When the Supreme Court ruled last week that states may deny gender affirming care to trans kids, historical echoes rang alarmingly clear. Republican justices created a new constitutional loophole that allows Republican elected officials to discriminate against a class of people they hate.

This placed Democratic leaders in a bind. Their consciences and the nature of their coalition precluded them from saying nothing, let alone from supporting the decision. But they remained determined to disassociate themselves from anything adjacent to controversy. Their strategic commitments precluded them from expressing any forward looking principle: that trans equality would eventually be vindicated, say, or that the ruling was bigoted in its marrow.

That’s why Chuck Schumer alit on a familiar refrain—his party’s all-purpose evasive maneuver for the Trump years: Every outrage is a “distraction.”

"Republicans' cruel crusade against trans kids is all an attempt to divert attention from ripping healthcare away from millions of Americans,” he posted. “We'll keep fighting and we'll keep marching on."

Then, just as quickly, he deleted it.

For months now, Democratic leaders in Congress have had a consistent message for vulnerable constituents: Donald Trump is trying to bait us into helping you, and we won’t be taking the bait. Absent any limiting principles, this “distraction” trope had steered Schumer into describing a big setback to civil equality as something unworthy of his party’s attention.

A different statement now exists on the Senate Democrats’ official website.

“The Republicans’ cruel crusade against trans Americans infringes on the rights of parents and the rights of kids. Once again, Republicans use these issues to divide Americans and distract them from their plans to rip health care away from millions of people. We will keep fighting to protect the rights of all Americans.”

It’s only a small improvement, but the semantic distinction is clearer: The assault on trans rights isn’t a distraction—but Republicans hope it functions as one!

That observation is unobjectionable. Yet read as such, it no longer serves the original purpose of justifying inaction. To the contrary, it underscores the feebleness of Democratic opposition thus far. If a party and its leader will consign politically weak minorities to abuse and second-class status, or deploy military service members against their own countrymen, as ruses to steal money from the Treasury, then they are evil. That in itself is as great an emergency as any legislation, yet the opposition party has given little indication it sees the danger.

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BUNKER BUSTER MENTALITY

On Saturday Trump committed acts of war against Iran. The strikes he ordered were lawless and, by his own lights, impulsive. They contravened hollow but widely believed campaign promises, and flew in the face of U.S. intelligence. Trump opened a Pandora’s box, and left the entire nation hoping nothing terrible spills out.

Now imagine this was also a ruse to turn discourse away from health care cuts, and to deliver tax bounties to the very rich. ...