February, 04 2025, 03:51pm EDT
Grassroots & Progressive Democrats Call for Total Blockade of Trump Nominees
Senate Democrats Must Act With Urgency—Now Is the Time to Be a Real Opposition Party and Block Trump’s Nominees Until His Billionaire Takeover Is Stopped
Grassroots progressives are sounding the alarm: Donald Trump and Elon Musk are engineering a corporate coup, handing the levers of government to unelected billionaires. In one of the most blatant power grabs in U.S. history, Musk has taken control of federal agencies and access to Americans’ private financial and social data under the guise of a so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)—an entity created by executive order with no oversight, no accountability, and no legal authority.
Joseph Geevarghese, Executive Director, Our Revolution, the largest grassroots-funded progressive political organizing group in the United States states, “Let’s be clear: Musk is not a federal employee. He was not appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, or authorized to have any leadership role in government. Yet, under Trump’s orders, Musk is calling the shots—deciding who gets federal funds, raiding classified data, and shuttering agencies established by law. This isn’t governance. It’s a corporate coup."
Despite the ongoing assault on democracy, several Senate Democrats have voted to confirm Trump’s nominees, including fracking CEO Chris Wright for energy secretary. Senators Bennet, Gallego, Hassan, Heinrich, Hickenlooper, King, Luján, and Shaheen supported this nomination, effectively enabling Trump’s billionaire-backed dismantling of public institutions.
Musk’s takeover of the U.S. government has already resulted in chaos and lawlessness:
- Since its inception, DOGE has made attempts to shutter federal agencies, including USAID and the Department of Education, whose existence is codified in law.
- Under Musk’s direction, DOGE staffers have forced their way into federal offices, seized classified information, and barred employees from entering their own workplaces.
- This effort is a Trojan horse for dismantling public institutions and replacing them with private, profit-driven control.
Trump’s blatant collaboration with Musk is an attempt to consolidate billionaire power and dismantle democracy as we know it. This is not efficiency—it’s a coup.
Our Revolution is calling on Senate Democrats to respond with urgency. The Democratic Party must act as a real opposition party by:
- Placing a blanket hold on all Trump nominees. Senate Democrats must vote against every single nominee. Every collaborator who enables Trump’s corporate coup must explain their votes to the public.
- Using every procedural tool available. From quorum calls to blocking unanimous consent, Democrats must bring Senate business to a grinding halt until this coup is reversed.
- Holding Republicans accountable. Trump’s collaboration with Musk is wildly unpopular—Senate Democrats must expose this assault on democracy to the public and demand answers.
This is not the time for silence or half-measures. Grassroots progressives demand bold, decisive action to protect democracy and halt this authoritarian takeover.
Our Revolution will reclaim democracy for the working people of our country by harnessing the transformative energy of the "political revolution." Through supporting a new generation of progressive leaders, empowering millions to fight for progressive change and elevating the political consciousness, Our Revolution will transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families. Our Revolution has three intertwined goals: to revitalize American democracy, empower progressive leaders and elevate the political consciousness.
LATEST NEWS
10,000+ Turn Out in Warren, Michigan to 'Fight Oligarchy' With Bernie Sanders
"We will not accept oligarchy, we will not accept authoritarianism, we will not accept kleptocracy," the democratic socialist senator said. "We're gonna fight back, and we're gonna win."
Mar 09, 2025
The Democratic Party may have twice stymied Sen. Bernie Sanders' White House ambitions, but the National Tour to Fight Oligarchy launched last month by the democratic socialist has been drawing crowds that would be the envy of any presidential campaign.
On Saturday, more than 10,000 people turned out to see Sanders (I-Vt.) speak in Warren, Michigan. Not only did they pack the main event space—the gymnasium at Lincoln High School—literally to the rafters, they filled two overflow rooms, with hundreds turned away outside, according toMichigan Advance.
"We have an administration that is leading us to oligarchy, an administration that is leading us to an authoritarian form of society, an administration that is leading us towards kleptocracy," Sanders said at the beginning of his speech.
Noting that three of the world's richest men—Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—sat in the front row of President Donald Trump's inauguration, Sander said that "instead of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we have now become a government of the billionaire class, for the billionaire class."
