Professors, East Bay congressman weigh in on what’s next for the Democratic Party

By John Ramos

After the political bloodbath the Republicans took in Tuesday’s midterm election, the next day President Trump seemed to take it all in stride.

“I’ll get along, probably, with the Democrats,” he said on Wednesday. “Unless they want to be destructive. But I have the power of the veto, so if we don’t like what they’re doing. They’ve already called. They want to talk about things, and that’s fine.”

But the question now is, what will the Democrats do first? Nolan Higdon, University of California, Santa Cruz political history professer, said that despite the unexpected majority they just won in the House and Senate, the Democrats would be smart to consider the psychology of the situation.

“Trump is about Trump first,” said Higdon. “It’s not the party, often not the nation. It’s about what serves him. I think Democrats will have to find a way to tie a piece of legislation to things Trump thinks serves him. This could be playing into his legacy. This could be, perhaps, protecting him from certain investigations. Whatever leverage they have to try to get some bills on the table is probably the best step for Democrats.”

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Walnut Creek) said one of the next steps for the Democratic Party is to show they can govern.

“You’ve got to work and struggle. And we’re going to do that.” DeSaulnier said. “We won a big election, and we’ve got to show that we’re capable of governing and be mindful that we’ve still got these barriers in our way.”

DeSaulnier has been in the House of Representatives for 12 years and will soon be Chair of the House Ethics Committee. He said despite Tuesday’s unprecedented political reversal, the president still has the power to govern through executive orders. But that leaves the Democrats with a major piece of leverage.

“We have the power of the purse,” said DeSaulnier. “Reconciliation only takes a simple majority in both houses, so we’re going to be pursuing that.  But this is not to sound like it’s going to be easy.”

However, as he pointed out, Trump still has veto power. But Higdon said that can also be a trap.

“He does have the veto power, but the veto power is not an end-all, be-all,” he said.  “Because Democrats can also play games.  They can pass bills that are really popular, with things in it that Trump doesn’t want, and force Trump to veto it.”

That would put remaining Republicans in a very dangerous position going into 2028.  Higdon thinks there will be defections on legislation as Republicans try to distance themselves from Trump.  But what about the Democrats’ stated intention to begin investigating claims of corruption? Betrall Ross, University of California, Berkeley law professor, said that may be a challenge since Congress’s subpoena power is usually handled by the Department of Justice.

“There’s a major question as to whether the Department of Justice will enforce those subpoenas against the Trump administration,” Ross said. “Especially given how the DOJ has been transformed into a legal arm of the president.”

Ross said he’s also not sure how this U.S. Supreme Court will deal with the balance of power between branches now that the legislative branch appears to have a mandate from the people.  

“I just don’t see this court reflecting on the Democratic moment, or the practical considerations, to change its approach with respect to executive authority, especially vis-a-vis Congress,” Ross said.

But on Wednesday, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said their work was just beginning.

“Americans have given we Democrats the opportunity to prove ourselves worthy of their trust,” Schumer said. “And that’s the most important job, even more important than winning the election.”

DeSaulnier said no one from the party was predicting that so many seats would change hands, especially in the Deep South. But he said they were thankful that the numbers were so decisive to put to rest any claims of election fraud affecting the outcome.

“Now it’s on us,” DeSaulnier said. “It’s on us to show that we’re fighting for people every way we can. [President Abraham] Lincoln said, ‘With public sentiment, anything is possible. Without it, no law really has full power.’  We’ve got public sentiment on our side right now, and we can’t mess around.”