Opinion | Democrats and Republicans are both villains

Last week, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours straight in a historic protest against President Donald Trump. It was a glorious achievement for Democrats, a bright shimmer in a sea of otherwise hopelessness. Booker’s call for collective action to push back against Trump’s extremist positions was met with resounding praise across the country, congratulating him on his achievement and marking his speech as a turning point for Democratic resistance.

It was nice to see a Democrat do something cool. Something profound and important.

And while I commend Booker on his stamina and willpower, and his ability to inspire hope is truly incredible, no situation is black and white. No politician is beyond critique. 

Booker did something arguably very, very cool, but that doesn’t negate his terrible record when it comes to the crisis in Palestine. In the 25 hours Booker spoke, Booker didn’t mention Gaza or Palestinians in any meaningful way, inciting criticism from pro-Palestinian activists. And mere days after his marathon speech, Booker voted against Bernie Sanders’ resolution which would have blocked over $8 billion in arms sales to Israel.

It’s nice to revel in the good for a moment. To feel like our politicians are actually representing our will and making real, tangible change. To believe that, just maybe, our elected officials really do care about the people in this nation and not about holding onto power for just a little while longer.

But we can’t let a single moment of action distract from a larger, troubling pattern of complacency.

It’s important to always remember — Democrats and Republicans can both be the villain. They both have blood on their hands. Yes, one party may be setting the fire, but the other is far too often watching it burn while handing out empty buckets. No party can wipe their hands clean of the humanitarian crises and economic downturn we are currently experiencing in Trump’s second administration.

I see plenty of discourse around the criticism of Democrats in online circles. When people online blame Democrats for Trump’s policies, the usual counterargument is that Democrats are not the ones actually stripping people of their rights. They’re not the ones signing the abhorrent bills or laughing maniacally as they hand Trump a shiny pen to sign some evil executive order. 

They’re just the ones who didn’t stop it.

We can look back to 2016, when Democrats rolled over and accepted Mitch McConnell’s refusal to confirm a Supreme Court Nominee, setting the stage for SCOTUS’ hard-right shift. And when a similar situation occurred in 2020, with a SCOTUS seat opening up at the tail end of Trump’s first presidential administration, Democrats were silent as Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the bench. This silence helped forge the ultra-conservative Supreme Court currently on a warpath to gutting civil rights, completely decimating the work of civil rights attorneys for the next couple of decades.

Or perhaps we can look more recently to the 2024 election and cite Kamala Harris’ loss for our plight. Many people blame the Democrats’ stance on Palestine and Israel as part of the reason Harris didn’t win. Others cite the Democrats’ obsession with appealing to moderate politics and Republicans instead of energizing the more progressive block of the Democratic party. Perhaps not giving Harris a fair and lengthy time to craft a compelling campaign contributed to her loss. Isn’t all of this on Democrats? For failing to read the political room? For ignoring the voices of young voters? For refusing to take bold, meaningful stances when it mattered the most?

Because we lost, rights and liberties are being stripped away. Families are being torn apart. The economy has tanked. And while Trump and his loyal sheep are the ones pulling the strings, Democrats built the stage he’s standing on.

Critiquing Democrats does not negate the harm that Republicans have caused. It’s about accountability. It’s about asking those who claim to be our allies to actually act like it. It’s about refusing to settle for beneath the bare minimum when people’s actual lives are on the line.

And while I am a big fan of holding hands, working together and singing “Kumbaya,” harsh feedback is necessary. It would be easier to stick our heads in the sand and say, “Well, they didn’t sign that bill. They didn’t cause this.” But that would be ignoring the problem right before us, that Democrats are causing harm through their inaction. Appealing to centrism while fascism grows is not just cowardly — it is dangerous.

Democrats love to claim moral high ground, but morality means nothing without action. If they want to be the party of justice, the party of equality and hope, then Democrats need to start acting like it. And if we want them to change, we have to stop giving Democrats credit simply for being better than the worse. That’s not the standard. That’s a cop out.

Livia LaMarca is the assistant editor of the opinions desk who misses using the Oxford comma. She mostly writes about American political discourse, US pop culture and social movements. Write to her at lll60@pitt.edu to share your own opinions!