Among Democrats, those are fighting words. Among Republicans, it would be a compliment. In the real world, the call for
La Résistance 2.0 is as tone-deaf as
Florence Foster Jenkins singing a Mozart aria -- the real problem Democrats refuse to acknowledge.
That's not the
only problem facing Hakeem Jeffries either.
The Washington Examiner and Newsmax both report that
Democrats have grown restive under Jeffries and the long string of losses under his leadership. They want a full-on return to Nancy Pelosi-style tactics, and that's awkward while Pelosi remains in the caucus, to be sure:
In the days since Trump won a second term, everything has changed for House Democrats, particularly for Jeffries, as he has taken the reins from Pelosi. Now, he leads a party in the minority that has descended into constant bickering about how to target a president who just received the highest approval ratings of his career.
Some colleagues want Jeffries to return the party to the thundering Democratic resistance brand of the Pelosi era. Others are burned out after years of opposition to Trump only to lose to him and warn that a decisive change of strategy is warranted to deal with the popular president. Jeffries himself has warned that Democrats are in a different and more difficult position now than they were nearly a decade ago, with less power to negotiate with the opposition.
Republicans “control the House, the Senate, and the presidency,” the House minority leader said during a press conference Friday. “It’s their government. What leverage do we have? We are going to try to find bipartisan common ground on any issue.”
Needless to say, the political environment made it a lot easier for Pelosi to conduct
La Résistance 1.0 eight years ago. Despite his narrow win over Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump remained largely unpopular, and Clinton's attempt to smear Trump with the Russia-collusion hoax did a lot of damage up front during his presidency. That gave Pelosi a lot of room for her tactics, and she had other assets as well, to which we'll come in a moment.
