All the election hot takes are garbage. Including mine. Want to hear my garbage hot take?
I have one. I have some theories. I have some people I can blame for what happened.
But I am not going to share them because who fucking cares. So we can fight over them? So they can make people feel bad? So that we can turn on one another?
I’m done with that.
You know why?
Because that fucking lunatic, asshole, fascist moron got less than 50% of the vote.
And because this year, every incumbent party in every developed democracy lost elections — the first time that’s happened since measuring began in 1905!
And because we lost by the SMALLEST margin in any of those countries!
And because he had the smallest margin of victory since Richard Nixon!
So take your hot takes, and your blame, and shove them where the sun don’t shine. Seriously. We don’t have the luxury of turning on one another.
We lost. But it wasn’t a blow out and it wasn’t a rebuke of what we stand for and it wasn’t a reason to throw everything out and turn on one another.
Look, I get that we need to plan ahead and do all we can to win in 2026 and in any special in-between then and now and every election thereafter.
But your hot take? it is likely wrong. Mine too.
It is not just me that thinks so. So does Jon Stewart:
See, they were all wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong
So what do we do rather than argue and turn on one another?
Regroup. Fight. Do all we can to protect people who we can protect.
Don’t waste your time on bullshit. Definitely don’t waste your time fighting other people on our team.
Maybe you are not yet able to fight the good fight. I get it. Take some time if you need it and then come back to us.
Despite my anger about the hot-take bullshit, I am actually feeling energized and enthusiastic and optimistic and ready to fight.
I am so damn ready.
People keep saying how better prepared trump is than he was in 2016 so how much more we need to worry.
Really?
Did you watch that man campaign? Does he SEEM like he is better prepared for ANYTHING than before?
He is a hot mess. And his baseline was hot mess, so lord knows what the fuck this is.
But they have more experience, you cry.
Really? How many of those “experienced” people are coming back with him? His kids and Stephen Miller. A real brain trust there. And it isn’t even the smart kid like last time. This time it is the moron. Well, one of the morons.
I am not naive and I am not ignoring the news. These people are awful awful awful and there will be damage and we will have dark days.
But you know who really is stronger and better organized than in 2016? WE ARE! We have done this before and we are READY to do it again.
Do we want to? Oh hell no.
Girl, I was looking forward to semi-retirement from activism.
But here we are. Again.
And we can fight. And we will fight.
And my friends, this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. So don’t worry if you aren’t off to a strong start.
In many ways, it is a relay. If you are not ready, take the time you need to heal.
But make a plan to come back and fight with us because we do need you.
I’m fully in right now. I’m worked up and ready to do this!
But, like everyone else, I’ll need breaks too. That is ok. It is fine. It is good. Because we are in this together.
I can count on you, right?
We won’t be defeated and we won’t quit.
What you can do!
Remember, although you have to do something, you DONT have to do everything:
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas.
This list is by no means exhaustive!
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Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
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The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
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Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
Looking for something more specific?
Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT:
Want to focus on CIVIL RIGHTS:
HUMAN RIGHTS - GENERALLY:
LGBTQ+:
WOMEN:
Huge thanks to DKos used dabug for help with this list.
Don’t let the options overwhelm you! Try to pick one thing and see if it calls to you. If it doesn’t, find something else. There are so many ways to get involved and help!
In addition to all those organizations, you can also practice kindness and positivity with everyone you know. Tell people you love that you love them! Smile at strangers! Reach out to friends! Be the sunshine you want to feel in the world. Fascism and Trumpism is about hatred and fear. Counter it with bravery and love! It feels GREAT and you will make the world a better place.
But first….
Take Time if you need it
Go Stare at the Ocean
If there’s one thing I recommend to you right now, is to take some time, however long you can, to go stare at the ocean. Or the sky. Or a meadow or mountain or river. Or even a swarming city street.
Go stare at something and just stare.
Oh, and also, breathe. If you need to, do something that will help you breathe: yoga, walking, swimming, singing, playing the tuba.
And after you’ve stared for a while, sit down and think about how you’re going to pick yourself back up again. I’m not asking you to pick yourself back up again.
Yet.
Just asking you to make a plan about how you’ll do so.
Make sure you limit your rage and focus it where it belongs. Or better yet, channel that energy.
