What Should Dems do When They Take Control of the House

W. H. Bernstein

by W. H. Bernstein, Facebook, Oct. 16, 2026- So it looks like Democrats will take the House in November, no shock. They may win a majority in the Senate, but I doubt it.

So what should Democrats do in control of the House?  They have limited power: the budget and investigations are mainly it.  There are legitimate investigations they need to have.  But since this administration is a target-rich environment of sleaze and corruption they could easily become overwhelmed with investigations.

My suggestion, like any Democrat has ever asked my opinion, is they should focus on the most serious areas of actual crime and Constitutional abuse.  Those would include:

The bombing of boats in the Atlantic.  The entire rational and intelligence of this operation is still not clear.  What intelligence did they have as to who and what was on those boats?  Who made the decision to destroy them, rather than simply interdicting them, as normal drug enforcement operation would suggest?  Why were two of the survivors whisked back to their home countries instead of standing trial for drug trafficking, as you might expect?  Who authorized any of this, and why?  What legal foundation was there here?

• The killing of Renee Good and others by ICE.  What orders were agents given?  Why were agents involved transferred to other posts, some overseas, or otherwise made unavailable?  What evidence was gathered at the scenes?  Who made the decision to shut down investigations, and why?

• ICE conduct.  What were ICE's orders regarding protestors?  Did ICE compile a database of people protesting peacefully and use it to harass them or target them?

• Trump's pardons.  What process existed for getting a pardon under Trump?  Who bypassed the existing structure and protocols for pardons?  How were pardon decisions made?

• Entanglements with family businesses.  How were contracts awarded to businesses with Trump family ties?  Was there a bidding process?  How involved were family members in these awards?  How or did family members benefit specifically?

• Insider trading.  Did Trump or members of his administration trade on insider information, using futures markets or betting markets like Kalshi?

• High-profile prosecutions.  Who made the decisions to prosecute people commonly taken to be Trump's enemies?  What legal basis was there for these prosecutions?  This includes Lisa Cook, Jerome Powell, and John Bolton.

I've probably missed a number of items, but these alone would keep committees occupied for the next two years.  What I don't want to see is multiple investigations that look politically motivated, with numerous impeachment votes.  Dems don't have the Senate votes to remove Trump, so impeachment would just underscore a desire for clownish political points.

Bill Bernstein, formerly of Nashville where he was owner of Eastside Gun Shop, now lives in Sumter, South Carolina. He is a scholar with a BA degree from Vanderbilt University and degrees in Classics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UNC-Chapel Hill, and University of Pennsylvania.

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