Democrats are busy fighting over what to fight over

When Rep. Al Green of Texas stood up, shook his cane and yelled at Trump during the president’s address to Congress this week, the progressive group Indivisible called it the leadership the party needs. “It was behavior that raised the alarm about how extreme this administration is," said the group’s co-founder, Ezra Levin.

To Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, Green’s outburst was a distraction from the bread-and-butter issues that win elections. “Instead of focusing on protecting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare…too many Americans are talking about a member of Congress being removed from the chamber," he wrote online. “This is not helpful."

Their diverging strategy perspectives reflect a schism inside the party over Democrats’ most promising pathway back to power. Progressives want constant action and are urging core supporters to flood town hall meetings and congressional phone lines to demand an aggressive response to Trump. Moderates say that approach risks turning off centrist voters in highly competitive districts—such as Suozzi’s—who dislike partisan politics and vote their pocketbooks.

The pro-confrontation crowd believes that angry voters turning out at town hall meetings have scared GOP lawmakers, who in turn could become a moderating force on Trump. Many progressives reject the idea that their party has little ability to counter the president’s efforts to fire federal workers, idle entire agencies and unwind longstanding ties with U.S. allies, even though Democrats don’t control the House, the Senate or the White House.

“Be in their faces," said Michele Harney, 68, who attended a constituent meeting held recently by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D., Va.). She recited the slogan of former first lady Michelle Obama, “When they go low, we go high," then added: “I’m tired of going high."

“We can’t just go about like it’s business as usual. We need wartime leaders at this point, because that’s what this is," said Daniel Callahan, 42, who attended a town hall meeting held by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D., Pa.) and said he was frustrated by what he said was her bipartisan posture. Both Harney and Callahan voted for Democratic candidates in recent elections.

Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic pollster with the firm Blueprint, urged a more cautious approach. The party right now isn’t a compelling alternative to Trump, he said, even with stock prices sinking, inflation proving durable and consumers worried that Trump’s tariffs could make it worse.

In a mid-February Blueprint poll, 65% of voters agreed with the statement “No one has any idea what the Democratic Party stands for anymore, other than opposing Donald Trump." Smith said that Democrats should discard any gesture that distracts from showing how the party would help voters if they regained power.

“Voters expect something very clear from the Democratic Party: `You are the center-left party, the party of Social Security and Medicare and the little guy when we are being stepped on,’" Smith said. “Be center-left. Don’t be a spectacle."

Rahm Emanuel, former congressman and White House chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, has said that confrontation won’t help Democrats reach voters. “They’re close to having you on mute, anyway. If it’s only one tone, they’ll shut you down," Emanuel said at a February panel of the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.

Rather, Emanuel said Democrats should use Trump’s policies to draw contrasts that show they understand what is most important to voters. “You want to build housing in Gaza? No, we’re going to build housing right here," he said by way of example. Rather than focus on USAID and foreign aid, he suggested that the party’s governors call an emergency meeting on low student reading scores.

“If you’re going to do a protest, I would do it because eighth-graders can’t read," he said.

The divide over tactics surfaced again on Thursday, as Suozzi and nine other Democrats joined all Republicans in voting to censure Green for his breach of decorum, a gesture to the political center. Five of the Democrats represent highly competitive districts, including three where a majority of voters backed Trump last year.

Where progressives criticized the censuring Democrats, Lauren Harper Pope of the Welcome PAC, which supports centrist Democrats, said those who censured Green know what it takes to win over voters in competitive districts.

The censure vote was only one case in the past week where the party’s centrist and progressive impulses were at odds.

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, broke with liberals by saying trans athletes should be banned from women’s sports, calling it “an issue of fairness. And I think Democrats have lost that." Speaking on his newly launched podcast, Newsom told the conservative activist Charlie Kirk that “I completely align with you" on the issue. His comments were denounced by more-liberal lawmakers.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic mayors of four big cities defended so-called sanctuary city policies that limit cooperation with Trump’s deportation program aimed at removing people who are in the U.S. illegally.

Other Democrats have argued that voters won’t trust the party unless it proves it is serious about border security, as Democrats were punished for perceived chaos at the border under former President Joe Biden. In January, the Laken Riley Act, which imposes harsher penalties on some people in the country illegally, passed with support from 48 Democrats in the House and 12 in the Senate.

The party also took a centrist approach in choosing Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a state that backed Trump for president last year, to give its official response to Trump’s address. Slotkin, who served in Iraq as a CIA analyst, delivered a calm, centrist message that said lawmakers should focus on cutting grocery prices, securing the border and fixing the legal immigration system.

To Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist, protest politics works. Rosenberg, who uses his Hopium Chronicles substack and podcast to encourage Democrats to call their elected officials and organize against vulnerable GOP lawmakers, says the crowds at town hall meetings can both affect policy in Washington and help Democrats in the midterm elections. The GOP currently has a narrow, four-seat majority in the House, with three seats vacant.

“The theory of movement politics is that when people start taking action like this—a simple phone call or letter to Congress—they’re becoming engaged, and that engagement leads to more engagement later," such as voting on Election Day, he said.

Others say that the voters the party needs most are either tuning out performative politics or viewing Democratic protests as a sign of weakness.

“Is it ‘Saturday Night Live’ or real life? Does anyone really think this is the future of the country?" wrote Tim Ryan, a former Ohio Democratic congressman, at the sight of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer leading chants of “We will win" outside the Treasury Department building last month. New York’s Schumer and other Democrats were protesting the work of Elon Musk, Trump’s lead budget-cutter.

During Trump’s address, Green was ejected from the House chamber for his outburst, and other Democrats later walked out. Many of those who remained sat stone-faced, even as Trump gave a special honor to a 13-year-old cancer survivor in the audience. They displayed small signs with anti-Trump slogans.

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) derided it as a “protest-paddle bonanza" and said the party was wrong to “snub" the young cancer survivor.

But Levin, the Indivisible co-founder, says party leaders don’t understand the media environment, which requires messaging pitched to spread online.

“They can’t do it with boring messages and tired talking points—that’s a media strategy for the 1990s," he said. “If you’re not going to create messages that get eyeballs and eardrums, then nobody is going to see your message."

Write to Aaron Zitner at aaron.zitner@wsj.com and Katy Stech Ferek at katy.stech@wsj.com