March 21, 2025

Instead of the Democrats prompting a larger fight to check Trump and the Republicans’ position, the wider US government is now at risk of dying in tiny, closed-door hearings across the Congress. The Democrats’ failure has broken fundamental faith in the party from rank-and-file Democrats across the country, with the party’s support now reaching new lows — according to recent polling, just over a quarter of Americans have a positive impression of the Democrats. Despite Senate Republicans’ history of blatant abuse of the filibuster (to block DC Statehood, healthcare expansion, student loan relief, and more), Democrats when in power have refused to end the undemocratic maneuver, and now out of power, have paradoxically refused to use it. Last Friday, with the GOP several votes shy of being able to pass a continuing resolution that would have funded Musk and DOG-E while decimating Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, a Democratic faction led by Minority Leader Schumer voted with the GOP, surrendering Democratic leverage to alter the House’s budget framework.

Schumer’s betrayal in voting for the continuing resolution also means abandoning the people of DC, who spent last week surging onto Capitol Hill to fight against an arbitrary budget cut mandated by the House. Thanks to the tireless advocacy of DC residents, the Senate passed a bill (S.1077) freeing DC from this mandate. Trump has indicated that he wants to see the DC error fixed — acknowledging Bowser’s naked appeasement of Trump over the past few months — but the House doesn’t seem to be in a rush to reconcile. Locals, channeled through Free DC, are organizing a pressure campaign against Congress to push for adoption in the House.

Deeper fears about a federal takeover of the city are unfolding. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Department was called to the Institute of Peace, an independent, non-profit organization, to boot the staff who work there (“unauthorized individuals”) with no arrests. A letter sent to Mayor Bowser and MPD Chief Smith from the Free DC movement — signed by Metro DC DSA and a constellation of local organizations opposed to the action — included a list of questions to clarify MPD’s role. In a statement published to Instagram, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George demanded a full investigation of the move: “MPD is funded by the District… Treating the District as an extension of the executive branch is inappropriate, dangerous, and must be rejected. I am demanding a full investigation into this incident to ensure MPD continues to uphold the law and our community receives answers.” 

Capitulation of MPD to this coup is not unexpected by socialists, who have long stressed the connection between the police state and fascist ambitions. As Trump’s mafia state ramps up, local law enforcement will increasingly become the foot soldiers of this burgeoning regime, expanding its duty to deliver “public safety” to include punishing and criminalizing opponents of the Orange Emperor. With Congress apparently rolling over, only the judicial branch stands in the way, but law enforcement’s subordination will likely limit this path. With judges unable, and the police unwilling, to enforce legal protections, the Administration is now flagrantly ignoring the courts by ignoring the civil liberties of immigrants on American soil — most shockingly in the trafficking of immigrants to El Salvadorian concentration camps on flimsy pretense, and in illegally detaining green-card holders on free-speech charges. These failures will leave resistance to this regime to live or die at the state and local levels.