‘We Don’t Need More Lawyers in Congress’: The Future of the Democratic Party Is Emerging |
‘We Don’t Need More Lawyers in Congress’: The Future of the Democratic Party Is Emerging
By Lis Smith and John Guida
Ms. Smith is a senior adviser to the political organizations Majority Democrats and the Bench. Mr. Guida is an editor in Opinion.
Democrats hardly need reminding that, however unpopular President Trump is at the moment, the Democratic Party is right there with him.
For the midterms, the party is attempting something of a makeover on the fly.
Lis Smith, a senior adviser to two political groups at the center of that effort, Majority Democrats and the Bench, looked inside that project with John Guida, an editor in Times Opinion.
John Guida: We just learned that the Pentagon has requested $200 billion to fund the war in Iran. I’d like to get your sense of how, or if, Democrats are successfully responding to the war.
Here are two brief examples of how Democratic Senate candidates in Maine have opposed the war: One (Graham Platner) has talked on behalf of “the people who are going to see their friends and families maimed and killed in combat” and “going to have to pay for all of this instead of getting health care.” Another (Janet Mills) says that President Trump “can’t simply go out on his own and engage in a dangerous, reckless, unilateral war,” and “without at least consulting and getting authorization from Congress.”
Those are just two examples (and, to be clear, don’t represent the entirety of their responses). But what good or bad or other practices are you seeing among Democrats in their responses to the war?
Lis Smith: This is exhibit A of why we don’t need more lawyers in Congress and need people who bring different life experiences to Washington. Too many Democrats, when something like this happens, default to playing legalistic hall monitor and complaining about how Donald Trump didn’t fill out the right paperwork before launching strikes. That’s technically true and important, but that is not at all a persuasive argument.
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