Analysis: Democratic activists have been annoyed with lawmakers’ lack of action against Donald Trump, says Eric Garcia. Now, they’re starting to step up. House and Senate Democrats spoke out Monday when they were blocked from visiting the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington after Elon Musk announced that the humanitarian aid body would be shut down.. But the lawmakers’ very appearance revealed something that many Democratic activists believe party leaders have been missing ever since Trump’s election: A drive to fight.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts complained: “I'm sorry that you have to put up with this offensive bulls*** coming out of this White House.”. The action at the USAID building appeared to signal a change in how Democrats would approach Trump. For much of his first week, Democrats seemed willing to work with him – or simply stayed silent. Many collaborated with Republicans on the Laken Riley Act, Trump’s anti-immigrant bill. Every Democratic senator voted to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Monday annointed himself the acting director of USAID.

“I think a theme that is has been bubbling up from everywhere, across our own grassroots, is folks don't feel like they've been seeing the leadership that they needed from the Democratic Party,” Amanda Litman, who leads Run for Something, told The Independent. Litman said lots of Democratic voters want to see their elected officials fight. “I think part of it is they don't really know where [constituents] stand on some of these issues. That’s the task of leadership ... to identify who you are, what you believe, and how you're gonna move it forward,” she said.

For Democratic activists, seeing Democrats push back on Trump’s attempts to neuter USAID felt like they finally saw some fight from their party. “I think ... today we are definitely seeing some signs of fight in Democrats that we're excited about and wanted to cheer on,” Leah Greenberg, a co-founder of Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group, told The Independent Monday. Greenberg said the night before that Indivisible had a livestream with 50,000 people over Trump’s dramatic takeover of the federal operation.

Prior to that, some advocates and fundraisers felt there had been no direction since Trump’s victory. “I think we're seeing Democrats in Congress over-interpret the 2024 election to mean that Trump has a popular mandate, and that therefore what the voters want to see is them working with him,” she said. “The Democrats have had four years to prepare for this. Then they had three months between the election and the inauguration to prepare for this. They've been on recess since January 24 they could have prepared for this.” Watts told The Independent.

She warned: “There's only so much time to fight back before democracy is completely dismantled. Other than angry press releases and outrage on social media, I'm not seeing any action.”. Watts compared the efforts to her push to make Democrats support gun control, and emphasized she is still a Democrat who cares about the party. “When I started Moms Demand Action in 2012 about a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an A rating from the [National Rifle Association],” she said. “Today, none do. The reason is because we showed up everywhere they were and we thanked and shamed them for for what they were doing.”.

Watts said she has received some criticism from others who say Democrats should not criticize each other. “If ... your leaders aren't doing what they should, it is up to us to put pressure on them. We’re not in a cult,” she said. “This is going to be messy because we don't want a messiah.”. The outcry began as Democrats pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to freeze all federal loans and grants.

But Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress, and they don’t control the White House. Senator Chris Van Hollen said the fight against the Trump takeover will require help from the courts. By the same token, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told his colleagues that any efforts to “steal taxpayer money from the American people, end Medicaid as we know it or defund programs important to everyday Americans, as contemplated by the illegal White House Office of Management and Budget order, must be choked off in the upcoming government funding bill, if not sooner.”.

This is building up to be a major test for Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson has typically relied on some support from Democrats on funding because many Republicans vote against spending bills. Actions like those promised by Jeffries and Schatz allow Democrats some level of leverage to push back against Trump and will cause major annoyances. And Democratic activists will be watching. “At the end of the day, many members of Congress are there to protect their power, and it is on the grassroots activists to make sure that their priority is protecting democracy,” Watts said.