WHAT CAN CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS DO? FOR ONE THING, THEY CAN DO THIS.

We know that many Democrats in Congress are annoyed because their voters want them to do more. What can we do? they say. We're in the minority.

Here's something they can do.

Congressional Democrats with decent communications skills can get out there and talk about what, specifically, is being destroyed. They can make and post short videos telling Americans what we're losing, in real-world terms.

They can talk about this, for instance:

Half of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — a group known as the CDC's "disease detectives" — were among the cuts made Friday by the Trump administration....

The CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service or EIS officers are hired in annual classes through a competitive process.

As part of the fellowship, they serve for two years around the CDC or deployed to health departments across the country, often on the front lines of public health responses....

"The country is less safe. These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former top-ranking CDC official and alumna of the program, in a message.

Anthrax! Mosquito-borne illnesses! We've trained people to look at these diseases so we know what to do when we see them in America, or when they might be coming to America. Now -- with zero debate, in Congress or in the rest of the country -- Elon Musk has just decided to gut the program that does this training.

This is part of a massive staff cut at the Department of Health and Human Services -- roughly 5200 people. It's bad, and it's part of a massive wave of cuts to scientific research all over the country.

Democratic members of Congress could be making videos talking about this, maybe reporting on what's happening in their own districts.

Democrats in Congress could spread the word about stories like this one -- although this story is starting to break through:

The National Nuclear Safety Administration was struggling Friday to rehire some of the nation’s top nuclear specialists after they were fired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in an apparent massive mistake, according to reports that triggered security fears.

Sources told CNN that DOGE staffers apparently did not realize that the agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons stockpile when the employees were fired Thursday. The terminations were quickly rescinded Friday, CNN reported.

The workers were fired because “no one” had “taken any time to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation’s national security,” one source told CNN.

Or this:

The administration this week began aggressively laying off thousands of government employees across multiple agencies, hitting veterans hard....

A third of all federal employees are military veterans....

For an already understaffed VA, this is a disaster. Veterans’ medical care, disability claims, and support services depend on an adequate workforce. Slashing hiring ensures growing backlogs, worsening care, and increased suffering for those who rely on VA services. With an aging veteran population and an expanded VA mission under previous administrations, now is the time to invest in the VA, not gut it.

The makers of these videos wouldn't need to be sitting members of Congress. Maybe aspiring Democratic candidates could be the ones talking about what's going on.

At a time when many Americans no longer get their news from traditional news sources, Democrats could decide that they should be a news source for the public.

But the videos should be real and immediate. I don't always agree with the commentator who wrote the following posts, but he's right about the tone of Democratic messaging. He's talking about the Democratic response (or lack thereof) to the Eric Adams/Justice Department story, but he could just as easily be talking about the Democratic (non-)response to DOGE cuts.

Everyone is wrong about why Dem "messaging" sucks. It's not that it's not "simple" enough, or that it's not focused enough on this or that. It's that they are not engaging in the politics of the day. They're floating above it. They don't respond to things, and when they do respond, it's boilerplate.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM

Something happens, and then 24-72 hours later, some bedraggled Democrat drags himself in front of a camera to give a carefully workshopped statement about it. There's no sense that they're participating in the political day-to-day.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM

The DOJ thing has been the perfect illustration: there have been hourly developments, and Democrats just... missed them all. You and I have been able to follow along, simply by being on social media! You've probably read 1000 opinions on it by now. How many of those were from Dem electeds?

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM

All the "improved" messaging that people propose - daily press conferences, new messengers, blah blah blah - still have this same fundamental issue. They're broadcasts down to the commoners, trying to hit the right note to make the commoners feel like Dems are engaging with them.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:16 PM

But Dems could actually just engage! They could participate in the political discourse rather than treat it with fear and suspicion. They could respond to things in the same way ordinary political participants do, rather than carefully metering their interaction with the country they want to govern.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:17 PM

The problem here is that Dems are not acting like human beings. They are not acting like they care about any of this, or are part of any of this. They act like space aliens constantly looking for a new strategy to convince everyone they're a real human person.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:19 PM

I mean how is it possible that we just went through a profound 24-hour scandal and crisis in the Justice Department and we got... a handful of tweets? Eventually press release? Don't any of you have ANYTHING to say? You know, like a normal human might?

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:19 PM

Democrats complain about not getting attention, but they're in positions of massive power and would get attention naturally if they took part in society. The problem is that they conduct themselves with an astonishing degree of insularity. They keep quiet and communicate through little broadcasts.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:21 PM

Go to a place where good work is being done -- or was being done until Musk's goons showed up with their meat ax. Explain what we're losing. A side benefit of this is that you might communicate the message that Americans are actually getting something of value for their tax dollars. The predominant message about government spending for at least the past half-century is that it's all waste, fraud, and abuse. No one ever pushes back on that message. But Democrats could.

I know this won't happen. But the opportunity is there.