AP
The Democratic camp is either in a state of paralysis or chaotic Brownian motion — both at the grassroots and at the top, but mostly behind the scenes. On the lighted main stage, the debates focus on assigning blame for the epic electoral failure.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has hastily disappeared from public view, retreating to Hawaii to lick her wounds in isolation from the disgrace. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken remain conspicuously silent — essentially hiding in the shadows.
The prematurely «retired battery-powered grandpa» (his visit to the G20 summit doesn’t count) is living out his final months in the White House without making any theatrical farewell gestures.
Former White House communications director and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki has admitted the obvious: the Democrats are «at an impasse», virtually leaderless. They lack an unchallenged figure capable of uniting a party that has fractured into factions from what was once a cohesive entity.
All signs, confirmed by Psaki, point to a governor as the successor to Sleepy Joe and Cackling Kamala. The favorite appears to be Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, who has boldly declared that his «Sunshine State» is «ready to take on» the U.S. president.
«The Democrats, like it or not, need a new front man or woman», says close observer of American politics Malek Dudakov. «Someone has to embody the fight against the ‘Trump dictatorship’ and set the tone ahead of the next congressional midterm elections in 2026».
Who Can Play the Lead Role?
In order to elevate a new leader who can match Trump’s stature and popularity, neoliberals will need to launch a massive and costly public relations campaign. But there’s a catch: the loyal Democratic media is in deep crisis, facing shrinking audiences, plummeting ratings, and dwindling revenues.
The loudest neoliberal mouthpiece, CNN, is laying off hundreds of journalists, including anchors of top-rated programs. Its headquarters have been put up for sale. CNN’s primetime audience (8–10 p.m.) has shrunk to an average of 483,000 viewers, while the conservative, pro-Trump Fox News attracts 3.4 million viewers.
On the eve of the election, two major Democratic-aligned daily newspapers, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, made the unprecedented decision to abandon their roles as propaganda outlets for Kamala Harris and adopt a neutral stance.
The reason is simple: nine years of mudslinging against political opponents has exhausted even those accustomed to stereotypes and prejudice, leaving little capacity for fresh, out-of-the-box thinking. After all, a newspaper is a product of intellectual labor, intended for consumption by those who look beyond the headlines.
As many once Democratic-leaning Silicon Valley intellectuals have followed Elon Musk into the Republican camp, the readership for the Democrats’ battle press and megaphones has begun to dwindle.
What’s next?
A bold idea has been proposed by 49-year-old George «Wiley» Nickel III, a congressman from North Carolina: borrow the British «best practice» of establishing a «shadow government».
The opposition could form a mirror cabinet, a shadow government without portfolios, to scrutinize the administration’s weaknesses, highlight mistakes, and criticize loudly, casting the ruling party in an unfavorable light while scoring propaganda points.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader from deep-blue New York, supports the idea, calling the shadow cabinet a potential «check and balance» mechanism.
Nickel, a third-generation politician, has already drawn up a list of prominent Democrats suitable for this high-profile mission. For example, Rep. Adam Schiff of California is being considered for the role of shadow attorney general. Schiff, infamous for spearheading the campaign to demonize Trump with unsubstantiated claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a familiar face for such duties.
A quote from Nickel’s speech:
«If Trump orders Marco Rubio (the new Secretary of State) to cede Ukraine and much of Eastern Europe to Vladimir Putin, Congressman Greg Meeks could be a strong voice for international relations and the defense of democracy at home and abroad as Shadow Secretary of State».
If the shadow cabinet becomes a reality, Nickel envisions the following obvious roles:
- Shadow Secretary of the Treasury: Senator Michael Bennet.
- Shadow Secretary of Commerce: Washington State Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (currently under personal sanctions, including a travel ban to the Russian Federation).
- Shadow Secretary of Defense: Congressman Adam Smith, also of Washington, and a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Smith’s job, according to Nickel, is to «counter Trump’s threat to use military force against his political opponents and ensure that the Department of Defense remains loyal to the Constitution, not a super-dictator».
However, America’s political climate presents obstacles to the institutionalization of a shadow government. In the polarized atmosphere following the onset of the «culture wars», in which myths of national greatness and virtue are being dismantled, the emergence of an opposition government could further fracture the nation.
In the context of an undeclared civil war between Democrats and Republicans, traditionalists and neoliberals, an alternative cabinet could catalyze «bipolar governance». Blue states could refuse to comply with federal directives, i.e., presidential orders.
Amid the mass riots planned by the losing side’s strategists for Trump’s inauguration, even the appearance of dual power could provoke a constitutional crisis.