Protesting is Great. But it's Not an Agenda.

Trump is winning this one. Again.

One look at social media, including on this platform, and it’s clear there’s a desperate, urgent, existential need that’s uniting once disparate groups of people: STOP TRUMP. NOW.

As a former Republican and current conservative, I share in this project, for all the reasons. President Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, the rule of law, the constitution, and America as we know it.

That may sound melodramatic, but I believe it deeply. So do many of you.

What Trump has done in six short months as president is nothing short of stomach-churning. From intentionally wrecking the US economy with ill-conceived tariff threats, to disappearing people and trampling all over due process, from slipshod and indiscriminate budget and personnel cuts impacting kids, cancer patients, fire and flood victims, to now deploying the National Guard and US military to contain Los Angeles protests, Trump’s dangerous combination of authoritarianism and incompetence are setting the stage for a collapse of American exceptionalism.

As we teeter on the brink of failing at this great experiment, we’re all trying to strategize the best way forward. With Republicans in charge of everything, and failing to do their jobs in Congress, who will hold Trump accountable? Who can hinder his agenda? How can he be stopped before he drags us to a point of no return?

These are the questions we should all be asking, at every sordid and terrifying turn of this administration.

And I know this will anger or annoy some of you, but I don’t think protesting is it.

Let me explain. To be clear, I understand completely the motivation for folks in Los Angeles and around the country to come out into the streets and protest Trump’s agenda. And you’ll find no greater defender of the First Amendment than I am – peaceful protest is still a sacred right and an important tool of democracy. (And yes, the hypocrisy in what Trump’s doing now vs. Jan 6th is breathtaking.)

But let’s look at what it’s actually accomplishing, in this case. So far, the protests in LA, which haven’t been entirely peaceful, have given Trump and Republicans the exact talking points they want to weaponize against democracy-loving Americans everywhere.

“Look at who Dems and Never-Trumpers are defending – illegal immigrants and criminals!” they’ll say.

“These protesters are the violent criminals – see how violent the left is!” they’ll say.

“We’re the party of law and order – they’re for chaos, open borders and lawlessness,” they’ll say.

These things aren’t totally true, but they don’t have to be. They’re true enough for MAGA propaganda, and exactly the kinds of storylines they find the most useful in painting the left as out of touch, un-American, and extreme.

What the left often does brilliantly when it comes to Trump, is play right into his hands. Because they’re counting on their nuance to save them from his lies and distortions.

“We’re protesting the lack of due process for illegal immigrants,” they’ll say.

“We’re protesting peacefully – it’s law enforcement provocations that are escalating the situation,” they’ll say.

“Crossing the border illegally isn’t a crime, it’s a misdemeanor,” they’ll say.

These are not good arguments. Nuance, technicality, and subtlety lose every time to Trump’s simple, emotional, and unsubtle framing of American problems.

And most voters believe illegal immigration is a problem. It’s a big reason Trump won in 2024 – because Democrats were insisting it wasn’t, and arguing in nuance and technicality.

Now, just because Trump is better at selling his bullshit than Dems are at dismantling it isn’t a good reason to stop fighting it. But shouldn’t the fight be effective?

The visuals of the LA protests inarguably work to Trump’s advantage, not theirs. They help tell HIS narrative, not theirs. HIS anti-immigration agenda will elicit much more sympathy than their pro-immigration one.

You can want this to be untrue, but unfortunately, this is just the reality of the political landscape we’re living in.

Getting out in the streets – again, if peacefully – is important and feels good. But it alone isn’t going to beat back Trump or Trumpism. It isn’t going to win elections. It isn’t going to compel millions of disaffected voters to join or rejoin the Democratic party.

The way to fight Trump and his agenda is with a better one. Protest can feel like action – like “doing something” – but it can also be an excuse to avoid doing the hard work of competing on the actual battlefield, the battlefield of ideas, policy, messaging, and governing.

Protest is important, but it’s no substitute for a competing agenda. And Dems have yet to offer one on immigration, the economy, crime, or any of the other things Trump and Republicans won on.

Telling people how much you hate something isn’t as persuasive as giving people a better alternative. Democrats have fewer than two years to persuade voters to choose them over Republicans in the midterms, and fewer than four to persuade voters to dump Trumpism for good in 2028.

That’s no time at all. To stop Trump and win back voters, Democrats need an agenda they can sell to a wide majority of Americans. It shouldn’t pander to fringe special interests. It shouldn’t require charts and lagging indicators to explain. It shouldn’t be just undoing everything Trump did.

It should be simple and to the point. For example:

• An economy that makes life more affordable for more Americans

• An immigration system that promotes legal immigration and prosecutes illegal immigration

• A criminal justice system that makes our towns and cities safer

• A government that exists to fix problems, not grow more government

• A party that promotes freedom and choice, including personal and parental rights

• A party that believes in science AND common sense

• A party that promotes democracy, the Constitution, and the law

None of the above should be controversial or complicated. These are things a vast majority of Americans would say they supported, especially if they didn’t know which party was behind them.

Why this is so hard for the Democratic party to get to isn’t totally clear to me. Long speeches, sit-ins, and protests aren’t an agenda – and Trump’s offering one that’s very, very clear, if abhorrent.

In everything the party does, Dems need to think more about how average American voters are processing what’s happening.

And for the average American who turns on the news and sees what’s happening in Los Angeles, it’s not causing them to think more about due process – it’s causing them to think only Trump wants to fix a broken system.

Ceding issues and arguments to him is political malfeasance. Failing to meet people where they are instead of where you want them to be is pollyanna. And believing a protest can compete with an agenda is a fool’s errand.