And I’m not seeing a lot of signs that the mass of people are currently upset about what they’re seeing. As of Sunday, Trump’s approval rating at FiveThirtyEight was 49–44 to the good. Reflect on that: After these insanely unqualified Cabinet nominations, after giving Musk and his former interns access to the government’s most sensitive information systems, after announcing in essence that the United States of America will embrace a war crime as policy if need be, after trying to follow through on his main campaign promise (tariffs) and pathetically backing down within eight hours, after illegally firing inspectors general and FBI agents and other Justice Department lawyers; after all that and more, he’s at 50 percent.
I suspect that will change as the consequences of all this become clearer. But that’s going to take a while. That doesn’t mean, however, that Democrats should just sit around and wait. That’s what they always do. It’s what they did after they lost Bush v. Gore. It’s what they did after the George W. Bush administration bullied (most of) them into quiescence after 9/11. It was an abdication then, and it would be far worse an abdication now, given the malevolent nature of Trump’s plans.
No, Democrats. No sitting around and waiting for things to change. Help make them change. Public opinion will shift more quickly if you kindle that shift. This is the key psychic and emotional difference between Democrats and Republicans in my adult lifetime: Democrats are passive and timorous in the face of public opinion that isn’t squarely in their corner, whereas Republicans look at an adverse poll number and say, “OK, how do we change it?” They don’t always succeed—George W. Bush failed at privatizing Social Security in 2005. But they always, always try.
onomastics88 on February 10th, 2025 at 13:26 UTC »
Ok so I had some thoughts and conversations with actual people out here, not a large sample, but here is my takeaway thoughts. Some people think the checks and balances will save us. It’s hearsay from trumper old people, but they think gutting government programs has been needed a long time and about time someone is doing that.
So we’re all not on the same fucking page right now. I mean the short version of a trumper, in the kindest terms for me, is that they’ve waited their whole lives for the president of the United States to actually do a damn thing, and now he is and they like how decisive he is.
In return to that thought, I ask, here, if Biden did exactly the same things, step by step, including Elon musk and doge and project 2025, calling to ignore courts, Canada, the Middle East, tariffs, killing DEI, etc., they’d be rightfully alarmed, wouldn’t they? They’d say he can’t do that. They’d be like, who does the president think he is? And I would also be alarmed because it’s nuts.
So to get to a point, who do they think all this is actually benefitting? If a democrat did the exact EXACT same things, they’d see it was demolishing democracy and it doesn’t benefit themselves and only benefits the democrat president. And they’re against having a democrat for president benefitting from it and they wouldn’t believe a democrat in charge telling them he’s doing it to make America great again. They’d smell the fascism like I do. They’d recognize it as a traitorous act from a bully who doesn’t give a shit about we the people.
bryan-healey on February 10th, 2025 at 13:20 UTC »
the problem remains that for the majority of Americans, not much of this is real yet.
that's not trying to dismiss the grave seriousness of what is happening; just that, on the ground level, not much has really changed yet. and so, a lot of Americans are stuck in this state of unsure anxiety, aware that stuff is happening, but not exactly sure what that will mean in practice, or what they should try to do about it.
the calculus will start to shift once the ground level impacts are tangible, or something undeniably terrible happens (think: political purges, military action, etc). once jobs are disappearing by the hundreds of thousands, or the prices of goods start to skyrocket, or we invade Canada, a lot of Americans will start to really panic.
and honestly, my suspicion has been that the first real moment will probably be an assassination. it won't be definitively the fault of Trump or his immediate allies (as in, he won't officially order it or claim credit), but it will be when we all start to collectively recognize the depth and severity of the crisis.
LuvKrahft on February 10th, 2025 at 13:05 UTC »
I’m still stunned the American people just put him back in the White House after seeing our system could barely do anything about him last time he was president. We had to vote him out remember. And they just voted him back in.
Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
“Well. Don’t do that.”
Imma do it anyway ouch.
Doctor, it hurts when I do this.