What will the Democratic Party do with power? Shame they won’t say.

The Democratic Party leaders want power again. And Democrats will likely win the House, and possibly even the Senate. It’s a moment of true power. But if they don’t have anything to offer, it’ll be a hollow victory.

The Democratic Party leaders are full of indignation.

“We will not move…” Well, other than to do routine business. And any special GOP requests. And Continuing Resolutions. And…

They have their staff tell us all about what they don’t like. They do this stuff every few minutes. Honestly, can’t get them to shut up.

So, Senator Chuck Schumer says he won’t support thugs. Sounds good, right? But what will Schumer do about it? Will he hold hearings? Pass new laws? Enforce the existing laws? Set up tribunals?

Look around sheepishly and move on?

“Get lost.” Brave words. Empty words, too.

Like Schumer, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has his staff post dozens of these a day. None of them explains what Rep. Jeffries might do if, say, Trump surrounds polling stations with Department of Homeland Security paramilitary troops.

“What will the Democrats do with power?” is not an idle question. During the Biden administration, Democratic Party leadership kicked the can down the road again and again, choosing their own safety over ours. That’s why women lost the right to abortion. It’s why we have a lawless Supreme Court ruled by a MAGA supermajority. It’s why Trump was allowed to run in another election.

They screwed it up the last time, so no, Democrats don’t get any benefit of the doubt.

The Democratic Party needs our cooperation to win the next election. But to win consistently and with a powerful majority, they need our enthusiasm. They need to inspire people to persevere against voter intimidation and possible harm. And they need the American people to push back and stop the Republicans if they try to interfere in the election.

Hint: Republicans will interfere in the next election.

Is it a sin to ask our leaders for their policies? To hear them talk, it is. “Stop discouraging people,” I’m told. Are new laws state secrets? Apparently. “Do you want Republicans to win?” It should be everyday politics for candidates to present themselves and their ideas. There’s a reason that “Tell us what you’ll do for us” is the first question out of every voter’s mouth. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.

Rebuilding America will be complicated and difficult. We can’t go back; the old stuff is gone. The institutions didn’t hold. Republicans fired all the experts. They sold the buildings. They’re auctioning off our public goods. They lied, cheated, and abandoned our allies. American promises are dust. And no matter what we do going forward, the world knows that if America elected someone like Trump once, we might do it again, too.

Start with simple questions. Will Democrats hold Trump and his cronies accountable for the corruption and criminality we see every day? Because if Democrats don’t have a plan for how to do that, then the answer is ‘no.’ There are no existing mechanisms to investigate criminality when the Department of Justice itself has been corrupted.

How will Democrats strengthen our democracy? The old institutions are gone, but they didn’t hold anyway. Do Democrats have any replacements? We allowed billionaires to buy almost all our news media, and then we were surprised they only represented billionaires’ interests. How will Democrats work with biased media? How will Democrats fix our economy when we know that if things get bad, our business leaders’ first response will be to buy kneepads? What will we tell our allies?

What will Democrats do? They won’t say.

Here’s the deal: it’ll take much longer to fix things than it took to break them. That’s just how things work. To succeed, Democrats will need to hold power for more than a decade. And I’m talking about big majorities and systemic changes. A 52-48 Senate will guarantee failure. A corrupt SCOTUS will guarantee failure. This will be long and hard.

The current Democratic Party leadership has no idea what they’ll do. For all we know, they’ll just install themselves in power and wallow in the corruption that Trump made.

If we can’t get the Democratic Party to move, they’ll pull us down with them. Yes, even with our grudging, “lesser evil” cooperation, they’ll probably win the House in 2026. Not the Senate, though. It’ll be solid gridlock. They’ll achieve nothing. And two years after that, they’ll lose the House again. That’s our current trajectory.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and DNC Chair Ken Martin have to go.