Something else to consider: first, make a list of those personal habits or new hobbies you’ve been meaning to adopt and lay out some steps to get there. Make sure you have something else to sustain you, for when you can’t stare at the ocean. Do something so often — this week, for me, it is yoga — that makes you feel noticeably stronger. Replace some of the time you’ve been fighting with self care.
And sustain or build your networks. Not just your political networks, the folks with whom you’ve worked to try to elect Kamala Harris or restore reproductive rights. But your other networks, too. Sometimes, after fascists break political networks, it’s the choirs or the knitting clubs where civic discourse can regrow.
Go take the time. Prepare to pick yourself back up again.
I bring you words of hope and strength.
We were deeply wounded by both Pearl Harbor and 9-11. The world thought we would be brought to our knees, and so did many Americans. They were wrong then and would be wrong now. We are a strong and resourceful people. Our strength allows us to build and keep moving forward. President Roosevelt once stated that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. He was so right. We are still that same people. Yes, our leaders change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. But that’s not the point of our country because that power doesn’t come to us through them. Theirs comes to them through us. Stay involved. Be proud of America. Part of our history has come to us because of moral strength, which can overpower weak leadership.
Don’t give in to despair. We are better than that. Learn about the traditional values of years gone by. They have much to say to us today.
Live your life with joy and positivity.
June Simon, Torrance
And then GET TO WORK!
Remember, this is not all on you! You alone do not need to fix this. There are literally millions of us. So take the time you need to recharge and then get back in this in whatever way you can.
We Will Never Back Down
It’s been almost a week since Election Day, and I’ve been absolutely inspired by so many of you who have hopped right back into making a difference.
Not everyone is ready yet—we all go at our own pace. And that’s okay. I always cope best by working and sharing with others, which is why I got back to it immediately. And over the last 8 years of taking on Donald, I’ve learned that you can never get started too early.
Resistance affirms our character and conscience
I urge you not to look for answers from opinion writers in major media. Indeed, the “question” posed by the 2024 election outcome is not “Why did Democrats lose,” but “How will we respond?” That urgent question overrides efforts to slice and dice exit polls and assign blame for the loss.
community is essential at this time. We need community to recover, and we need community to continue the fight. Don’t wait for someone to invite you into community. Will it into existence. Call on your leaders to make spaces to gather. Invite a friend into your home. Invite yourself into a friend’s home! Create community in every interaction with a colleague, a service person, a passerby in the market. People are hungering for community. If you offer it, they will join.
The second is that resistance is not merely about preserving democracy. It is about preserving ourselves. There is a famous story about an antiwar protestor (A.J. Muste) who kept a daily vigil in front of the White House. A reporter asked Muste whether he thought his nightly vigil would be effective in changing US war policy:
'Mr. Muste, do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with a candle?'
"'Oh,' Muste replied, 'I don't do this to change the country. I do this so the country won't change me.'
Resistance affirms our character and conscience. Do not obey in advance. Do not cower. Do not wait in fear for the next bad thing to happen. Resist. For yourself. For future generations. Don’t let the outcome of the election change us. By resisting, we will preserve ourselves and our democracy. And that resistance will change the outcome of the 2024 election by reversing it 2026 and 2028.
Stay strong and be kind to one another!
Don’t give up!
If you want to plan a protest, plan it. If you want to knit in public at a lecture, do it. Don’t let anyone else make the rules for you. You get to set your own vision for what it means to be persistently pro-democracy as we prepare to face what’s ahead.
For me, it means resisting the language of division that brought us here and working to maintain the big tent that helped us win the fight for four more years of democracy in 2020. People are down right now; none of us are at our best. So, give people a lot of space and understanding. But don’t be afraid to act on your own or enlist like-minded friends to come along with your plans. Don’t let anyone tell you that your way of expressing your love for country and Constitution isn’t the right way. There is a lot of that going around, as many people with good intentions are struggling.
We are in for tough times, and they will not be times to give up in. Lawyers are already preparing to do important work. They have the experience of 2016 to guide them. Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47 vision are dark. But they are not self-executing; they will have to do the work to put them in place, and we need to be there every step of the way, pushing back. Never underestimate the value of the public voice.
We have a long history and tradition of democracy in this country. We have local governments and organizations where we can run for office and use our power to make things better, even if Trump is trying to make them worse at the national level. We are still a constitutional democracy, and if we want to keep the Republic, we are going to have to fight to hold onto as many of our norms as we can.
