No One Needs Your Thoughts and Prayers, Hakeem Jeffries

We didn’t elect leaders to preach to us. We elected leaders to fight for us.

In the past eight days, Donald Trump has irretrievably changed this country for the worse. We don’t need to belabor everything he has done but suffice it to say that there is no shortage of outrage that anyone outside the MAGA cult can muster. It’s been a disaster — exactly what some of us predicted would happen but somehow even worse. It will not end well.

So what does the highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives tell the troops to do? That’s right, calm down and wait it out. This too shall pass. God has your back.

What in the actual fuck is this?

As I wrote yesterday, before I realized that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted this ridiculous Tweet, God helps those who help themselves. No one needs thoughts and prayers from politicians. We need action.

Why doesn’t Leader Jeffries tell the Dreamers who will soon be locked up on suspicion of shoplifting to wait Trump out?

Why doesn’t he tell the millions of women who fear getting pregnant to wait Trump out?

Why doesn’t he tell the LGBTQ kids on whom it is now open season to wait Trump out?

Why doesn’t he tell the people on Trump’s enemies list, the Americans who are waiting for federal disaster relief, the seniors who will be paying more for life-saving medicine, the cops who were beaten senseless by January 6 insurrectionists, the children in Africa who will starve because of his foreign aid “pause” and the people at home and abroad who are scared out of their wits?

We didn’t elect Jeffries to preach to us. We elected Jeffries to fight for us.

What is so insulting — what is so tone deaf — is that a leader of the Democratic Party is telling us to wait it out and put our faith in a higher power.

No, Congressman. We have put our faith in you — and so far, you have done nothing to reward us for it. Just look at the candidate recruitment in some targeted swing districts last year to understand just how deep the problem is.

But hey, maybe God will provide in 2026.

I appreciate that Jeffries’ hardest task is keeping a fractious caucus united against whatever horrors Speaker Mike Johnson decides to visit upon us in the name of Donald Trump. But he also has a second, equally important mission: to lead strongly and forcefully, so Democrats throughout the country can follow. Instead, the grassroots feel abandoned and on their own.

This has happened before. In 2009, Republicans felt betrayed by their leaders. In short order, they launched the Tea Party movement, overthrew the establishment and paved the way for a populist uprising. Donald Trump is the end result.

Leader Jeffries should ring up John Boehner or Eric Cantor and ask them what they’re up to these days. Those two House Republican leaders utterly missed the deep-seated anger of their base until it was too late. Jeffries and his senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, appear to be missing it now.

Take it from me: I have spent my life toiling for the most establishment figures around. In 2016, I supported Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders. In 2020, I supported Joe Biden against Bernie Sanders. The senator for whom I worked on the Hill was the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, for God’s sake.

If you’ve lost me, you’re pretty far gone. And I have finally, reluctantly, come around to the fact that Sanders is right. I may not agree with him on some of his policies but I agree with him on this message: the status quo has let too many Americans down. Biden’s efforts to bring it back was misguided because the status quo was not working for way too many people. It’s time to build something different — something better. And we need leaders to pave the way.

So don’t tell me to pray to the Lord or to wait Trump out or whatever the hell Jeffries meant by posting that Tweet. Lead, or get out of the way. Too much is at stake. God may still be on His throne but by the time Trump gets off his throne, there won’t be much of a country left for the rest of us. Jeffries should start communicating like he gets that.