The Pace Of Resistance

 Writers like mistermix are pissed that Democrats have been largely passive this week, with a few exceptions. He thinks that they need to push back on things like Elon Musk's overt appeals to Nazism. 

I get it. I think we all want that magic button we can push that just ends Trump's febrile grasp on our national discourse. "Why won't Democrats say the magic words" is great if there were magic words. As the campaign showed, there is not enough currency in truth anymore.

The problem with the "Do Something" caucus is that Trump hasn't be president for a week yet. He is doing or attempting to do real harm across all sorts of vectors, and there has been at least some pushback already on things like birthright citizenship. They came within one vote of scuttling Hegseth, and the fact that they couldn't is 100% NOT the fault of Democrats. 

As I wrote last Tuesday, you are not likely to see Donald Trump face real justice. This era is not going to be conducive to Victory Days, where we vanquish (name your preferred cause).

We are certainly NOT going to defeat Trumpism (again) this week or this month.

Trump has the wind at his back, and he has a blueprint in Project 2025 that relies on moving quickly to "overwhelm" Washington. However, his firing of the Inspector Generals on Friday is pretty clearly illegal, and there are some Republican Senators who feel that actually matters. Hegseth will - I feel confident about this - be blunted by the Pentagon's vastness. 

Remember, most of the people around Trump are idiots or at least profoundly ignorant. To the degree they are smart it's in suckling up to Tangerine Jesus or working their own grifts. They are slightly more capable George Santoses. When you have a conservative judge lambasting the lawyers on the birthright citizenship filing, it's not because he's a part of the "Resistance", it's because the lawyers are dumbasses arguing dumbass positions. 

Then you have Trump's cozying up to billionaires. People don't like billionaires, whether they are throwing of Nazi salutes or not.

When the Japanese spread rapidly over the Pacific, they extended themselves too far, too fast. It became known as "Victory Disease". When Russia invaded Ukraine, much of their army pushed quickly towards Kyiv, before being stuck in a traffic jam and slowly chewed up. 

The famous dictum "Never interrupt your opponent when they are making a mistake" I really think applies here. The Trumpists are taking Trump's 49.9% popular vote as a mandate to reshape America is ways that are going to be profoundly unpopular and damaging. Republicans will own every measles outbreak, every inflationary spike from tariffs, every family ripped apart by deportations, every failure of FEMA or other government agencies. They own it all.

If Democrats controlled even one branch of government, then "doing something" would be appropriate. But there are not magic words to reverse this blitzkrieg. Of course, in the long run, the Blitzkrieg failed.