Conor here: The Democrat strategy—to allow Trump to absorb the domestic backlash for an unpopular war while Team Blue can pretend to be anti-war—is not only repugnant, but might also rest on faulty logic because it assumes there will be elections.
On the heels of the Sunday shooting that killed two and injured 14 in Austin, Texas (allegedly by a man conveniently wearing a hoodie emblazoned with “Property of Allah”) there’s a new push to scare Americans about Hamas and Iranian “sleeper cells” across the country.
Daily Mail headline. Feb. 28, 2026
Do folks understand this is about expanding patriot act era surveillance and inching forward to martial law? https://t.co/ZlaHNEp95s
— Polemicist (@PalmTreesnGz) March 1, 2026
An attack or two and martial law and the canceling of elections wouldn’t be surprising—especially with the ICE architecture already in place to deal with any opposition.
And here’s Whitney Webb with yet another Epstein connection to a potential declaration of martial law:
As a related aside, another Israeli intelligence linked company (and also a likely front company) did simulations with US security agencies detailing how the hacking or malfunction of 911 and other systems could be used to provoke the declaration of martial law and the suspension…
— Whitney Webb (@_whitneywebb) February 27, 2026
Now, to the Democrats.
By Jake Johnson, a staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams.
The top Democrats in the US Congress, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, faced backlash on Saturday over what critics described as tepid, equivocal responses to President Donald Trump’s illegal assault on Iran—and for slowwalking efforts to prevent the war before the bombing began.
While both Democratic leaders chided Trump for failing to seek congressional authorization and not adequately briefing lawmakers on the details of Saturday’s attacks, neither offered a full-throated condemnation of a military assault that has killed hundreds so far, including dozens of children, and hurled the Middle East into chaos.
Schumer (D-NY)—who infamously worked to defeat the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned during his first White House term, setting the stage for the current crisis—said he “implored” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “be straight with Congress and the American people about the objectives of these strikes and what comes next.”
“Iran must never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon,” he added, “but the American people do not want another endless and costly war in the Middle East when there are so many problems at home.”
Jeffries (D-NY), a beneficiary of AIPAC campaign cash, said in his response to the massive US-Israeli assault that “Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism, and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region.”
“The Trump administration must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately, provide an ironclad justification for this act of war, clearly define the national security objective, and articulate a plan to avoid another costly, prolonged military quagmire in the Middle East,” said Jeffries.
The Democratic leaders’ responses bolstered the view that their objections to Trump’s attack on Iran are based on procedure, not opposition to war.
This is a disgusting and cowardly statement handwringing about process and the need for a briefing.
No you idiot. This war is a horror and a disaster and must be directly opposed. Any Democrat who can’t say that needs to resign and ESPECIALLY the ones in leadership. https://t.co/CdZoEyNkOy
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) February 28, 2026
Claire Valdez, a New York state assemblymember who is running for Congress, said that “as we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat-clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine.”
“Democrats should speak clearly and with one voice: no war,” Valdez added.
Schumer and Jeffries both committed to swiftly forcing votes on War Powers resolutions in their respective chambers. But reporting last week by Aída Chávez of Capital & Empire indicated that top Democrats worked behind the scenes to slow momentum behind the resolutions, helping ensure they did not come to a vote before Trump launched the war.
“The preferred outcome of many AIPAC-aligned Senate Democrats, according to a senior foreign policy aide to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, is that Trump acts unilaterally, weakening Iran while absorbing the domestic backlash ahead of the midterms,” Chávez wrote.
Neither Schumer nor Jeffries backed legislation last year aimed at forestalling US military intervention in Iran.
The top Democrats’ responses to Saturday’s US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which Trump said would continue “uninterrupted” even after the killing of the nation’s supreme leader, contrasted sharply with statements of rank-and-file congressional Democrats—and even some members of leadership—who condemned the president for shredding the Constitution and driving the US into another deadly war that the American public opposes.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has been floated as a possible 2028 challenger to Schumer, said Saturday that “the American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions.”
“This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people. Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region, and this will be no different.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was more blunt.
“Congress must stop the bloodshed by immediately reconvening to exert its war powers and stop this deranged president,” she said. “But let’s be clear: Warmongering politicians from both parties support this illegal war, and it will take a mass anti-war movement to stop it.”
