Message to Democrats: Drop the A-Words

I venture into politics only occasionally on this blog — and maybe with good reason. A friend recently reminded me of a post I wrote last December, not long after Trump’s reelection, in which I enumerated “10 Reasons Not to Despair About Trump’s Second Term.” That column, to put it mildly, hasn’t aged well. Trump’s bulldozing power grab in the first nine months of his second term has exceeded anything I could have imagined. 

Democrats, meanwhile, seem to be flailing. The sheer barrage of Trump’s offenses and outrages — the “flood the zone” strategy — has simply been too overwhelming for the party to settle on a consistent line of attack. And with the crucial midterm elections almost exactly one year away, they need to. So, herewith, my annual Unsolicited Advice to Democrats on Messaging column. 

Current conventional wisdom argues that Democrats should downplay their high-minded attacks on Trump’s violation of democratic “norms” and the “rule of law,” and to focus instead on the bread-and-butter issues that affect everyday working-class voters: inflation, health care, the damaging cutbacks in federal programs that Americans depend on.  

I disagree. Yes, rising grocery prices and health-care costs are important issues that play well for the Democrats. But the party needs, in addition, an overarching message that yokes together everything Trump is doing to undermine our democratic system and values: from sending military troops into American cities, to threatening jail for his political opponents. In the process, Democrats can begin to take back the mantle of patriotism that has been so distorted and exploited by Trump and his MAGA movement.  

Messaging, as always, is key, and my first suggestion is to replace the A-words with the D-words. To be sure, Trump is an aspiring Autocrat, who is steadily turning the country into an Authoritarian state. But those terms, I fear, are too vague and academic to have an impact with most voters. (Aren’t Presidents supposed to have authority?) 

No, it’s time to switch to a more concrete, visceral, instantly recognizable term: For the first time in nearly 250 years of American history, the country is being ruled by a Dictator. One who, like no other leader in our history, is trying to dismantle our Democracy — another abstract term, to be sure, but one that no American has trouble understanding. It means that, when it comes to deciding how to run the country, we get a say. 

Trump’s policies can be open for debate, but what’s indisputable is that, with a compliant Congress and an Administration full of lackeys, the only person with a real say is Donald Trump.  He tramples on precedents, defies the laws, overrules Congress, even (so long as his lawyers can keep the plates spinning) ignores the courts. Which leaves voters with the best chance of putting up some guardrails — by electing Democrats to recapture at least one house of Congress in next year’s midterms. 

Every Congressional race, of course, is a local contest with its own political dynamics. But the Democrats have on obligation to pound home, over and over again, the national implications common to all: perhaps our last chance to put some restraints on a dictator whose anti-democratic agenda is evident in virtually every action he takes or edict he utters: 

• Does a President have the right to round up illegal immigrants and send them to foreign prisons, without a chance to defend themselves in court? No, but our current dictator does it anyway. 

• Can a President order his Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies, while he issues to pardons to convicted felons who support him? Beyond the pale for any President, but not this dictator.  

• Is a President allowed to make money off his office? No, the Constitution says, but that hasn’t stopped our dictator-in-chief from cashing in shamelessly — and even demanding a $230 million payout from the government, in compensation for his legal expenses. 

• Can a President tell universities what to teach and what students to accept; threaten to withhold federal aid for cities and states that don’t support him; blow up boats in the Caribbean merely on the suspicion that they’re smuggling drugs; cancel federal programs and fire government workers at will, in defiance of Congress; or suddenly, with no advance warning or approval, tear down an entire wing of the White House to build a gilded showpiece for entertaining rich friends and donors? For any other President, unthinkable. For this dictator, it’s easy-peasy.  

Indeed, that shot of the demolished East Wing of the White House should be the visual theme for the 2026 election year — the perfect metaphor for Trump’s brazen, self-aggrandizing, unchecked campaign to dismantle virtually every element of our democratic system. And voters can help put on the brakes. By all means, continue to challenge Trump on health care, deportations, tariffs. But don’t let voters forget the overriding choice that the President makes plain almost every day: Do you want to live in a democracy or a dictatorship?  

I may be too idealistic, but I think voters will choose democracy. And at a particularly critical time for this democracy, it would be a nice 250^th birthday present.