Democrats, pushed by grass-root protests, unifying Trump opposition

WASHINGTON — Twelve days into the new administration, Democrats in Congress are forming an especially fierce wall of opposition to President Trump’s nominees and agenda powered by grass-roots protests in the streets of major U.S. cities and a flood of constituent phone calls, emails and letters.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., has received at least 80,000 angry letters and other correspondence — and that’s just about Trump’s Education secretary pick, Betsy DeVos. On Monday, more than 800 callers jammed West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s phone lines; 97% expressed opposition to Trump’s travel ban targeting majority Muslim nations and his Cabinet picks of DeVos and Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, a Democrat representing another conservative-leaning state, cited 1,400 people, 95% of them opposed to DeVos, who recently contacted her office in announcing her plan to vote against the education pick.

This week, Democrats boycotted votes on Trump’s Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Environmental Protection Agency picks, Steve Mnuchin, Tom Price and Scott Pruitt, and blocked an initial vote on Sessions. They’re also making clear plans to filibuster Neil Gorsuch, his Supreme Court nominee, and blocking key pieces of his agenda.

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“The protests and the actions of Democratic senators are mirrors of each other,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “We are rising to what is a truly exceptional moment,” he said, while acknowledging his party's limits since the GOP controls the Senate floor.

“There’s only so much we can do, but I’m prepared to shatter precedent in order to make it clear that we are not going to stand for what Trump is doing," said Murphy. In addition to standing by Trump’s travel ban, Senate Republican leaders are trying to “rush through” the nominations of Cabinet officials with thin résumés and potential conflicts of interest, including Mnuchin and DeVos, said Murphy.

Emotion but not enough votes

Since Democrats lack the votes to block most of Trump’s nominees, they need some Republicans to join them. Yet the show of resistance makes clear that one of the major selling points Trump made as a candidate — that he’s a non-ideological businessman who could make government work again — may be the toughest promise to keep. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who initially said he hoped to cut deals with Trump on infrastructure, for instance, now appears to be spearheading the opposition.

The 2016 election, marked by personal insults and a harsh tone, turned off many voters, as studies show a smaller share of eligible voters cast ballots last year than in either of the two previous elections. On the Democratic side, some of the enthusiasm of progressives may have also been dampened as Sen. Bernie Sanders focused on Hillary Clinton’s past positions on international trade agreements and her ties to Wall Street.

Now Trump appears to be accomplishing what no Democratic leader, including former president Barack Obama, could in the general election — by uniting Democrats. The  backlash was immediate, with an estimated 3 million taking to the streets of major U.S. cities and overseas the day after Trump’s inauguration.

A series of executive actions since then, including his travel ban and targeting of environmental standards, as well Trump's Supreme Court pick of Gorsuch, is feeding the fury of progressives taking to the streets. On Tuesday night, an estimated 5,000 gathered outside Schumer’s home in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood as a planned “What the f--- Chuck?!” protest turned into a more of a rally after he took to Facebook to announce plans to block eight of Trump’s Cabinet picks.

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“It’s clear our country is at a crossroads,” said Schumer. “In his first week in office the president has stomped over our proud American tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees, trafficked in alternative facts and is attempting to fill his Cabinet with billionaires and bankers,” he said.

The Working Families Party, along with MoveOn.org and People’s Action, have declared weekly ResistTrumpTuesdays; according to MoveOn, more than 10,000 took part in 200 rallies at congressional offices on Jan. 24, a showing that repeated on Tuesday of this week, including at least 2,000 in Lancaster, Pa.

“It’s starting to amount to something,” said Working Families Party communications director Joe Dinkin. “There’s outside actions at offices of Democratic and Republican senators to push Democrats into a more oppositional posture and make Republicans feel the cost of their votes.”

Increased civic interest is also padding the coffers of interest groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, which raised $24 million in a single weekend, six times what it usually collects in an entire year.

“I’ve never seen this degree of intensity. It’s phone calls and social media, people on the streets,” Casey said.

Republicans targeted, too

Republicans are also in the cross hairs. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced she'll break with her party to oppose DeVos a day after Murkowski said during a Tuesday committee meeting that thousands have contacted her, including coming to her offices in Washington and Alaska, expressing worries about the school voucher advocate from Michigan. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told CBS that his office “is getting so many calls and emails, his has staff assigned to do nothing except respond to them,” including 3,000 voice mails in one night.

The experiences of these members are backed up by data showing U.S. citizens make unprecedented use of social media tools, said Steve Patterson, chief executive of Broadnet, whose customers use video or audio streaming software to engage audiences.

“I have never seen in my 13 years a citizenry more engaged and more willing to listen,” said Patterson. For instance, a recent MoveOn call that drew 60,000 participants, including online, shattered a Guinness World Record for the most people engaging in a single live conversation. “We didn’t have anybody there from Guinness to document it, but she broke the record,” he said.

“It’s a myth that citizens’ voices don’t make a difference,” said Brad Fitch, president of the Congressional Management Foundation. “Surveys of congressional staff clearly show that constituent interactions are the most influential advocacy strategy citizens can employ,” he said.

Democratic lawmakers say they’re responding to individual constituent concerns, yet what appears to be a growing movement is also likely to have longer-term implications as the party reshapes in the aftermath of a dramatic Nov. 8 loss to Trump. Much like the Republican Tea Party played an outsized role in obstructing Obama’s agenda, Democrats now must demonstrate to the left wing of their party that they’re responsive to the demands of an empowered bloc of voters.

“There are a lot of Democrats who are politically smart and understand there’s a tremendous amount of energy, and that’s where the future of the party is,” said Jeff Weaver, president of Our Revolution, the activist network that grew out of Sanders’ campaign to elevate progressive leaders. “They’re trying to align themselves that way.”

Targeting Gorsuch

The Senate battle over confirming Gorsuch is sure to include fireworks, even if he's likely to win confirmation in the end. Democrats point to his positions on women’s reproductive health coverage, guns and the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say Democrats are transparently playing politics.

“Some on the far left have decided to oppose Judge Gorsuch before he was even nominated,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. “The ink was not even dry.”

Yet Democrats say it was McConnell who charted a course of absolutist obstructionism under Obama, including a yearlong refusal to even hold a hearing for Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland to fill the vacant seat after the death of Antonin Scalia.

“This seat was stolen from a Democratic president, period. It was grand larceny,’” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change. “Democrats in the Senate, and progressives and liberals who care about the unprecedented nature of that theft by Republicans, shouldn’t roll over for Donald Trump.”

Not all Democrats are in line with a blanket blockade. “It’s just not who I am,” said Manchin, who is nevertheless voting against DeVos.

Yet, of his Democratic colleagues, he said: “They have a right to do that. Republicans basically stonewalled everything” when Obama was in the White House.