Cowardice is the Vichy Democratic Party’s Only Principle

By Jacob Weindling  |  April 30, 2025 | 11:13am
Photo by The White House
Congress Democratic Party
Cowardice is the Vichy Democratic Party’s Only Principle

The split between the Vichy Democrats and those who truly care about democratic principles continues to widen, as The Bulwark reports today that Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries is “discourag[ing] further excursions to [El Salvador] even as pressure mounts within the party to turn up the heat on Trump for sending 238 men to a notorious prison known for human rights abuses.” A senior House staffer told The Bulwark that “they want to let the El Salvador stuff slow down,” and Jeffries’s office declined to comment on this report. The only conclusion you can come to from this report is that the Democratic House Leader is not interested in standing up for the basic concept of due process, aligning him more with the GOP and America’s aspiring autocrat than most Independents and Democrats.

I wrote last week how the popularists, a bunch of weak cowards who have never understood politics, had their core thesis proven wrong that there is no upside to attacking Trump on immigration, his strongest subject in poll after poll. Trump has now slipped into net negative territory on immigration, something that anyone with a cursory understanding of issue polling could see the potential for. Taking a politicians’ strength and turning it into a weakness was Karl Rove’s primary tactic that he used to great success against the Democratic Party, and the fact that Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries look at a proven successful strategy as something to run away from reveals their true colors: yellow.

Hey @mattyglesias.bsky.social why did you delete this tweet?

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— Jacob Weindling (@jakeweindling.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 9:56 AM

Vichy Democrats are cowards. The only commonality across all their action and inaction is an unwillingness to fight for what they supposedly believe in. The Democrats have won one non-incumbency presidential election since 1964 that did not take place during or in the immediate wake of a recession, proving that Vichy Democrats’ only strategy is to twiddle their thumbs until a Republican crashes the economy and then pick up the pieces. Jeffries reportedly telling his party to stop standing up for basic American principles is more proof that there are no principles among the “leadership” in this party who if they had their way, would let Trump run roughshod over the entire constitution just so they could talk about a ten percent decline in the S&P 500.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has strongly positioned herself on the Vichy Democrats’ side, as she hugged Donald Trump yesterday before thanking him for investing in her state during his fascist rally where the crowd cheered images of people being thrown into El Salvador’s concentration camp. The 2028 hopeful was last seen cowering in the corner of the Oval Office and covering her face after realizing her terminal bipartisan brain had led her to be a prop in Trump’s press conference, but last night she seemed to feel less shame because she could tout a new mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base coming in 2028.

Trump invites Gretchen Whitmer to speak. She avoids praising Trump, but says “I am so grateful that this announcement was made today” and shakes hands with him

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM

That this all happened at the same time that ABC News’ interview with Trump was released is proof that the cosmos have a sense of humor. President dipshit seemed to think that the most obvious photoshop of all time on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s hands was real, saying to Terry Moran after mild pushback that “I never heard of you. I picked you. You’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed…Just say yes!”

None of what Trump is doing right now comes from a position of strength. He is whining about his polls, demanding that Fox News fire their pollster, and he is so clearly on his heels. Any mildly competent party could see this and go on the broad offensive where Trump is underwater on every subject, but the Vichy Democrats live their entire lives playing prevent defense. They are constitutionally incapable of spotting weakness, because no one is weaker than they are. They have literally one idea, just waiting for the economy to turn south so they can use braindead phrases like “kitchen table issues” that no normal people use.

Hakeem Jeffries and Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom are relics of a previous age of Democrats who never figured out how to win a presidential election on their own, and cowardice is their only animating principle. We can only hope that Chris Van Hollen and many other Democrats who are stepping up to meet the moment and fight for basic rights like due process are what the future Democratic Party will look like, because French history very clearly tells us what road the Vichy Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries want to lead us down.

UPDATE: After The Bulwark’s article was published and outrage mounted, Hakeem Jeffries’ office decided they did actually want to comment on the story, as The Bulwark updated their piece, writing “Jeffries’s office initially declined to comment. But after the publication of this piece, a spokesperson put out a statement calling it false. The spokesperson, Christie Stephenson, said the item was ‘thinly sourced,’ leaving out that their office did not initially push back when contacted prior to publication.” What Jeffries actually believes, per usual, is difficult to nail down, but as The Bulwark notes, “Whether Jeffries believes having House Democrats physically go to El Salvador will help or hinder efforts to get Abrego Garcia back is not addressed either in Stephenson’s statement or his own comments following the Supreme Court decision.”

2nd UPDATE: Hakeem Jeffries himself finally answered this question, and he endorsed “site visits outside America.” I have updated the piece to make Whitmer the photo for this critique, and not Jeffries, and will write an update tomorrow investigating what the heck happened where they waited for a full-blown firestorm to mount before denying something they had the opportunity to deny before the story ever came out.

BREAKING: I asked Hakeem Jeffries about the viral report that he and leadership want Dems to stop going to El Salvador

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— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 11:11 AM

 
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