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It's Lent, so I have a hard confession to make: Elon Musk's chaotic governing style might hold valuable lessons for Democrats as we attempt our own resurrection this spring.
Every new announcement from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—the government initiative created to streamline operations—generates headlines, influences public discourse, and keeps attention focused squarely on Musk himself.
Despite my misgivings about DOGE's actual actions and policies as a government entity, it maintains remarkably high approval among the U.S. electorate. DOGE thrives because it embodies Silicon Valley's ethos: act first, figure out details later.
While this "move fast and break things" mentality can be disastrous in governance, Democrats currently face the opposite problem: excessive caution and hesitation. Too often, we move too slowly, paralyzed by fear of imperfection. But to beat DOGE's influence and Musk's media mastery, Democrats must embrace action over endless process.
For too long, Democrats have fostered a political culture where we talk about problems, study them endlessly, and wait for the perfect solution to emerge—usually from a committee. But lately, something has shifted. Across the country, our party is starting to rediscover the power of action. And it might just be what saves our democracy from Donald Trump's dangerous momentum—and builds a better future in the process.
That's why Senator Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) recent 25-hour speech on the Senate floor—a passionate stand against the Trump administration's first actions in office—made waves.
It wasn't just a performance. It was an exuberant, public-facing sign of what's finally happening across the Democratic Party: a movement that prioritizes showing up, speaking out, and doing the work. And Booker isn't new to action. He helped pass bipartisan criminal justice reform and has led national anti-hunger initiatives.
But even more exciting than what one senator is doing is what thousands of Democrats are now doing at every level of government—finally putting progress over process.
Take the renewed focus on battleground states. In Wisconsin, Democrats invested early and boldly in organizing efforts that helped win a critical state Supreme Court race. In Florida, instead of writing the state off, the party is rebuilding from the ground up and has already made double-digit gains in just four months. We're finally backing up our values with infrastructure—not in the last few months of a campaign, but year-round, community by community.
But the most exciting sign of change is a new initiative by NewDEAL Leaders and The Next 50. This project is a partnership to identify and support 50 next-generation Democratic leaders—not in Washington but in school boards, city halls, and statehouses across America. These are people solving real problems: expanding affordable housing, protecting public education, and fighting for economic dignity in communities that national Democrats often overlook.
The brilliance of this project isn't just that it recruits good candidates—it builds capacity. It gives leaders the training, networks, and resources they need to win elections and govern effectively. It's a rejection of top-down politics and a bet on real-world leadership.
While Washington is mired in endless debate, this initiative says: let's just go do the work.
That's a fundamental shift Democrats desperately need. As Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue in their new book on abundance, we're often so obsessed with process that we fail to build anything at all.
Take broadband access: despite historic federal investment, only a handful of states have actually broken ground because the approval process is buried under a mountain of red tape. We love planning. We're terrible at delivering.
Even Pope Francis spoke to this issue in his first interview as pontiff. He urged leaders to live "on the frontier," not trap themselves in the lab. Real change, he said, comes from proximity—being close to people's pain and hope.
That's exactly what I saw in my home state of Tennessee after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. Thousands of Tennesseans—students, parents, teachers—demonstrated at the state capitol. There were no polished talking points or white papers. Just grief, anger, and a desperate demand for action. That raw urgency did more to move the needle on gun reform in Tennessee than any 12-point policy plan ever could. People didn't want our theories. They wanted someone to show up and act.
The New Deal and Next Fifty partnership is doing that. So are local organizers in Wisconsin and Florida. So is Cory Booker. If we want to defeat Trumpism—and counter Musk's influence in shaping narratives—this is how we do it: not just with better messaging but with relentless, visible action.
Democrats don't need more process. We need more movement. To beat DOGE, let's learn from DOGE. It's time we started moving.
Christopher Hale is a Democratic operative from Tennessee. He led national Catholic outreach for President Obama's reelection campaign and served as the cofounder of Catholics for Harris.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
