Opposition town halls
In recent weeks, Republicans have encountered anger and hostility from their constituents during town hall events, including in pretty solidly red states and congressional districts. Much of the hostility has been directed at Elon Musk. Internally, the party leadership has responded by instructing members of Congress to stop holding town halls. Externally, they've preposterously claimed that these events have been infiltrated by paid protesters.
As a born-and-bred Midwesterner, I'd say that the folks in this video look pretty Kansan to me.
In the wake of Republicans canceling these events, a few Democrats " including Bernie Sanders, Tim Walz, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez--have offered to host town halls in districts and states where Republicans are no longer holding them.
This is a terrific idea. I'd imagine the first several would be newsworthy enough to generate earned media, but they should also stream and promote them anyway. The party should send its best communicators to hold these events in red districts and states--in addition to the three above, I'd suggest Pete Buttigieg, Jay Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, and Julian Castro.
Daily briefings
The public craves information in times of crisis confusion, and we tend to gravitate toward the politicians and public officials who provide it. Rudy Giuliani's popularity soared after September 11 because of his empathetic, straight-talk press conferences. Ditto for Andrew Cuomo during the earliest days of Covid. That both proved to be terrible public servants--and worse human beings--only underscores the point. If even the most unlikeable politicians can earn public trust by simply providing information and making themselves available, imagine what a likable politician can do.
The Democrats should assemble a rotating mix of trusted, high-ranking politicians--in addition to the people already named, I'd suggest popular governors like Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer--to hold regular briefings to inform the public about what Trump and Musk are doing. Stream these briefings on every social media platform. They could be as frequent as daily at first, then adjusted accordingly.
As I think I showed in my previous post summarizing just five days of Trump's madness, this administration is jamming our capacity to process information with a relentless barrage of destructive policies. They've made it impossible for normal people with normal lives, jobs, and families to keep up. It's all by design.
The shadow cabinet
In other Western democracies, the opposition party typically assembles a shadow cabinet to track and monitor what the party in power is doing. The Democrats should adopt this tradition.
Trump's cabinet isn't just the least qualified in U.S. history, it is aggressively unqualified. Unfortunately, holding office also lends built-in credibility, whether it's deserved or not. Designating someone as a vetted expert who speaks for the minority party for a given policy area can help overcome that built-in credibility. In our current hellscape, picking competent, experienced people to talk about these issues would also remind the public of what a credible government--or at least something better than an assertively incompetent one--looks like.
