The Nation: “No matter what fresh lawlessness Republicans commit, or what their legal enablers on the Supreme Court do to support that agenda, you can count on some Democrat or liberal-adjacent person saying, “But what can the Democrats do?” Never mind that Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the entire Executive Branch. They walk around every day like a defeated minority unable to stop Republicans—who lost—from having their way with our country.
There are countless examples of this sad-sack attitude from the last six months. (See: Republican congresspeople giving aid and comfort to white domestic terrorists, and Democrats doing nothing. See also: the GOP passing laws to suppress the right to vote, and Democrats doing nothing.) But let’s pause for a moment to consider the most recent example. This week, a Republican-backed law went into effect in Texas that overturned Roe v. Wade, replacing the constitutional rights of women and girls with a cash bounty system empowering private citizens to deny them those rights. Given the seriousness of this new reality, one would think Democrats might mount some kind of defense. But once again, they claim there is nothing they can do.
But there is something Democrats can do. They can work around the Texas anti-abortion law. To do this, however, they will need to get creative to protect women’s rights. They will need to be willing to challenge “norms.” They will need to act like Republicans.”