Sanders also took aim at Trump's false election claims and the wider "post-truth" trend on the right, telling the crowd: "We're up against a phenomenon that we have never seen, and that is the Big Lie. The Big Lie is not just stretching the truth; the Big Lie is not just fibbing. The Big Lie is creating a parallel universe, a set of ideas that have no basis in reality."
The senator also linked past struggles against injustice with the current crisis, arguing that "the change that we have experienced over hundreds of years of our nationhood only occurs when ordinary people stand up against oppression and injustice and fight back."
Sanders was joined on stage by United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who wore a T-shirt reading "Eat the Rich" and told the audience that "billionaires don't have a right to exist."
Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed, who ran for Michigan governor in 2018 and is considering a Senate run, pointed to the size of Saturday's crowd in Warren as proof of the enduring power of progressivism.
"They want us to step back, and today, all of you have said that we are not stepping back, we are stepping forward," El-Sayed told Michigan Advance. "We are recognizing that in one another, we have all we need to build that government for the people and by the people."
In a dig at the unofficial motto of some Silicon Valley startups, El-Sayed said that the Trump administration wants "to move fast and break things."
"But what they're breaking is the government that our hard-earned tax dollars have been funding," he said. "And we're here to say that that is our money, that is our government, take your damn billionaire hands off of it."
The Warren rally was the latest on a tour that's seen overflow crowds at almost every stop. Thousands also turned out in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Saturday and Kenosha, Wisconsin on Friday to see Sanders speak.
There's more to Sanders' tour than just raging against Trump and the oligarchy. He chose to visit districts where Republicans narrowly won congressional races, hoping to pressure GOP lawmakers to vote against proposed cuts to programs upon which working-class people rely, in order to pay for the $4.5 trillion cost of extending Trump's first-term "tax scam" that overwhelmingly benefited the ultra-wealthy and corporations.
"Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power," Sanders said in a statement Friday. "Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and most of our people are struggling to pay for healthcare, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back."
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'Unite and Resist': Women's Day Rallies Against Trump Held From Coast to Coast
"This is our day to stand together, make our voices heard, and show the world that we are not backing down," said Women's March.
Mar 08, 2025
Women and their allies took to the streets of cities and towns from coast to coast Saturday for a "Unite and Resist" national day of action against the Trump administration coordinated by Women's March.
"Since taking office, the Trump administration has unleashed a war against women driven by the Project 2025 playbook, which is why, more than ever, we must continue to resist, persist, and demand change," Women's March said, referring to the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that, according to the Guttmacher Institute, "seeks to obliterate sexual and reproductive health and rights."
"This is our day to stand together, make our voices heard, and show the world that we are not backing down," Women's March added. "Women's rights are under attack, but we refuse to go backward."
Women's March executive director Rachel O'Leary Carmona asserted that "the broligarchy that owns Trump is working to 'flood the zone' with hateful executive actions and rhetoric, trying to overwhelm us into submission."
"But we refuse to lose focus," she vowed. "We refuse to stand by."
In San Francisco, where more than 500 people rallied, 17-year-old San Ramon, California high school student Saya Kubo gave the San Francisco Chronicle reasons why she was marching.
"Abortion, Elon Musk, educational rights and trans rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change—all of these things, I am standing up for what I believe in," she said.
Her mother, 51-year-old Aliso Kubo, said that "we came out here specifically to support my daughter and women's rights."
Thousands rallied down the coast in Los Angeles, where protester Pamela Baez toldFox 11 that she was there to "support equality."
"I think I mostly want people to be aware that women are people. They have rights," Baez said. "We just want to show everybody that we care about them. People deserve healthcare. Women deserve rights."
Thousands of people rallied on Boston Common on a chilly but sunny Saturday.
"We are the ones who are going to stand up," participant Ashley Barys toldWCVB. "There is a magic when women come together. We can really make change happen."
Boston protester Celeste Royce said that "it was really important for me to be here today, to stand up for human rights, for women's rights, to protect bodily autonomy, to just make myself and my presence known."
Sierra Night Tide toldWLOS that seeing as how Asheville, North Carolina had no event scheduled for Saturday, she "decided to step up and create one."
At least hundreds turned out near Pack Square Park for the rally:
Today at the Women's March in Asheville, NC pic.twitter.com/BPAIZORSUd
— Senior Fellow Antifa 101st Chairborne Division (@jrh0) March 9, 2025
"As a woman who has faced toxic corporate environments, living with a physical disability, experienced homelessness, and felt the impact of Hurricane Helene, I know firsthand the urgent need for collective action," Night Tide said. "This event is about standing up for all marginalized communities and ensuring our voices are heard."
