Pick a fight For all their sky-is-falling rhetoric about Project 2025 last year, Democrats (with exceptions) have settled into business as usual in D.C. They just chose old and busted over new hotness for a top Oversight Committee post. It’s what they know. It’s their comfort zone, well-worn groove, rut [your preferred metaphor here]. Well, the rest of us will be feeling discomfort beyond serving in the congressional minority for the forseeable future. If Democrats have another gear, they’d damned well better find it now. From December 2016 during the first Trump transition: The biggest challenge Democrats face is not Donald Trump, but constitution. Not the one in the National Archives, but their inner constitution. The Democratic Party as an “establishment” organization is conservative by disposition. When shaken or defeated, or when facing the unknown, like now, such organizations by reflex seek safety in the comfortable and familiar. They shy from risk. Democrats fret about what Republicans might say about them at election time. Inner circles across the country worry about fundraising: regular donors might not support untested, young leaders. Democrats fret about how a new direction might induce “division in the party.” (Translation: chieftains might have less influence going forward). […] After confiding my concerns about Democrats playing it safe in the age of Trump, my friend summed up the situation in a single, powerful metaphor: “The Ring has to go to Mordor. It won’t help to carry it back to The Shire.” Thank you. Now if only Democrats will…