Opinion | Democrats Don’t Need a Perfect Message Against Trump, They Need to Show Some Fight

I asked Senator Chuck Schumer what Americans want from Democrats right now.

“They want us to beat Trump and stop this shit,” he told me. “And that’s what we’re doing.”

It was a welcome sign of life. For three weeks now, President Trump and the world’s richest man have ransacked from within a democracy that took 250 years to build. The country faces a second crisis: an opposition party that doesn’t seem to know how to respond.

With no obvious party standard-bearer, the job of leading Washington Democrats in the second Trump era has fallen largely to Mr. Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leaders of the Senate and the House. It’s been a rocky start.

Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries are seasoned dealmakers. But in the minority and facing a president bent on laying waste to the very meaning of the U.S. Congress, both men have struggled to shed the familiar rhythms of business as usual.

On Monday, they sent letters to congressional Democrats about using litigation and oversight inquiries to fight Mr. Trump’s agenda. There was some substance. But it’s hard to convey that America is in peril through a letter.

Last week they touted a bill from House Democrats aimed at barring Elon Musk from having access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, even though it was clear — at least to state attorneys general who have sued — that Mr. Musk’s access violated the Constitution as well as existing laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974. At times, Mr. Jeffries has sounded like someone who has given up. “What leverage do we have?” he told reporters at his weekly news conference on Friday. “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”

More exasperating still has been hearing him talk about working with Republicans as though it were 2012.

As Americans faced the possible destruction of large swaths of the federal government, Mr. Jeffries unveiled a 10-point plan and said he would work with Republicans wherever he could. “We want to find common ground,” he told reporters recently. “If there was interest in doing the things that matter, like driving down the high cost of living in America. Republicans have no interest in doing that. The American people at the end of the day will hold them accountable.”

Focusing on the economy is important, for Democrats and the country. But as Mr. Jeffries spoke, Musk lackeys sat in the Treasury Department. F.B.I. agents had been forced out, and more were bracing for a purge over their roles in investigating Jan. 6.

Mr. Jeffries said he was “ready, willing and able” to address inflation, border security and crime. Building a movement for democracy is about more than reading the polls.

So many of the New Yorkers who have gone to Washington — from Shirley Chisholm, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to Donald Trump — seem to possess a certain fiery charisma. Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, both from Brooklyn, are different.

Mr. Jeffries moves with a cautious reserve that has sometimes frustrated New York Democrats. Mr. Schumer is more colorful, leading with a hokey earnestness. But in recent weeks, the style has sometimes felt insufficient. In one interview earlier this month, Mr. Schumer suggested Democrats demoralized over Mr. Trump wait him out. “Trump will screw up,” he told Semafor. On Feb. 1, the day after Mr. Musk’s team first received access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, Mr. Schumer’s social media was filled with corn. “You’re driving to work,” one post read. “Wait till Trump’s tariffs raise your gas prices.” Democratic governors last month implored Mr. Schumer to fight back harder.

It isn’t that the Democrats haven’t acted. They are mounting a serious legal campaign to fight the Trump administration in the courts, which could be among the most effective tools of democratic opposition. Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries may gain some leverage in the months ahead, when Republicans will likely need some Democratic support to negotiate raising the debt ceiling and budgets.

But publicly, the sense of immediacy has often been missing. The leadership of America’s opposition party cannot seem to decide if it will work with Republicans where there are areas of agreement, throw up its hands, or fight. Part of the problem is a lack of consensus in the party about why the Democrats lost elections in November and what should be done about it.

This is a vital debate. But America doesn’t have time to wait for Democrats to find the perfect message.

What Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries can do is convey the enormous danger of this moment, immediately and continuously, as well as how the gutting of a particular government program and the trampling of constitutional power will affect people’s lives. They can defend with a ferocious resolve the values that millions of Americans still fiercely believe in: civil rights and the rule of law; science and respect for the earth; freedom of religion; the dignity of all human beings.

The most powerful resources available are attention and public pressure. We know this in part because of the showdown over Mr. Trump’s federal funding freeze on Jan. 27. Made aware they would be directly impacted, Americans mobilized. Two days later, Mr. Trump caved.

Mr. Schumer’s approach at least appears to be evolving, and quickly. After voting yes on two of Mr. Trump’s cabinet nominees, the minority leader has said in recent days he plans to vote no on Mr. Trump’s remaining picks, and has urged other Senate Democrats to do the same. Monday the Senate started a whistle-blower hotline to collect evidence for legal challenges and allow civil servants to report abuses of power and threats to the public.

“I’m getting more and more furious,” Mr. Schumer told me. “At first the voters were just down in the dumps, but I think they were like me when they saw how bad this was. They said we can’t just — you know, my father taught me a lesson. He said when you’re doing something important, look in your heart.” He would say, “Make sure it’s the right thing to do. And then persist, persist, persist and don’t give up, and you will succeed.”

Democratic leadership can do more. One idea is to try a daily, war-room-style briefing, speaking directly to Americans about the day’s events in Washington, which have been chaotic and hard to follow. A few Democrats, including Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Brian Schatz, are already doing something similar, keeping Americans updated with livestreams and frequent posts across several social media platforms. This avenue could be helpful to deft communicators across all corners of the Democratic Party, not just progressives.

Better than a perfect message at this hour is a willingness to fight. A small but growing number of determined people in the country have shown the way, refusing to remain silent or back down.

James E. Dennehy of the New York F.B.I. field office vowed to “dig in” to defend the agency amid targeting of agents who worked on investigations related to Jan. 6. “Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,” he wrote to the office’s employees.

David Lebryk, a senior civil servant at the Treasury Department, refused to comply with requests from the Musk workers. U.S.A.I.D. security director John Voorhees and his deputy also denied the Musk employees access to classified information and were put on leave. Mr. Lebryk retired after he was also put on leave.

Among the first public acts of defiance came at the inaugural prayer service from Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who confronted Mr. Trump to his face, asking him to show mercy to immigrants and gay, lesbian and transgender children, and all those in the country who were afraid.

“Was anyone going to say anything?” she later asked The Times.

In the days ahead, that question may be ringing in our ears.