Let's Share our Common Disaster

I have some family obligations until early next week. Perhaps I’ll have some spare time and I’ll squeeze in a post or two. I wanted to hit the highlights, or lowlights, of where I am and I think most of you are, thought I’m not speaking for anyone but myself.

• The Trump Administration is a failure by any reasonable measure that takes into account the role of the executive in our constitutional system. It’s also the most corrupt in American history, by a long shot.

• People who voted for Trump are being hurt by his policies.

• Key institutions, media, law and universities, are under attack by the Trump administration. Some are fighting back, a good number of them are capitulating or trying to negotiate.

• The Trump administration is losing in the courts. They are slow-walking and weaseling out of compliance in some instances, complying in others.

• The Democratic Party response has been fragmented and muted. The majority of the electeds in the party were shocked by Trump’s win and took a long time to recover. Whether the party should re-organize to better fight Trumpism, and if so, how, is still an ongoing debate.

We have well over a year until the attention of the public will be engaged for the midterm election. Even though the politically engaged people reading this blog can’t wait for it, and even though it seems like the political order as we know it has been overturned, a large number of Americans aren’t yet mobilized, motivated or engaged.

In other words, it seems like a lot has happened, and it has, but the response to Trumpism is just beginning. The political raw materials are there, but little has been built from them. We have a long way to go before change can come, if it ever does.

Open thread.