As President Biden says, you can’t love your country only when you win. I’d add to that, you can’t be willing to fight for democracy only when it’s easy.
Authoritarians Want You To Quit
If you’re unhappy and unsettled by the election — and if so, you’re far from alone — you may feel like quitting. Don’t. That’s just what they want. Authoritarianism relies on good people throwing up their hands in frustration and checking out.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I realized after the election that I’ve spent over eight years trying to save the world. I don’t mean in any grandiose sense, just that I thought of the Trumpist threat to U.S. Constitutional democracy — and with it, the world order — like they were my problems, and my responsibility to help solve. I’m guessing a lot of you felt similarly.
It didn’t work. I do not think we were wrong to try, but I do think this moment calls for adjustments. I plan on somewhat shrinking my focus, devoting more energy to family and community. At that level, there are a lot of ways we can succeed.
As for nationally: Do not accept that it’s over. It isn’t. Politics is a competition for power, and while it may have changed, it never ends. More authoritarian governments than Trump Term II have fallen.
I’m also changing my information diet. For example, I’m not reading or commenting on the inane takes, often from prominent, highly paid pundits, that the election was decided by their long-running personal bugaboo. You already know what they’re going to say.
I plan on not listening to Trump speak as much as possible. His voice grates on me. I don’t care about his latest insults, or whatever reality TV drama he tries to generate. I paid close attention in his first term, and gained little from that. You can find out what the government is doing without listening to him lie and ramble.
And they don’t have to. It’s fine to use your freedom of association to spend time with people you like being around, and not with those you don’t. A lot of “you’re in a bubble” accusations — not all, but a lot — are attempts to guilt you into listening to them, not help you out. Sometimes “you’re in a bubble” isn’t really directed at you, it’s another way for people who don’t like you to tell each other they’re superior.
But whatever you do, don’t change your behavior in anticipation of what you think the fascists might want. As historian Timothy Snyder puts it in On Tyranny, “don’t obey in advance.”
No one should make it easy for the government to do awful things. The state is strong, and if they really force you, so be it. But their time and resources are finite, and they’re not the most competent people. Their strength is stubborn relentlessness and lack of shame, not competent execution. Make them work for it.
They’re nowhere close to controlling everything. When they try to take things over but run into resistance, sometimes they’ll decide it’s not worth the effort. Sometimes, you’ll win.
No, democracy isn't dead
What I would reject, as a citizen and as a journalist, is any notion that Tuesday’s election signals the end of democracy in America. As a journalist, I can report that what happened on Tuesday is that a majority of voters chose a candidate. That’s part of the democratic process.
Many fear that the majority chose a presidential candidate who is determined to knock down the foundations of democracy. He did try to overturn the election he lost in 2020. He has made a lot of statements in 2024. But whatever any official’s intent may be, as a citizen I decline to abandon the Constitution. It’s my country. I’m not going anywhere. I have rights and freedoms. I have no interest in surrendering my rights and freedoms, nor those of my fellow citizens. Some official who wins a mere majority in a single election has no legitimate power to take those rights.
The people whose side lost the election in 2024 have exactly the same recourse as the people whose side lost the free and fair election in 2020. The rights of free speech and assembly. The freedom of the press. The power of the Senate minority to block legislation through the filibuster. The power of states to assert their rights in court and elsewhere. The power of independent judges. And the next election.
Things Are Not Going to Be Easy for Trump
They are stupid
I am not saying this to deny the extreme amount of damage they could do and have actively planned to do.
...
I am saying is that I know many of these people personally, and I can say with direct perspective that they will soon, maybe very soon, start fucking this up so fucking hard.
They are uniquely craven, many are dumber than dogshit, and their cruelty is only matched by their ability to cower and faceplant
They will accomplish (or, “accomplish”) much.
But a small meaningless comfort is to know how amazingly stupid all of these over educated, Neo-confederate jackasses are, and boyyyyyyyy will it show
Yes it’s true they are more organized than in early 2017. But remember that bar was set thru the FLOOR.
So after the initial, real horror and shock wears off, try to enjoy at least SOME of the dick-exploding dick-stepping that we are about to collectively bear witness to, in public and on live television.
I’ll see you all there.
If history’s any guide, some nasty surprises await Donald Trump.
Trump’s heinousness shouldn’t make us nostalgic for Nixon and Reagan. They were also criminals—albeit unindicted ones. And they were up to all manner of autocratic shit—until they got caught.
