Democrats in the U.S. Senate just handed Donald Trump’s GOP a great gift: an end to the government shutdown that had, just days before, been a key factor driving Republican election losses across the country. In other words, Democrats saved Republicans from themselves — and did so without winning anything in return that could be explained, clearly, to the American people.
It’s part of a pattern in which congressional Democrats seem incapable of functioning like the opposition party that we are. The modern-day, MAGA Republican Party is in charge of every part of the federal government. And, unlike in 2017, when Republicans last controlled the House, Senate, and the presidency, this time they had a playbook ready to go and a commander in chief eager to sacrifice democratic rule for absolute power.
Consider what we’ve seen in the last month alone: extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean in a fabricated drug war with Venezuela; vindictive and meritless prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey; weaponization of the federal budget to punish blue states during the shutdown; the unnecessary and unwanted deployment of the National Guard in American cities; and the bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House.
Anyone who thinks we are in a negotiation with Donald Trump and the Republican Party he fully controls about the reactionary agenda they are pursuing has, well, lost the plot.
What we should be doing, instead, is throwing sand in the works at every available opportunity, and making it absolutely clear that Democrats stand in opposition to the chaos, corruption, and damage being perpetrated by Trump and his sycophants in Congress.
Here are concrete strategies that House Democrats can and should use, right now, to fight back:
First, joint resolutions can force Republicans in Congress to vote on controversial Trump directives. Every one of Trump’s emergency declarations — which he has used to justify many of his illegal executive orders — can be fought with a privileged joint resolution that requires votes from the full chamber. Even if we lose a vote, the debate itself — and forcing each Republican representative to go on the record — is a win.
Second, we need to find issues that divide the Republican Party and then use a procedural mechanism, the discharge petition, to exploit them. Discharge petitions supported by a majority of members force a vote by the entire House. The discharge petition to release the Epstein files is a good example. As Trump and his authoritarian agenda grow increasingly unpopular, Democrats should seek out more opportunities to pry Republicans away from their party and onto discharge petitions.
Third, we should use the Rules Committee to slow the Republicans down. A major asset that Republicans are capitalizing on is speed. The faster they move, and the faster they are able to jam bills through the legislative process, the less time the American public has to fully digest the consequences.
Unlike the Senate, the House doesn’t have a filibuster mechanism. But representatives do have the power to add an unlimited number of amendments in the Rules Committee to every single toxic Trump bill — and each Democrat can spend five minutes making the case for them. With 213 Democrats, that’s a lot of time we can use to delay things and expose vulnerable Republicans.
Fourth, we should use what’s known as the “Magic Minute” more often. This procedural tool gives the minority leader unlimited time to speak on any bill on the House floor. It’s the tool that Hakeem Jeffries used for his record-breaking speech against the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill,” and that Nancy Pelosi used to speak for eight hours against Trump’s assault on Dreamers. We may need to ship Leader Jeffries throat lozenges and herbal tea, but this moment demands more “Magic Minutes.”
Finally, we need to expose Republicans’ inability to govern by uniting Democrats as a party and refusing to lend our votes to a MAGA majority that won’t negotiate in good faith. That’s what was happening in the shutdown fight before Sunday night, and it was working. Going forward, we should be prepared to do this relentlessly — and without apology.
These are tools the Democrats can and should be using, right now, to fight the Trump regime. Let’s end any confusion about who’s in charge, and let Republicans pay the price for failed governance at the ballot box — which is, ultimately, the way we can save our country and our democracy.
Lasher is an assemblyman from the Upper West Side who is running for Congress next year.