Michelle Barth, a rally organizer in Eugene, Oregon, toldThe Register Guard that "we need to fight and stop the outlandish discrimination in all sectors of government and restore the rights of the people."
"We need to protect women's rights. It's our bodies and our choice," Barth added. "Our bodies should not be regulated because there are no regulations for men's bodies. Women are powerful, they are strong, they're intelligent, they're passionate, they are angry, and we're ready to stand up against injustice."
In Grand Junction, Colorado, co-organizer Mallory Martin hailed the diverse group of women and allies in attendance.
"In times when things are so divisive, it can feel very lonely and isolating, and so the community that builds around movements like this has been so welcoming and so beautiful that it's heartwarming to see," Martin toldKKCO.
In Portland, Oregon, protester Cait Lotspeich turned out in a "Bring On the Matriarchy" T-shirt.
"I'm here because I support women's rights," Lotspeich
said in an interview with KATU. "We have a right to speak our minds and we have a right to stand up for what is true and what is right, and you can see that women are powerful, and we are here to exert that power."
The United States was one of dozens of nations that saw International Women's Day protests on Saturday. In Germany, video footage emerged of police brutalizing women-led pro-Palestine protesters in Berlin.
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'Dangerous Union-Busting': Trump Rescinds Collective Bargaining for Air Safety Union
"Let's be clear: This is the beginning, not the end, of the fight for Americans' fundamental rights to join a union," said one labor leader.
Mar 08, 2025
Labor advocates condemned Friday's announcement by the Trump administration that it will end collective bargaining for Transportation Safety Administration security officers, a move described by one union leader as an act of "dangerous union-busting ripped from the pages of Project 2025."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed in a statement Friday that collective bargaining for the TSA's security officers "constrained" the agency's chief mission of protecting transportation systems and keeping travelers safe, and that "eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles that will strengthen workforce agility, enhance productivity and resiliency, while also jumpstarting innovation."
All the union leaders who supported Trump (like Sean O'Brien) should have to answer some painful questions about Trump rescinding collective bargaining rights for TSA agents.
[image or embed]
— Mike Nellis (@mikenellis.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 10:03 AM
As Huffpost labor reporter Dave Jamieson explained:
Workers at TSA, which Congress created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, do not enjoy the same union rights as employees at most other federal agencies. Bargaining rights can essentially be extended or rescinded at the will of the administrator.
Those rights were introduced at TSA by former President Barack Obama and strengthened under former President Joe Biden. But now they are being tossed aside by Trump.
"Forty-seven thousands transportation security officers show up at over 400 airports across the country every single day to make sure our skies are safe for air travel," Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in response to DHS announcement. "Many of them are veterans who went from serving their country in the armed forces to wearing a second uniform protecting the homeland and ensuring another terrorist attack like September 11 never happens again."
Kelley argued that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "have violated these patriotic Americans' right to join a union in an unprovoked attack."
"They gave as a justification a completely fabricated claim about union officials—making clear this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety, or homeland security," he said "This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union."
AFGE—which represents TSA security officers—has filed numerous lawsuits in a bid to thwart Trump administration efforts, led by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to terminate thousands of federal workers and unilaterally shut down government agencies under the guise of improving outcomes.
"This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union."
"Our union has been out in front challenging this administration's unlawful actions targeting federal workers, both in the legal courts and in the court of public opinion," Kelley noted. "Now our TSA officers are paying the price with this clearly retaliatory action."
"Let's be clear: This is the beginning, not the end, of the fight for Americans' fundamental rights to join a union," Kelley stressed. "AFGE will not rest until the basic dignity and rights of the workers at TSA are acknowledged by the government once again."
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement: "TSA officers are the front-line defense at America's airports for the millions of families who travel by air each year. Canceling the collective bargaining agreement between TSA and its security officer workforce is dangerous union-busting ripped from the pages of Project 2025 that leaves the 47,000 officers who protect us without a voice."
"Through a union, TSA officers are empowered to improve work conditions and make air travel safer for passengers," Shuler added. "With this sweeping, illegal directive, the Trump administration is retaliating against unions for challenging its unlawful Department of Government Efficiency actions against America's federal workers in court."
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