The Watergate scandal was only one small part of the sprawling criminal enterprise that Nixon directed from the Oval Office in order to subvert democracy. For his part, Reagan’s contribution to the annals of presidential crime, Iran-Contra, broke myriad laws and violated Constitutional norms.
The hubris engendered by both men’s landslides propelled them to reckless behavior in their second terms—behavior that came back to haunt them. Nixon was forced to resign the presidency; Reagan was lucky to escape impeachment.
the enemy most likely to thwart Trump in his second term might be one who isn’t on his list: himself. The seeds of Trump’s downfall may reside in two promises he made to win this election: the mass deportation of immigrants and the elimination of inflation.
Trump’s concept of a plan to deport 20 million immigrants is as destined for success as were two of his other brainchildren, Trump University and Trump Steaks. The US doesn’t have anything approaching the law-enforcement capacity to realize this xenophobic fever dream.
And as for Trump’s war on inflation, the skyrocketing prices caused by his proposed tariffs will make Americans nostalgic for pandemic-era price-gouging on Charmin.
And, yes, it’s possible that Trump will somehow accomplish his goal of becoming America’s Kim Jong Un, and our democracy will go belly-up like the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
But I wouldn’t bet on it. I tend to agree with the British politician Enoch Powell (1912-1998), who observed that all political careers end in failure. I doubt that Trump, with his signature blend of inattention, impulsiveness, and incompetence, will avoid that fate.
If things really go south, expect MAGA Republicans to devour each other as hungrily as the worm who feasted on RFK Jr.’s brain—and that, my friends, will be worth binge-watching. I’m stocking up on popcorn now before Trumpflation makes it unaffordable.
No MAGA Mandate
And while Trump won at the top of the ticket, make no mistake, Tuesday was an outright loss for other MAGA candidates. Just look at two of the candidates most aligned with Trump, who wore their MAGA badges proudly and sported Trump endorsements: Mark Robinson, Republican candidate for Governor in North Carolina, and Kari Lake, Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona. Both lost decisively.
In North Carolina, Robinson lost to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein by almost 15%.
In Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego defeated MAGA election denier Kari Lake for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat by 2.5%.
That makes Gallego the first Latino U.S. Senator from Arizona and marks the fourth Democratic U.S. Senate win in the state in a row. That means that Arizona, whose voter rolls boast 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats, has Democrats serving as both U.S. Senators, Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Perhaps claims of the Democratic Party’s demise were a bit premature.
Trump is already making the classic mistake of overreach
Donald Trump won the election less than two weeks ago, and he is not wasting any time rolling out his Cabinet picks. Last time around, Trump’s picks were designed to reassure the Republican establishment that the reality TV star and failed businessman was more serious than his campaign trail demeanor suggested. He named former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, General Jim Mattis at the Pentagon, former General John F. Kelly as Secretary of Homeland Security, former Congressman and surgeon Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services. As it turns out, none of these people lasted that long or were particularly good at their jobs. There were exceptions like Betsy DeVos as Education and Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.
But, on paper at least, most of them seemed qualified and were a pretty easy confirmation vote for Republicans. In fact, many of them received bipartisan support.
This time around, Trump’s cabinet choices were designed to trigger everyone in politics not wearing a MAGA hat.
Republican Senators are already anonymously expressing concerns about having to vote for these lunatics. Trump is making the classic mistake of misreading his mandate and overplaying his hand.
Trump is already overreaching, giving Democrats a clear opening
Trump mistakenly believes and acts like his win is about a mandate to take a wrecking ball to the regulatory state, impose high tariffs, and begin mass deportations. True, that is what he said he would do, but those aren’t what put him over the top with voters.
Instead, and painfully ironically, these policies are expected to cause even greater economic hardship. This is especially true for the very people who were hoping Trump could return them to the days of his first presidency. That first term of course was buoyed by a strong economy left to him by President Obama, just as his second term will enjoy a robust economy left to him by President Biden, at least out the gate.
But that won’t stop Trump from ruining things. In Trump’s first term, he tried to destroy the ACA, which would have exposed millions with preexisting medical conditions to far higher costs or no coverage at all. And he gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations while limiting SALT deductions for middle-class families.
