Subject: Re: Schumer's book tour postponed
If I read you correctly then, you think there is nothing that can be done for the next two years (at least) to change the trajectory, or at least ameliorate the worst excesses of what is happening?

There's lots of stuff to be done, but very little of it involves anything that Democratic members of Congress do on the floor of the House or Senate. They're out of power. They don't can't stop anything that doesn't "automatically" get stopped by the existence of the filibuster. Which is a ton of stuff, BTW, but because of the way the modern Senate rules are set up it doesn't require the Democrats to actually do anything. If the filibuster wasn't there, the GOP would be rewriting everything.

But they don't have power. The Democrats' strategy should not be worrying about, "How do we exercise the power we have?" - because they don't have any. It should be nearly entirely focused on "How do we get political power back?" The Democrats can't really alter what's going to happen in the next 22 months by the formal exercise of their authority as officeholders, because they have lost the last elections. That's what happens when you lose elections - you don't get to write the bills, you don't get to control the executive, you don't get to issue subpoenas, you don't get to have votes that matter. Political will is irrelevant when you're that far in the minority. The Democrats don't get to affect what happens in Congress over the next two years, other than forcing the GOP to unify their House majority and the omnipresent block of the filibuster.

Democrats should instead be working as hard as possible to change the political environment so they can win in two years. I've mentioned this from time to time, but IMHO literally the most important and consequential thing the GOP did to help themselves in both the 2022 and 2024 elections had nothing to do with Congress or even Trump. It was Gov. Abbott's initiation of busing migrants to blue cities in early 2022. The GOP changed the mind of the electorate. They had to endure two years of the Democrats being able to pretty much do what they wanted within the boundaries of the filibuster - but they released their centrist members to cross the aisle and support popular measures like the BIL and CHIPS Act, and worked to create conditions where they could win the midterms. They didn't fight in Congress - they fought in the electorate.

So do that. Go out and change minds, not engage in wishful thinking that there's an opportunity to resist what the GOP is doing over the next year. Set up an environment where Mike Johnson is genuinely concerned about losing the majority in the midterms so that he has to support his centrist members. Create a context where Trump is worried about losing the House, so that he trims his sails a bit on what he does and asks for. Engage in politics, not parliamentary fiddling that doesn't do much if you're in the minority in your Chamber.