As Ground Shifts, ‘Flailing’ Democrats Struggle to Find Footing in Diversity Fight

President Trump’s aggressive moves against transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion programs have left the Democratic Party casting about for a strategy for how to respond.

The Democratic Party is having an identity crisis about identity politics.

Just weeks into the Trump administration, Democrats are grappling with how to stand up for diversity and defend marginalized groups that have come under assault from the White House, without allowing their party to be defined or marginalized by those fights.

President Trump has pushed to make D.E.I. — diversity, equity and inclusion — a dirty word, racing to unravel diversity programs across the federal government at remarkable speed and claiming, baselessly, that D.E.I. efforts caused the fatal crash between a helicopter and a jet over the Potomac River.

At the same time, he has made a series of aggressive moves against transgender rights, including calling gender care for trans youths “chemical and surgical mutilation,” ordering transgender women in federal prisons to be transferred to men’s prisons and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.

But Democrats are struggling to marshal an effective response. They are debating, publicly and privately, when to push back, how to push back and what, exactly, to push back on.

Some are saying that almost no instances of discrimination — especially rank racism — should go unanswered. Others are pressing the party to be more selective and engage only in cultural battles that are winnable. And still others are urging the party to avoid identity politics altogether — even when Republicans seem to be opening themselves up to a fierce counterattack.