He’ll do the same things again this time but with the added pain of higher tariffs across the board and the economic disruption of attempting to deport millions of our undocumented, frontline workers in agriculture, construction, and healthcare. Economists have been warning of the inflationary effect Trump’s policies would have on basic goods and services. If they are correct and prices begin to rise again, watch the same voters who punished Harris for high inflation quickly turn against Trump.
Trump has promised to turn our Southern border and our cities into war zones as his administration conducts workplace and community raids to try and deport one million undocumented workers every year. The horror stories and negative headlines from that effort could be enough to convince the Latino community that Trumpism is not only bad for them economically but puts all of their lives and livelihoods at risk.
In response, Democrats should continue blaring warnings about what Trump’s policies, if enacted, would do to the larger economy and to vulnerable communities. But ultimately, because things like tariffs and immigration enforcement are within the purview of the executive branch, there isn’t much Democrats can do to stop the train from wrecking. We can only be there for the search and rescue.
Electorally speaking, letting the chips first fall where they may makes some sense. The 2026 midterms will be the first referendum on the Trump administration, and it will be powered by the same higher information, higher propensity voters who turned out in the 2018 and 2022 midterms. The majority of these voters understand that the economy was improving under Biden/Harris, even if prices remained high. They will vote to protect fundamental rights and the rule of law. And they will prioritize a check upon the power of the extremists in the GOP, just as they did before.
From there, assuming the economists are correct and Trump’s policies do indeed cause widespread economic harm, it will be our job to reach those voters who originally turned on Harris. At that point, they may be doubly disillusioned about the economy and far worse off than ever. But the message could be quite straightforward
Stealing from the House Ranks
If the House race watchers are correct, the GOP may have 220 or 221 House seats in the next session, compared to the Democrats at 215 to 214. That’s already a fairly slim majority, and a defection of three or four members could sink any piece of legislation. We saw that dynamic play out repeatedly over the past two years, resulting in the least productive Congress in recent history.
That’s why analysts like Adam Carlson (and myself) are rather shocked at how many of Trump’s picks for key cabinet or operational positions are being drawn from the ranks of the House Republican Conference. By today’s count, as many as five GOP members could give up their seats if they are nominated and get confirmed by the Senate.
On top of Reps. Waltz and Stefanik, Trump reportedly may tap Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) for Secretary of Defense, Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) for Secretary of Transportation, and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) for Secretary of Agriculture.
There is even a world in which a 220-215 GOP majority moves this spring to a 215-215 tie.
If all this happens, and while we await special elections, Speaker Johnson might struggle mightily to push any legislation through, assuming he can even re-win the Speakership. Any delay in moving bills along will give Democrats that much more time to rally and lobby against them, particularly if they would strip away healthcare or raise costs on working families or the elderly, and peel off a few GOP swing district members.
House Republicans are already sounding the alarm. “It’s going to be hard to pass anything anyways,” said one, who asked to speak anonymously. A two-seat majority “for us is basically us being in the minority. Especially if the speaker can’t get a hold of his conference.”
They may not even have that two-seat spread by spring.
Trump doesn’t seem to care. For him, it’s not really and never was about policy. That’s something for his people to push for. As long as he has “yes” people around him willing to do anything he asks, he’ll be happy. That is, of course, until he starts to suffer some big legislative defeats, like he saw in his first term when he tried and failed repeatedly to repeal the ACA. Trump hates losing, and he lost bigly then.
That was due to the vote of the late Sen. John McCain, of course. May the ghost of Sen. McCain haunt Trump forever, and may it guard over our Republic in its most dire hour.
The GOP has a 2026 problem
Midterms are not kind to the incumbent party. The reason is obvious. Politicians make more promises than they can keep — and the grass is always greener on the other side. In 2022, the Democrats celebrated a ‘winning’ midterm because they did better than expected — losing only 9 seats. But they still lost the House.
The last time an incumbent President’s party picked up House seats was in 2002, during Bush Jr’s first term — when W had an approval rating in the mid-60s in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then the incumbent’s party has lost an average of 31 seats. There is no reason to think 2026 will be any different.
In 2026, Democrats will need to defend only two battleground Senate seats as opposed to this year's seven. Those will be in Georgia and Michigan with Senators Jon Ossoff and Gary Peters.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) could be vulnerable this cycle. Maine has favored Democratic candidates the last nine presidential elections
Other GOP senators seeking third terms are Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Joni Ernst (Iowa).
