats are trying to do something.
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Dozens of Democrats have called on Trump's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to stop a deranged Trump from carrying out his genocidal attacks in Iran. Others have said that Trump should be impeached and removed from office.
Congressional Democrats have also forced multiple war powers resolutions to the floor for a vote to try to stop Trump's hostilities by requiring proper congressional sign off. But since Democrats are in the minority, those resolutions have failed.
Also because Democrats are in the minority, impeachment won't happen. Nor will the caucus of sycophants in his Cabinet dare to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Insisting that anything that Democrats say or do will change that reality is nonsense, and it won’t help in the necessary mission at hand, which is to defeat Republicans in the midterms so Democrats actually have the power to stop Trump.
A cartoon by Clay Bennett.
“Everyone can (rightly) call for impeachment and the 25th amendment all we want, but—as ever—Trump will remain in office because Republicans want him there,” political commentator Jon Favreau wrote on X. “Their party must be annihilated in the next election, and the election after that. It’s the only way.”
At the end of the day, Americans stupidly voted Trump into office with a GOP House and Senate. Now those Republican majorities are allowing Trump to carry out his destructive policies unchecked.
That's the GOP’s fault, not Democrats’.
Anyone screaming at Democrats to do something needs to explain what, exactly, they think that Democrats can do at this point. And without a convincing answer to that question, they need to stop with the Democrat-blaming nonsense.
Too much is at stake for that garbage.
