New York Times columnist Ezra Klein wants Democrats to "hold these guys to account" — and by "these guys" he means Republican lawmakers, Trump appointees, and the voters who put them there.
The "defenders of democracy" have moved past subtext.
Rubin set the table by asking what a Democratic majority should actually do with power. "It's not enough to win," she said. "What is the kind of change that you want to see beginning in terms of controlling our economy, taking back regulation, taking back the rule of law?" Note the framing: "taking back." As if the rule of law is a possession that belongs to one party.
Klein picked it up and ran. He pointed to Viktor Orbán's political defeat in Hungary roughly six months ago as a model — a defeat that, in Klein's words, "ushered in an air of accountability and reform." Then he laid out the playbook. Democrats would use gavels in the House and Senate to "refuse to seat more of his corrupt judges." They could "instigate investigations" and "send subpoenas." They could spend 2027 and 2028 holding hearings, then pass their legislative agenda when "that reform era is going to come in 2029."
But the part that should concern every American who's ever cast a ballot for a Republican was what came next. Klein specified that the accountability wouldn't stop at Trump himself. It would extend to "Republicans who are cooperating with this regime." That's members of Congress. Cabinet officials. And the millions of Americans who voted for the policies Klein considers criminal.
Here's the exchange
Rubin didn't push back. She didn't ask Klein to clarify. She nodded along like he was reading a grocery list.
The word "regime" is doing heavy lifting in Klein's framework. Elected governments aren't regimes. Dictatorships are regimes. Juntas are regimes. When you call a twice-elected president's administration a "regime," you're pre-authorizing whatever comes next — investigations, subpoenas, show trials — because you've already classified the opposition as illegitimate. That's not oversight. That's political persecution wearing a procedural mask.
Hon. Vickie Paladino put it plainly: "They want us dead or in prison. There is no limiting principle here."
She's not being dramatic. There is no limiting principle. Klein named no boundary for who counts as "cooperating with this regime." A senator who confirmed a judge? A governor who enforced an executive order? A citizen who donated fifty dollars? The category expands to fit whoever needs punishing.
These are the same voices who spent four years warning that Trump would weaponize the Justice Department against political opponents. Klein writes for the New York Times. Rubin spent years at the Washington Post. Between them they've published thousands of words about the sacred importance of democratic norms, independent institutions, and the danger of criminalizing political disagreement.
Klein's reform era starts in 2029. The investigations start in 2027. The subpoenas have targets. And the targets include anyone who cooperated.