Half of the country is asking: Where is the resistance?
Are only governors invited? How long will it take — until the midterm elections? Be prepared, for Trump has a real playbook, and I've got an idea that he has no intention of allowing any more elections.
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Robert Booth
Gloucester
We can't wait till the midterms for Democrats to meet this challenge
As I watch Donald Trump dismantle the very foundations of our democracy, I see no coordinated strategy or tactics to confront and resist what is happening. Recently, a judge ordered Trump not to deport more than 200 immigrants, most of them Venezuelans, to El Salvador.
This leaves me with a question: How will the minority party in Washington respond? Clearly, the Senate capitulated to the Trump regime when it passed the Republican-led spending bill. This was a lost opportunity for Democrats in the chamber to make a clear statement, even if it risked a government shutdown: We do not approve or support your onslaught against what has truly made America great.
So now what? Time is ticking on.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said on 'Meet the Press,'
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Jacqueline Ducharme
Wayland
The DNC needs a 'war room'
In recent weeks, the national Democratic Party has shown itself to be disorganized, fragmented, and easily bullied by MAGA. The answer? The party needs a 'war room.' Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin needs to step up and get his people in line. I'm thinking of a central, physical room at the DNC where every move by the MAGA movement would be anticipated and tracked and countermeasures crafted.
Every Democratic leader in federal and state government, major donors, and other stakeholders must be plugged in and compelled to participate. At President Trump's State of the Union address to Congress, the Democratic posture and response should have been planned and organized. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries should have been the 'general' in charge of the troops. Likewise, the Democratic position toward the stopgap spending bill vote should have been articulated weeks ago.
Trump is very good at maintaining party discipline. MAGA is a formidable force, and except for some setbacks in federal courts, the party is breaking every barrier. It's time the Democrats stopped acting like children and showed the same backbone.
Thomas Hauck
Gloucester
Schumer was right to avoid a government shutdown
I agree with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer regarding his vote to advance the House-approved funding bill and avoid a shutdown of the government ('Democrats shift, and shutdown is averted,' Page A1, March 15).
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A shutdown would have hurt people who collect Social Security, SNAP benefits, veterans benefits, and other government entitlement programs and services, and would have caused a political backlash.
The best strategy for Democrats is to let Trump dig his own political grave. The shovel has already hit the ground. Stock market gains since the election have been wiped out, and even Trump acknowledges his tariff wars may bring on a recession.
Democrats need to be patient. The political reversal in congressional elections, which almost always occurs in the midterm of a new administration, is highly likely.
Leonard Golder
Stow
The writer was a Democratic candidate for the House in 2018 in Massachusetts' Third Congressional District.
The people, young and old, need to keep showing up
Re 'Schumer retreat on shutdown raises young Democrats' ire' (Page A2, March 16): I'm a 70-year-old survivor of the '60s and, notwithstanding generational rifts in the Democratic leadership in Washington, I'm not convinced it's the younger Democrats in general who are unhappier with the party's response to the Trump administration. I think most Democrats are angry and disappointed.
I've been to numerous actions in the past weeks, and while I've seen younger folks there, the gray hair predominates. None of us is sure what to do, but we know with conviction that we have to do something. Let's keep showing up at events and public spaces and we'll figure it out. We might even save democracy and America.
Perry Cottrelle
Malden
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