In Henry VI, Part 2, a character named Dick the Butcher utters one of the more famous lines William Shakespeare wrote: “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.” To return to national power and get things done for the nation, Democrats need to adopt something of the spirit of Dick the Butcher: no, not literal murder of the lawyers who dominate the party — but a departure from the lawfare that has blinded Democrats to what politics is all about.
Perhaps the pace at which President Trump has opened his second term will put them on notice. Trump opened the week with an Office of Budget and Management guidance that would freeze some $3 trillion in federal grants across executive-branch agencies. He also offered federal employees a buyout, in keeping with his plan to downsize the bureaucracy. He used the threat of tariffs to pressure Colombia over deportation flights. He mused about relocating the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza.
You may not agree with these moves — I certainly don’t — but on some level, you do have to admire the relentless focus of this new administration. The same can’t be said for its opponents. Tangled in legal arguments, mentalities, and procedures, Democrats have forgotten how to fight. Worse yet, they have forgotten what and whom they are fighting for.
It was that lawyerly frame of mind that compelled Democrats to expend an enormous amount of time and energy over the past decade trying to get Donald Trump through various avenues of lawfare: from the #Russiagate craziness to the first impeachment over his “beautiful” phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, from Jack Smith’s classified-documents probe to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s hush-money case. And what do they have to show for it all? The satisfaction of calling Trump a “convicted felon” on cable news, and not much else.
Hellbound and Down 