Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student, was born in South Korea. She came to the U.S. at 7-years-old and legally obtained a permanent residency. In early March, the U.S. government threatened her with deportation. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, is currently imprisoned at an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana. He was detained on March 8 and has been fighting unlawful deportation since.
Both of these students participated in protests against Israel last year, to varying degrees, exercising their First Amendment right in attempting to hold institutions accountable. This political activism has now burdened them with a fight against overt, fascist infringement on their liberty. Their lives have since been overturned as they undergo legal battles with the federal government.
Earlier in this same month, our elected Democratic officials were also protesting the fascist administration they warned us about so fervently last election season. Young adults attending university, like Mahmoud Khalil or Yunseo Chung, have made far braver and more impactful stands against the Trump administration with far more to lose.
During President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, for example, some Democratic lawmakers took the opportunity to express their disapproval. In a daring move, they wore shades of bright pink clothing to call attention to the harm Trump’s policies are doing to women. Wearing vivid clothing was the most some were willing to do to object to his misogyny and assaults on reproductive health care.
This colorful message was joined by small, circular signs that read things like “Musk steals,” “Liar,” “Save Medicaid” and more. These silent comebacks had no impact on the address, but made for a lovely photo shoot. It accomplished nothing but PR.
Since then, there has been little more noise from Congressional protests. In parallel, Chung and Khalil have made regular protests against the Trump administration’s fascism. As he slashes budgets, destroys the Department of Education and violates citizen’s rights, Democrats sit on their hands as privileged bystanders. Their performative concern for our descent into fascism has no teeth and is concerned primarily with the optics rather than results.
This total absence of backbone is especially glaring when at the same time, student protesters — especially those from targeted and marginalized groups — are being victimized and silenced. Democrats' efforts and commitment to the cause of anti-fascism stand in stark contrast to the work being done by those student organizers.
Their continued struggle against growing authoritarian rule highlights the many ways Democrats have abandoned organizing or protesting in order to maintain the status quo. Even those with power to make change secede it to Trump’s agenda for fear of making waves, just like protesters who merely perform their disapproval.
Just a few weeks ago, minority leader Chuck Schumer helped pass a Republican federal funding bill, surrendering any leverage Democrats had in the Senate in the name of harm reduction by citing his fear of a government shutdown; subsequently granting President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk further power.
