The Urgent Need for Televised Opposition Hearings

Unmasking Trumpism

Our President is a reality TV star, and Americans—along with audiences around the globe—are tuning in. They want to see Trump: White House Season 2. Like all good sequels, the characters are more refined, and the stakes are higher. The future of American democracy in 2025 is unwritten, and the plot unfolds in real-time. This is a grim reality, but it would be foolish for the opposition to ignore it—or worse, fail to capitalize on it.

I went from working for Democrats to spending the past year and a half with The Lincoln Project, a political PAC founded by former Republican campaign strategists. There, I learned some of the hard-line messaging tactics Republicans have used for decades to defeat Democrats. Republican operatives know how to define opponents early, sharply, and relentlessly—exactly what Democrats need to do right now.

Congressional Democrats must start holding weekly, televised, primetime hearings—immediately. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hinted at this possibility in a recent “Dear Colleague” email, but few details have emerged. Witnesses should include civil servants fired by Elon Musk, everyday Americans affected by reckless budget cuts driven by extremist ideology rather than public support, and scholars on authoritarianism who can explain Trumpism in a digestible, historical context. Americans are desperate for this kind of leadership. The hearings would be “unofficial” since Democrats, as the minority party, lack the authority to convene official hearings—but they could function in much the same way: a large, formal congressional room, a dais with representatives, a witness table, a press table, and an audience.

Televised primetime January 6th hearings, Source: CNN

I’m not suggesting these hearings serve as a Democratic stunt to score political points or antagonize voters. That would be a colossal mistake. Instead, they must transcend party politics and focus on democracy itself—on representative government, on politicians acting in good faith to serve the people. Democrats are no longer just Democrats; they are the Opposition Party, tasked with preserving a democratic system being gobbled up by an autocrat.

The drama does not need to be manufactured—it already exists. Thousands of civil servants have been fired, some in the dead of night, locked out of their computers, and their badges voided. The Opposition Party must invite them to testify. Alongside them should be experts on authoritarianism, who can explain how purging competent, qualified civil servants and replacing them with unqualified loyalists is a textbook move for autocrats restructuring institutions for personal gain. The same applies to Trump’s attacks on the judiciary. He has condemned court rulings he dislikes, labeling judges as “judicial activists.” Meanwhile, J.D. Vance openly urged Trump in 2021 to “Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, [and] replace them with our people…then when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did.” Legal experts should be called to testify on why this is so dangerous.

For decades, Republicans have championed the merits of “small government,” arguing that government overreach encroaches on personal freedom and hinders economic growth. But that does not mean they want the government hollowed out and run by unqualified loyalists. What remains of the pre-Trump GOP operative class I know is appalled by politically motivated, baseless attacks on civil servants. Many “traditional” conservative voters likely are, too. Others, unfortunately, have drunk the Trump Kool-Aid and succumbed to a nihilistic mindset, content to watch the world burn. They are not reason alone to back down from holding hearings.

The structure of these opposition hearings should adapt to Trump’s moves. If he attempts a blanket freeze on federal funding again, the consequences will be felt in communities across America: cuts to food assistance, after-school programs, healthcare, and livelihoods. The Opposition Party must go into these communities and hold field hearings, allowing locals to speak publicly about the devastation these cuts are causing in their lives.

Televised, primetime opposition hearings could be a powerful tool for engaging the public in the urgent fight to protect our democracy from Trump’s assault. At the very least, they would serve as a visual and historical record of the damage inflicted on the country—and of an opposition that refused to stand idly by.

Democrats have Hollywood at their fingertips, and the hearings must harness the chaos on the ground and present it in a compelling, watchable format. They should make some calls and get top-tier producers on a plane to Washington. We still have a constitutional right to a free press. In countries that have succumbed to authoritarianism, the opposition is forced underground, making the task much harder and more dangerous.

Time is of the essence for America.

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