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They impeached Trump very quickly over a riot when he was leaving office anyway. But not for murdering Suleimani and not for trying for a coup in Venezuela. Now he’s murdered US citizens on the streets and forcibly removed two heads of state and it’s crickets in Congress, except for a very few.
Murder US citizens – OK. Kill America’s “enemies” – the ones who run countries that just happen to have huge reserves of oil – definitely OK! Kaching!
But have followers start a short lived riot that scares our oh so brave Congress as they cower in closets – off with his head!
It’s quite clear whose safety these useless reprobates are really concerned with – just that of members of the BIg Epstein Club that we ain’t in.
Instead of protesting Trump’s reneging on the Iran deal, the #McResistance types I know were busy at that time protesting the firing of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as Attorney General, certain that their Watergate fantasies about Putin hacking Pokémon and sex toys – yes, these were some of the news “stories” consuming the media at the time – were going to eliminate Trump.
These are not serious people with serious politics.
Exactly. They also impeached him for a phone call, and screeched their “outrage” for four years over Russiagate. But destroying one country after another that poses no threat to us, supporting genocide, kidnapping or murdering the leaders of sovereign nations and otherwise violating international law and our own Constitution left and right – it’s “C’mon guys, be straight with us, you gotta keep us in the loop” while counting their AIPAC money.
And almost none of the rank-and-file Democrats, even those who decry “dragging us into another war the American people don’t want,” are willing to declare openly how absolutely EVIL our actions have been, how much death, chaos, and suffering our bipartisan War Party has unleashed on the world beyond their own political calculations or US opinion polls. The Party’s response to Trump’s SOTU address was to put a CIA Democrat up front who opened with her war-mongering credentials, assuring the American People that nothing would fundamentally change.
The hypocrisy of this game is beyond despicable.
And let’s not forget that the phonecall was about NOT shipping weapons to Ukraine. Had Trump followed through, maybe we’d have one less war going on right now.
For what it’s worth, I called both Senators and my Federal Congressional Rep this morning and demanded an immediate end to the war and said nothing less than impeachment for launching this war is acceptable.
They won’t listen, but, I figure, if a few hundred others like me also leave similar voicemails, they may start to feel some pressure.
Congress has been as cowardly as I’ve ever seen. At least they held a vote in 2003. Now, they’re just mumbling to the press about process and procedure. They all support it, but few will openly say it, because they know it’s deeply unpopular.
I heard somewhere that one letter to a congress person is interpreted as the equivalent to the opinions of five-thousand constituents. I wrote and mailed to, rather than called my two senators and one house rep (two Dems, one GOP) over my opposition to our support for the Gaza genocide. I signed my epistles on the proverbial kitchen table with my anger induced violence of pressing so hard that my ballpoint pen tip deeply indented the paper. To their credit, all three wrote me back with long cliched defenses of genocide with the “right to defend crap.” They are not ignorant and to me cynical and comfortable with evil knowing that their political careers are secure. I view slavish adoration to Obama for the quenching of our miniscule at best antiwar movement. Who is going to organize the protests?
Stoller makes some good points in his post this morning…
“Iranians aren’t part of the transnational Davos elite, and are always trying to annoy the people in it by expressing their desire for regional power. So the answer to why you can’t trust the Iranians is that they aren’t part of the club. They don’t paint Cowboys logo on their private jets, nor do they invest in private equity and AI companies, and they aren’t part of investment syndicates for Hollywood studios.
In other words, this attack on Iran isn’t a civilizational conflict, it’s anger from the Epstein class of elites towards a separate group of elites in Iran. Of course, the everyday people who live in these countries want nothing to do with these factional spats. The Americans who have to fight in this war, and the public that must finance it, are unhappy. “
He’s right about the Esptein class. Russia, Iran, and China aren’t in it. The Gulf Monarchs ARE in it. There’s pictures of Crown Prince MBS with Epstein, of course.
The Dems always object over procedure. Never over policy.
The Uniparty wins again!
“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” -Alexis de Tocqueville
“War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.” -George Orwell
Bitter amusement is my reaction when the Israeli War is justified by the blurt, “But they killed protestors!”
Renee Good? Alex Pretti?
It is just the time to remind people how they died, and how that reflects on this justification for the Israeli War.
The Dem estab wants to have its cake and eat it to.
Has no one told them?