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.

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TBone Dinosaur1 year ago

"Unease" is wholly inadequate to describe how this SHOULD be feeling IMO. Tom Sullivan at Digby's place rounds up the receipts.

"Last (hesitantly) offers a quote from Suzanne Nossel at Foreign Policy. She suggests that “militant democracy” is needed at this moment. Complacency and adherence to even liberal norms will be the death of the republic:

For civic-minded Americans, the prospect of departing from liberal principles to combat illiberalism does not sit well. It is not just that we are set in our ways, but that most of us still believe that the American way—our institutions, precedents, and principles—are preferable to any alternative. But as legal judgements are skirted, judges are attacked, and accountability mechanisms dismantled, we feel growing unease."

Much more at link:

https://digbysblog.net/2025/06/04/where-at-least-you-know-youre-free/

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Sepideh M1 year ago

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r po1 year ago

"... and took a long time to recover." I see no sign at all that electeds have recovered. Schumer and Jeffries are almost British black comedy levels of parodies of elite human beings. The elite D strategy is crystal clear: if we do nothing, keep our heads down, don't rock the boat in any material way, voters won't blame us for the, ah, situation. The, uh, squall is really not that bad. If we, um, hunker down in the boat, under a tarp, the, er darn little tempest will blow over. And then we win!

We're in the process of moving from GA to AZ. We're talking to lots and lots of people. Family in Athens; we're moving to Tucson, both big university towns. Lots of trades people. Lots of diversity. We see no sign at all, zero, that the Common People give a shit, and definitely not two fucks.

People form their views from the rapacious profit-motivated media their social bubble feels is "true". Reality ain't in it. Might be a hot summer, later, though.

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C P1 year ago

"The elite D strategy is crystal clear: if we do nothing, keep our heads down, don't rock the boat in any material way, voters won't blame us for the, ah, situation."

What's concerning is this:

Murc over at LGM has made a pretty solid case that Republicans have "solved" U.S. politics, in this sense: "thermostasis is God, there is nothing we do in office that will prevent the voters from returning us to office in a few election cycles, so every time we're elected we should charge off as far to the right as possible."

My thing is, the current moment looks an awful lot like the Democratic establishment has reached the exact same conclusion - only their takeaway is "so every time we're elected we should stick firmly to the center." Don't worry about pissing off non-centrist voters - all they need is a couple years of Republican governance to remember how much they hate them and they'll come back. What else are they going to do? Vote Republican?"

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C P1 year ago

Or to put it another way, most Democrats have decided to treat Sanders and AOC's warnings about voter dissatisfaction with the system the same way most Republicans decided to treat Michael Steele's warnings about the need to moderate in 2008. "No we don't; sure, things might run a lot more smoothly if we did and it might be a lot better for the country if we did, but as long as we're back in power roughly half the time, we don't care."

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r po1 year ago

I think this is all correct. Note that it has the "virtue" that leadership Ds get to maintain their comfortable hierarchy and perk system intact. They believe that they, and consequently that system, are going to live on forever. We've got ancient close relatives that clearly believe the same thing.

I could be cynical here and deduce that this would be a motivator for the leadership D's to maintain their media incompetence, even double down, but that would be bad. Right?

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Scott H1 year ago

And that's embodied, starting today, with the WelcomeFest wankfest in DC, aka Abundance Coachella with some real doozies on the slate that nominally put a (D) after their name plus the usual slew of Never Trumpers that those same extreme centrists lust after. Their political director, prior to this, spent his entire career doing that for the No Labels clowns. Yeah, that's where we should go.

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Sepideh M1 year ago

The Boulder JCC will have a livestream of their vigil at 5:30 p.m. mountain time in support of the people who were set on fire on the Pearl St Mall.

https://www.boulderjcc.org/events/2025/06/04/free-programs/coming-together-a-community-vigil/

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Kay W.1 year ago

Good summary. The only bright spot I’ve seen has been local organizing outside the Party, so I’m sticking with that. Democrats will have a big group of very engaged voters to pitch to - that’s all any political party can expect. It’s up to them to actually make the sale. No one can do that for them.