I’m not going to lie, the Senate will be harder. But it won’t be impossible. In particular after two years of “find out” that are coming our way.
CNN Legal Analyst: Why Musk Will Go ‘Crazy’ Running Trump’s ‘Manhattan Project’
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to have a really tough time trying to achieve their Donald Trump-given mission of making the government more efficient, says CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
The president-elect announced on Tuesday that Musk and Ramaswamy would head up a “Department of Government Efficiency (‘DOGE’)” which would help his new administration “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Trump likened their task to a modern version of the World War II-era Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb, but left key questions about the supposed department unanswered—including the form it would take, given that the department currently doesn’t exist and new departments can’t be formed without an act of Congress.
He also didn’t explain why a department focused on government efficiency requires two leaders.
On Tuesday night’s AC360, Toobin said the new “department” would most likely be “part of the White House staff,” noting that a U.S. president can hire whoever they want, but that wouldn’t make it a government department.
“However, there is a very boring and very important law called the Administrative Procedures Act, which governs how the government moves along in terms of changing how it works,” Toobin said. “And it requires a lot of hoops to be jumped through if you want to get rid of part of a government department. If you want to change the structure of the Department of Education, the Department of the Interior. You have to go through all these steps.”
“Like it or not, these two entrepreneurs are going to have to start learning that and following it,” Toobin continued, referring to Musk and Ramaswamy. “And it’s going to drive them crazy. And we’ll see how much they actually do. There have been lots of attempts to make the government more efficient. Al Gore did it. There was something called the Grace Report back in the Reagan administration. It’s a lot harder than it seems.”
US Senate Republicans pick insider John Thune as their next leader
U.S. Senate Republicans elected John Thune to lead the chamber next year, opting for a well-regarded insider and shrugging off a
public pressure campaign by supporters of
Donald Trump to pick a loyalist to the president-elect.
The South Dakota senator's victory is a sign the Senate could retain some degree of independence from Trump next year, when Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the 100-seat Senate
Senate GOP Risks MAGA Meltdown by Voting for One-Time Anti-Trumper
Trump‘s top allies, including Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, had lobbied hard against Thune, who fought Trump‘s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, saying at the time that Trump’s plan “would go down like a shot dog.”
Trump responded by calling Thune “Mitch’s boy” and a RINO, Republican in name only.
So much for a tight ship: Trump's already running over his chief of staff
Reporters have been writing glowing articles about Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, praising her ability to keep Trump in line by blocking the cast of freaks Trump pals around with from having his ear.
CNN reported that Wiles has been successful at “instilling a level of discipline and order rarely associated with the former president” and that before taking the role she got “assurances from Trump that she would have more authority than her predecessors in controlling access to the Oval Office.”
The Hill newspaper reported that Wiles will succeed because she is “a savvy political player who is also able to navigate the many clashing personalities that come with campaigns.”
Yet a little more than a week since he was elected, Wiles already appears to have lost control.
If Wiles can’t control Trump before his tenure even begins, it’s unclear how long she’ll last in the White House.
Trump cycled through four chiefs of staff his first go round, with none of the four able to keep Trump in line. Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, lasted just six months before Trump fired him by tweet.
Wiles can't control Trump. No one can. And with things going this far off the rails this early, it's time we get out the lettuce to see whether Wiles or the leafy green vegetable lasts longer.
We Can Do This
Liberal Legal Group Positions Itself as a Top Trump Administration Foe
Democracy Forward, a liberal-leaning legal organization that frequently battled the first Trump administration in court, on Thursday unveiled a large-scale new effort aimed at thwarting President-elect Donald J. Trump’s second-term agenda from his first day in office.
More than 800 lawyers at 280 organizations have begun developing cases and workshopping specific challenges to what the group has identified as 600 “priority legal threats” — potential regulations, laws and other administrative actions that could require a legal response, its leaders said. The project, called Democracy 2025, aims to be a hub of opposition to the new Trump administration.
Unlike in 2017, when Democratic lawyers were unprepared for the onslaught of conservative policies, the intent is to be ready to unleash a flurry of lawsuits immediately.
“We’re leveling up and lawyering up,” Skye Perryman, the chief executive of the organization, said. “This wasn’t something that just everybody woke up the day after the election and started to plan.”
