IT'S THE GOP, STUPID

What Axios describes here sure looks like a movement:

More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides said in interviews with Axios that their offices have received historically high call volumes in recent days....

* Aaron Fritschner, a spokesperson for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), said his office's phones have been "ringing off the hook without pause since we opened yesterday morning."

* On social media sites such as X and Bluesky, another aide said, "Every Dem is getting lit up by the neo-resistance folks being like 'do more.'"

... "We had the most calls we've ever had in one day on Monday in 12 years," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

* Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who has served in Congress since 1997, told Axios: "I can't recall ever receiving this many calls. People disgusted with what's going on, and they want us to fight back."

If the parties were reversed and this were happening at the start of a Democratic president's term, there'd be breathless coverage of the movement in the mainstream media, regardless of how popular the president appeared to be. Remember the Tea Party at the start of Barack Obama's term? The message of the coverage would be that Real Americans aren't on board with what the president is doing. But the movement Axios is describing is Democratic, so it will never be portrayed as the true voice of the people in the mainstream press.

Axios tells us that Democrats on Capitol Hill find this all rather annoying:

Some lawmakers feel their grassroots base is setting expectations too high for what Democrats can actually accomplish as the minority party in both chambers of Congress.

* Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Axios: "What I think we need to do more is: Put the onus on Republicans, so that the calls that we're getting are directed toward Republicans."

* "There has definitely been some tension the last few days where people felt like: you are calling the wrong people. You are literally calling the wrong people," said one House Democrat.

But the callers are simply doing what they believe will be most effective. Since Donald Trump's first term, Indivisible and other activist groups have told voters to limit their calls to their own representatives and senators.

Members of Congress don’t care what people outside of their district (for House) or state (for Senators) think. Remember, MoCs care first and foremost about getting re-elected—and the people who can cast actual votes for or against them are their own constituents. If you can’t vote for or against them in their next election, they don’t care what you think....

For example, if Senate staffers have the sense that most phone calls are coming in from out of state, they will tell their boss that. That gives the Senator a reason to dismiss call volume as the concern of “out-of-state troublemakers” (which they don’t care about) instead of the concerns of their actual constituents (which they should and most times do care about).

But maybe it's time to start ignoring this advice. Maybe we should be making life miserable for Republican staffers, too. Maybe we should lie about where we live. If a staffer asks for an address or a zip code, maybe we should be ready with a fake one.

I agree that some angry people don't understand how little power Democrats have. But why don't Democrats have power? Because Republicans never break ranks. Republicans nearly always vote in lockstep. This was true before Trump took over the party and it's true now. Occasionally Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski votes against a GOP priority, but only when the party can spare those votes, as in the case of the final vote on Pete Hegseth's appointment as defense secretary. When the final votes are taken on Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Robert Kennedy Jr., they'll all be confirmed.

But most Americans don't know that. They don't know that our Trump problem is actually a Republican problem, just the way they didn't understand that our failure to pass meaningful gun legislation after Sandy Hook was (and is) because Republicans won't budge on guns -- ever.

Why don't voters know this? Partly it's because the media doesn't report on it. The media treats Republican party-line voting as just a fact of life and not as a choice. Pundits scold Democrats for allegedly failing to understand the concerns of right-wing voters, but no one ever scolds Republicans for ignoring voters to their left.

And Democratic politicians regarly describe a world in which bipartisanship is possible. Here's a social media message from the Democratic leader in the House:

But that will never happen. Yet many voters don't understand that, in part because Democrats prattle on about bipartisanship and frequently praise the rare Republicans, such as Liz Cheney, who challenge the party orthodoxy on one or two issues. Every day, Republicans and the right-wing media blame Democrats and liberals for everything that's wrong in the world. Democrats attack Trump, but never talk about GOP lockstep voting. In fact, for all their willingness to be conciliatory, it's Democrats who have the reputation for ideological purity and extremism, while death-before-compromise Republicans are seen as less extreme, or extreme only because Donald Trump has intimidated them and compelled them to suppress their usual middle-of-the-road instincts.

I don't know what the solution to this is -- but issue polling and referendum voting make it clear that quite a few Republican voters disagree with their party on many issues. Abortion right referenda pass in red states. So do referenda aimed at increasing state minimum wages. Polling shows across-the-board support for higher taxes on the rich and some gun control measures. And in the present moment, the institutions Trump is threatening have strong support:

Democrats should name and shame the GOP. Who knows? Maybe Republicans' own constituents will start lighting up the phones.