Sánchez Shows U.S. Democrats How to Oppose a War

By clearly opposing and refusing to participate in Trump’s reckless war with Iran, Pedro Sanchez has done what Democrats should be doing, he stood up to Trump. Unlike most everything in international relations, there isn’t much gray area here. Yes, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his government have committed atrocities, so few mourn his death and no one wants Iran with nuclear weapons. None of this is a rationale for starting a war with Iran alongside Israel at this moment in time.

There’s no strategy or exit plan; there has been no rigorous internal decision-making process (just Trump’s brain and his own morals!); and of course, this war is illegal whether you look at it from international law or from the U.S. constitution. We’re already seeing this widen into a terrifying regional conflict and exploding oil prices are setting off an energy crisis. Oh, and global markets are plummeting.

Many, but not all folks, on the right in the US and around the world might support this conflict. Perhaps out of a rediscovered love for democracy building or maybe just blind loyalty to Trump. From the left, the only reasonable answer to Trump’s deadly folly is an unequivocal no.

The Democratic Party’s job is to oppose Trump. Even if it lacks the power to do so institutionally, it must vocally and symbolically stand up to his desire to be king of the world. Yet Democratic Party leaders are shutting up just when they should be speaking out.

This is not a heavy lift for Democrats. A recent poll shows that 56% of Americans oppose this war, including 86% of Democrats and 61% of independents.

Democrats also cowered at the beginning of the Iraq War but there was a big difference. George W. Bush mounted a public campaign to make his case to the American people and convinced 73% of Americans that it was the right thing to do. Americans were still in shock from 9/11, and so he was able to give Democrats the ultimatum that they were either with him or against him.

So far, Trump himself has made no effort to “sell” this war to the American people. Instead, team Trump has offered up 10 different rationales.

In 2003, many Americans turned to European leaders such as Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder for leadership. Danny Hayes and Matt Guardino detailed how U.S. media outlets turned to foreign leaders in the absence of leadership from the Democrats during that time in their book Influence from Abroad.

Sanchez stepped into a similar space this week, offering a vocal opposition while Democrats offered up complaints about the illegality of this war. Don’t get me wrong, constitutional and international law is important, but Democratic Party leadership must go beyond that and explain to the American people how this war is not in the country’s national interest. And they must do so in ways the average person—who doesn’t care a whole lot about constitutional or international law—can understand.

To be fair, the U.S. presidential system of government lacks a formal opposition leader. However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are the two highest ranking Democrats in the U.S. federal government. If you don’t know who they are and what they’ve said it’s because they’ve done very little that’s memorable since Trump took office. California Governor Gavin Newsom has been much more combative.

Sure, there was a vote last week. Both the House and Senate voted on whether to exercise their power to limit the president’s ability to go to war. This power was granted by the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

Shockingly, both the House and the Senate voted to cede this power—the power of the people—to the White House. Who in government gives up power? This vote was mostly along party lines, but a few Democrats broke away to vote no: Representatives Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Greg Landsman (Ohio) and Juan Vargas (California) and Senator John Fetterman (Pennsylvania). And a few Republicans crossed over to vote yes: Representatives Thomas Massie (Kentucky), the bill’s co-sponsor, and Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky).

Neither Schumer nor Jeffries come close to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership during Trump’s first term in office. She never backed down. Yet both Schumer and Jeffries seem to avoid confrontation with Trump at all costs, the very thing that they are supposed to be doing.

They’ve both put out statements that criticize the unconstitutional nature of this war and at the same time have recognized Iran as a bad actor and expressed support for our troops. These statements are only notable because neither has anything worth quoting.

Every day, this conflict widens, children and other civilians are killed, oil prices spike, markets falter and the world becomes a more dangerous place. Sanchez has defied Trump. Now it’s time for the Democrats to do their damned job.

This is the English version of my column, La Globalista, in El Español.