On a sweltering New Orleans evening in July, the final night of the 2028 Democratic National Convention, the party chair introduces its new presidential nominee.
“With great pride, I present to you proud and patriotic Democrats our chosen nominee and the next president of the United States of America, Dr. Josh Green!”
Josh Green? Come on! How is this possible? He doesn’t even register in the polls. Get serious.
Green himself says it is “highly unlikely” that he will be president as he, in NBC’s words, “toyed rhetorically” with the possibility of leading the country. Translation: “Maybe, maybe maybe. Pretty please. But not now.”
Chortle all you want. But frankly, if you’re laughing at Green, it’s because you don’t understand why he would be an important candidate or, for that matter, what’s really going on around you.
He’s important because his views are so much like the views of any serious Democratic presidential hopeful, left, right or center, moderate or progressive. Unfortunately, they all represent failed strategies, failed views.
The Democratic Party as a whole has made zero headwater at combating either President Donald Trump or the piece-by-piece authoritarianism that’s slowly overwhelming the country as the public becomes more paralyzed. By implication, they are all Chuck Schumers.
Green is a useful, close-to-home object lesson on conventional Democratic thinking and its limits. Learn from him, as long as, like any good student, you keep in mind that the teacher has flaws.
All Democrats, Green included, come down to a misplaced belief in the power of politics — doing things the old way, only more passionately, while the culture shifts big time and for a long time.
Most of all, they don’t realize that a mass nonviolent movement is the only thing that will save us.
All in all, the public as well as the anti-Trump politicians are like a gigantic orchestra fiddling away as the country burns.
During his recent Civil Beat interview, Gov Josh Green called for traditional political responses to Trump. (Patti Epler/Civil Beat/2025)
Green’s recent Civil Beat interview is very revealing. He described himself as a “healer,” someone who can blunt bipartisanship and work across the aisles. He talked about the importance of building relationships and getting consensus.
All of these have been important skills in the past for both Democrats and Republicans. They may even continue to work for Green as governor.
Nationally, they continue to be a part of the Democratic Party’s tool kit, now-rusting tools based on fond memories. Skills still noble but useless as times have changed, a blacksmith shop in a Ford factory.
Like Democratic politicians generally, Green thinks the 2028 presidential election can turn the tide against Trumpism, get the country back on its feet.
“My personal feeling,” Green said, “is that sometime after a year of the current administration a lot of that passion they’ve had to push the envelope will begin to fade. I think the president will likely move more toward legacy questions and away from these kind of contentious issues.”
That view of presidential politics is so narrowly conventional. There are many reasons not to be so optimistic.
‘A Historical Tide’
What we have right now is not a nasty political moment but, as David Brooks wrote in The Atlantic, “a historical tide.”
“Drowning in this tide, conventional parties and politicians, whose time horizon doesn’t stretch past the next election, are hapless,” he continued. “Conventional politicians don’t have the vision or power to reverse a historical tide. Chuck Schumer is not going to save us.”
In that way all congressional Democrats are Chuck Schumers.
Oh oh. There goes the tool kit, along with the heavy belt and work pants.
Will ordinary people take to the streets, think in new ways, listen to and unite with folks they’ve never paid attention to before — or even disliked?
“Trumpism, like populism, is more than a set of policies — it’s a culture,” Brooks wrote. “Trump offers people a sense of belonging, an identity, status, self-respect, and a comprehensive political ethic.”
“Populists are not trying to pass this or that law; they are altering the climate of the age. And Democrats think they can fight that by offering some tax credits?”
Keep in mind here that Brooks isn’t Trump’s vision of a naked, bike-riding member of antifa, marauding past Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Portland headquarters (a block away from where I sit as I write this, fully clothed).
Brooks considers himself a conservative.
Instead of conventional politics, to alter this climate we need a mass nonviolent movement right here, right now, he said. Mass movements have a proven track record. Many countries, the Philippines being one of them, have used them.
“Mass” means just that: a coalition of people from all social classes and all walks of life coming together. Trump has been able to pick off institutions one by one – law firms, universities, federal agencies and many more. They each have responded separately, which limits their ability to resist and, worst of all, discourages the development of an overall response.
“Mass” means on the streets. In forums, formal and informal. Whatever.
Brooks has more to say about what this movement needs to look like. Its leaders aren’t likely to be politicians. Think Martin Luther King Jr. rather than Barack Obama. (Thought experiment: try to imagine David Ige leading the charge.) Leaders emerge from unofficial spaces.
Movements require stories that offer visions and powerful narratives for common people to grasp.
Saturday’s rally near the State Capitol brought out a cross section of people concerned about the Trump presidency. (Leilani Combs/Civil Beat/2025)
What’s Your Alternative?
Do the “No Kings” rallies — one in June and one on Saturday — move the country in that direction? Maybe.
First of all, they were far from a movement. They were just two separated protests. Brooks says that social movements don’t start with such protests. They need building blocks first.
Let’s be more optimistic and assume that “No Kings” rallies, or “No Dictators” as they were called in Hawaiʻi, showed potential. They brought out a lot of people and appeared to frighten the opposition.
Yet there’s no evidence right now that the rallies will catalyze anything more. Specifically, a mass movement.
Did the lawyers from white-shoe law firms Trump rolled over participate in “No Kings”? University presidents? Farmers? Republicans?
Will ordinary people take to the streets, think in new ways, listen to and unite with folks they’ve never paid attention to before — or even disliked?
When Brooks first wrote about the need for a mass movement, he got tons of positive responses. But no action. Will the same thing happen this time, as politicians continue to misunderstand and the public, increasingly befuddled and narcotized, sits back and accepts step-by-step authoritarianism even more?
Mass movements are just that. No one leads in the sense that they work for you. It’s on us, “us” being ordinary people who’ve dealt with political life in ordinary ways. It taps into the passions of democracy, less into the procedures.
Not feasible? Then what’s your alternative?
A dogged belief that the U.S. will come out of this if the Democrats do well in 2026 or 2028, as in “America’s got through things like this before”?
Renewed faith in the politics about which you’ve been complaining forever? Moving to Portugal?
Or is it apathy?
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