U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, shouts out as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Texas Democrat, did his best to make “good trouble” during President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress since taking office in January.
Brandishing his cane, the Lone Star septuagenarian rose from his seat in the U.S. House chamber and challenged Trump’s claim that he has a sweeping mandate to enact the tidal wave of changes his Republican administration has unleashed within the federal government.
Green stood alone, with his Democratic colleagues content to sit silent and hold quaint church fan signs with words that called the president a liar and criticized billionaire bureaucrat Elon Musk.
“If [Democrats] are going to use a 77-year-old heckling congressman as the face of their resistance, then bring it on,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, told Fox News after Trump’s speech. “But we’re not going to tolerate that on the House floor, and I don’t think the American people are going to tolerate that either.”
For the time being, let’s set aside Johnson’s apparent amnesia when it comes to far more outlandish outbursts from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and other GOP lawmakers during former President Joe Biden’s speeches to Congress. Their antics occurred despite pleas from Johnson for decorum.
Otherwise, the speaker’s assessment of Democrats is spot on. Before, during and since Trump’s address, they have been hard pressed to present a united front or take advantage of the mayhem that has ensued since Trump, Musk & Associates set upon their mass purging of government jobs, on-again/off-again tariffs and a 180-degree turn on U.S. global diplomacy.
The chaos has even led some diehard Republicans to question the administration’s direction, notably U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. Otherwise a Trump dieheard, he’s consistently issued warnings against any alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the senator has called “a gangster” and “an evil man” who “makes Jeffrey Dahmer look like Mother Theresa.”
Yet even with the current situation begging for a voice of reason, Democrats have fumbled to present a coherent message. And for a party that’s desperately trying to make headway after losing last year’s presidential election and its slim U.S. Senate majority, that’s not a recipe for success.
Rachel Janfaza has paid attention to the Democrats’ decline for a while now. She’s a journalist who follows Gen Z political trends and young voters (I recommend her Substack), a group that will be critical in next year’s midterms and the 2028 presidential election when Trump (presumably) won’t seek another term.
Before Trump’s speech to Congress, Janfaza took note of Democrats’ cringeworthy use of social media. First, nearly two dozen Senate Democrats posted almost identical Instagram reels with the caption “Sh-t That Ain’t True” ahead of Trump’s address. Next, they latched on to a months-old “Choose Your Fighter” Tik Tok trend.
Watch those links, especially if you’re part of Gen X, a boomer or even a millennial. Tell me they don’t give you that same feeling I get when my teen daughter says: “Dad, stop dancing!”
The awkwardness – and lack of impact – certainly made an impression with Janfaza in the most recent of her newsletter, The Up and Up.
“The futile social media plays come as every hour, if not minute, young Americans are getting real-time alerts about how Trump (and yes, Musk) are dismantling core government systems – rolling back federal employment protections, gutting funding, and targeting programs that could directly impact their futures (including internship and educational programs),” she wrote.
Democrats are also failing to fill the void here in Louisiana, where Republican state leaders and lawmakers have adroitly held the spotlight on matters such as criminal justice and reproductive health. Progressives can’t gather enough support to steer the party where they think it needs to head, and moderates desperately long to regain the middle ground they lost long ago to the GOP.
There’s one lesson for Democrats to learn from Rep. Al Green’s quixotic moment on the House floor, and it comes straight from the soul music mainstay with whom the congressman shares a name: “Let’s Stay Together.”
If they can’t at least do that, they should get used to another greatest hit from Green: “Tired of Being Alone.”