What, then, is the House Democrats’ role in the resistance? How are they to spend their time? “It is up to us to make sure that the public knows what is happening here, and how it affects them,” Pelosi said Wednesday.

In other words, all they’ve got is messaging.

That means cutting through the daily frenzy of Donald Trump’s early morning agenda-setting and score-settling on Twitter. “It’s an ancient Chinese, and even more modern, theory of war that one of the things you do in order to win a war is to make sure the other side cannot make its case,” Pelosi said. “So, as soon as they’re doing something—and if it’s not going well, and we’re succeeding in pointing that out, they change the subject. He’s an illusionist.”

Messaging on the Hill also mean sending a crisp signal to Republicans that Democrats will not bail them out with any votes if they go through with a risky escapade such as, say, repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement lined up. Rep. Frank Pallone, ranking Democratic member on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, said his party had a “tremendous” amount of leverage—enough to hold their ground against Republicans…

The minority’s most powerful messaging weapon, though, is in not allowing congressional Republicans to operate independently of the madness radiating from the White House.