There is the thicket, and there is the path. For months, Democrats have been wandering in a thicket of words. Kathy Hochul just showed us the path.
Hochul has been the governor of New York since 2021. A small-ish person with a husky voice, she brings a refreshing unpretentiousness to her job. She spent part of her youth living in a trailer near a steel mill, and all of it living in Buffalo, a city where Moon Boots aren’t worn to make a fashion statement, where chicken is a hot-sauce delivery system, and where football fans celebrate by leaping from truck beds and crashing onto folding tables. Delicacy is not Buffalo’s forte.
Thus, no one should have been surprised on Tuesday, when Hochul was asked to comment on the arrest of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander by ICE agents in Manhattan. As you might expect, her reply was as subtle as a lake-effect snowstorm.
“It’s bullshit,” she said.
If there was ever a mot that was juste, that was it. The mystery is why it has taken the party so long.
There is no disagreement among Democrats about Donald Trump. They have spent months explaining the dangers of his policies, delineating his autocratic tendencies, explicating his Fascist roots, outlining his departures from precedents and traditions.
We have heard from scholars, judges, journalists, scientists, and government officials, all manner of learned and experienced people who have offered their erudition, their insights, and their warnings.
On any given day we’ve heard about Viktor Orbán, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Hannah Arendt, Antonin Scalia, and the emoluments clause. Regular viewers of MSNBC should be eligible for college credit.
Yet Democrats still seem woefully outmatched. That was never more clear than last April, when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked by CNN what he and his party were doing about Trump’s efforts to withhold federal funding from Harvard because of their so-called woke policies and alleged tolerance of anti-Semitism. Replied Schumer, “We sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions.”
Poor Schumer. After devoting a half-century of his life to public service, this has become his legacy. It’s ironic: one man’s deep respect for process and politesse earns him ridicule, while another man’s disdain for norms and traditions and values gets him crypto-currency deals.
Schumer should have just said, “It’s bullshit.”
Which is what Democrats should have been saying all year.
DOGE is going to find $2 trillion in savings? “It’s bullshit.”
U.S.A.I.D. is a criminal organization? “It’s bullshit.”
Pete Hegseth is qualified to be defense secretary? “It’s bullshit.”
Canada is going to become the 51st state? “It’s bullshit.”
Send people to El Salvador without due process? “It’s bullshit.”
Deploy Marines to Los Angeles? “It’s bullshit.”
Tariffs will make America rich? “It’s bullshit.” (The stock market kind of did say that, didn’t it?)
Make tax cuts for the rich permanent, while cutting Medicaid and increasing the debt in One Big Beautiful Bill? “It’s bullshit.”
This is the Bullshit Presidency. Trump is the Bullshitter-in-Chief.
Calling bullshit may not be the stuff of Lincoln-esque eloquence, but sometimes blunt objects can do the job. Joseph Welch finished off Joseph McCarthy by asking, “Have you no sense of decency?” Lloyd Bentsen poleaxed Dan Quayle by pointing out that he was “no Jack Kennedy.”
Trump, for all the contempt in which he holds others, craves attention, which he first attracted by heaping scorn on rivals across the political establishment. Being merely critical of Trump accords him too much respect; it validates his significance. He wants the attention of the elite, good or bad.
What he doesn’t want is the attention of the schoolyard. We saw how riled he became last week when he learned that he was being called a TACO, short for Trump Always Chickens Out. Democrats need a rallying cry, not another dissertation.
Jamie Malanowski is the author of several books, including Commander Will Cushing: Daredevil Hero of the Civil War
