Early last week, Democrats seemed to be hitting new lows in the post-election slump. Progressives were especially demoralized by the failure to elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Democratic representatives instead gave the spot to a 74-year-old with esophageal cancer, Rep. Gerry Connelly, D-Va. It suggested Democrats weren't going to put up much resistance to the incoming president, Donald Trump. "Who's going to stand up to Trump if his actual opponents have embraced 'strategic silence' regarding all of his spiraling abuses?" lamented progressive pundit Brian Beutler in a newsletter headlined, "Democratic Capitulation Is Contagious." Everyone smart agreed that it was wise not to replicate the hair-on-fire-all-the-time tactics of The Resistance© for round number two of President Trump, but laying down and taking it also seemed like a poor idea.
Then Trump let billionaire Elon Musk bully him into shutting down a continued resolution to fund the government — a bill Trump obviously thought would be to his benefit — and all of a sudden, the fight came roaring back into Democrats. Musk basically wrote his own spending bill, with Trump meekly signing on. The two foolishly believed that Democrats would cave by voting for the new bill that eliminated funding to research childhood cancer and a provision to crack down on "junk fees," such as those that often double the face value of a concert ticket. Instead, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., saw a perfect opportunity to kick off Republican in-fighting, expose Trump's weaknesses as a leader, and educate the nation on how Republicans are in the thrall of maniacal billionaires. Democrats refused to vote for the Musk bill, and taunted Republicans for being too disordered to pass it, even with their House majority.
