I am furious at the Democrats. They are cowards who won’t stand up to a president grabbing as much power as he can. To a man who has literally portrayed himself as king and pope. To a man who says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

To be precise, I mean the office holders and leaders in the party. Voters have to choose a party if they want to vote in primaries, and they choose where they think they’ll have a positive effect. They don’t necessarily like what the leaders are doing. But I have utter contempt for nearly all the Democrats in Congress.

The Republicans in Congress are despicable, with rare exceptions like Rand Paul. They’re actively collaborating with Trump to enable abductions of people and maintain a fake “emergency” so he can impose ruinous taxes on us. But that’s not the topic here. The Democrats are supposed to fight this. They don’t feel like it.

Pete Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, opposes impeachment, saying, “But we don’t have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs, and so this is not an exercise that we’re willing to undertake.” Therefore he won’t do his job. I’ll give credit to Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar for introducing the articles of impeachment, especially knowing how little support he’d get. House Democrats Robin Kelly, Kweisi Mfume, and Jerry Nadler backed out of their support for the impeachment articles, apparently on orders from party leadership.

An impeachment effort is, of course, highly unlikely to clear the House, and it’s impossible that the Senate would vote to convict. The Republicans are too corrupt, and there are too many of them in Congress. But it’s obligatory for every member of Congress with integrity to state firmly that Trump is repeatedly engaging in grossly illegal actions and needs to be removed and give the reasons. It seems the number with integrity can be counted in the fingers of one hand.

Chris Pappas, the representative from my part of New Hampshire, is running for the Senate as a Democrat, and his public stance exemplifies the cowardice that runs all through his party. In a Bluesky post, he declares, “We cannot afford to fall into the trap of just being against what this President is doing. It’s on us to present a vision of something better.” In the accompanying video, he expands on this: “It’s not enough just to be against what’s going on right now. You have to be able to present a positive agenda. It’s about how we defend Medicaid and provide more access for people to get the health care that they need. How we protect Social Security …”

If this meant he wants impeachment and is also talking about other things, I could live with it. But the only references I can find to his supporting Trump’s impeachment are dated 2019. What the president is doing now is far worse than what he did in his first term; if he deserved it then, he deserves it more now. Yet Pappas is now silent on removing a rogue president.

For Pappas, defending the rights of Americans and the rule of law is not a “positive” issue. It’s a “trap.” The only issues he considers “positive” are maintaining and expanding a vast array of government handouts. Even if you grant the legitimacy of this position, it’s meaningful only if we maintain some degree of freedom. Money issues are secondary to maintaining a free society. I can recall exactly one instance where Pappas complained about the illegality of Trump’s actions; that was when Trump ordered the investigation of ActBlue, which provides Pappas with campaign contributions.

But he’s right in a way that defending America against a rogue president would be a “trap” for Democrats in Congress. For years before 2025, they’d been at least as busy as Republicans in expanding the power of the president. They’ve authorized presidents to conduct undeclared wars. They’ve declared emergencies which have lasted indefinitely. Executive Order 12170, which Jimmy Carter declared in 1979 over the Iranian hostage crisis, is still in effect, having last been extended by Barack Obama. If the Democrats said that the President should be limited to carrying out the laws and Congress should make them, they could be called out as hypocrites, and they might be held to their word if a Democrat is elected president in the future (assuming that remains possible).

The Democrats have been the party of taxing and spending and regulating as long as most living people can remember. If they said that Trump is ruining the economy with his taxes, they’d be wide open to “And what about you?” responses. I have a shirt that says “Make America follow the Constitution again.” How many members of Congress, Republicans or Democrats, can you imagine endorsing that? Besides Rand Paul, I mean.

The few exceptions stand out. Governor Pritzker of Illinois called for sustained defiance of Trump when he spoke in New Hampshire. I disagree with a lot of his positions, but for the same reason that the Democrats need to put reining in Trump first, I have to overlook some differences when looking for allies. Only a fool fights in a burning house.

There are days when I wish Hell were real. A lot of Republican and Democratic party leaders and office-holders belong there.