Cowards like Trump have no real strength
Trump depends on fear. He builds his whole image around being "strong," "tough," a supposed champion of the "common man." But strength doesn’t come from endless bullying, degrading insults, or an ability to throw temper tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. That’s not strength; it’s weakness. Real strength means standing up for the truth even when it's hard, even when it costs you. Trump has never had the courage to do that. I have.
Trump is, at his core, a coward. When things get tough, he runs. He ran from the military, despite claiming he could take on foreign leaders; he’s spent years hiding behind lawyers, attacking the justice system rather than standing tall and defending his actions in court. Time and again, he’s shown that he’s all bark, no backbone.
I’m not backing down, not because I’m trying to make a name for myself, but because it’s simply the right thing to do. America deserves leaders who aren’t afraid of bullies, who don’t bend to the winds of political fortune, and who don’t take the easy way out. America will reject him again, in due time. It’s a process, but the long memory of history will remember his influence as a flash in a pan. And that starts by showing him, and anyone like him, that fear-mongering is no match for true courage.
Prepared for Trump’s comeback, California’s attorney general is ready to fight
If President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican Senate try to roll back reproductive health rights or pursue a widely prophesied national abortion ban, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is poised to challenge him.
Two years ago, Bonta, a Democrat who heads the state justice department, directed his staff to draft legal analyses against a possible national abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of abortion protections under Roe v. Wade. Bonta said they thought through arguments, even going so far as to decide in which court they would file suit.
Bonta said his team had a strategy in place starting from Election Day
He has joined other states in lawsuits over medication abortion, emergency abortions, and travel between states for care. For Bonta, the issue of abortion is personal. His wife, Assembly member Mia Bonta, shared in 2022 that she had an abortion when she was 21. As her boyfriend, Bonta held her hand when she made the decision.
The Resistance Assembles
As it now appears that Donald Trump will once again enter the presidency with majorities in both houses of Congress, it’s more important than ever for Democratic leaders around the country to align against his worst policy instincts and do what they can to minimize the damage. Jay has written his own roadmap for how Democrats in the minority in Washington can throw obstacles in Trump’s path.
And in the last week, we’ve seen Democratic Governors come out strongly asserting their intention to block Trump’s attempts to undermine the rule of law and their citizens’ rights in their states.
And as we think about the movement of resistance at all levels of government around the country, let’s also remember the history-making Democrats voters chose to elevate last week.
Including Sarah McBride from Delaware, who will become our first openly transgender member of Congress.
Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want
hope does not mean saying this is not bad, and it does not mean saying that we can defeat it. It just means saying we will keep showing up. That we will not give up. That we will assess our powers and weaknesses and recognize that the future we face looks grim, but we do not know how it will unfold, and neither do those we oppose. How it will unfold depends in no small part on what we do. People too often think hope is smiles and sunshine, when it’s fury in the face of danger and oppression, and pressing on in the storm.
Not being them and not being like them is the first job, not just as negatives but as an embrace of the ideals of love, kindness, open-mindedness, the ability to engage with uncertainty and ambiguity, inclusiveness. “Fight on” might sound like a lot now, but maybe you can at least not quit, even if you need to take time off, which is not the same thing as checking out. In stillness and quiet comes the recharging of self and strength, just as in sleep the body rebuilds itself. “Back to work – and notably bucking up the younger people I know with reminders that dignity lies in a refusal to be complicit and that despair ultimately is a form of complicity,” the LGBTQ public historian Gerard Koskovich wrote in a note to me.
There are other kinds of resistance that mean making your own life and your own mind an independent republic in which the pursuit of truth, human rights, kindness and empathy, the preservation of history and memory, of being an example of someone living by values other than the values – if they deserve such a term – of the cruelty, greed, and dishonesty of Donald Trump and the circle around him. This does not overthrow the regime, but it does mean being someone who has not been conquered by it, and it invites others who have not been or who can throw off the shackles to join you.
By reaching out and creating the conditions for mutual support and encouragement, you become a source of strength to others. When the election outcome became clear to me late Tuesday night, I wrote: “Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the 10tn things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.” There’s a false dichotomy between the popular business of self-care and being engaged and caring for other things; doing the latter can bring you into community with people who are good for you, can help you find that dignity Gerard spoke of, can strengthen and encourage you – and even make you hopeful, because to be around the best versions of human nature does that for you. There will be heroes in the crises to come; look for them. Maybe you’ll be one.
No one can deal with every issue at once, and choosing which part of the problem to commit to is part of the work of resistance. Some of you are already doing important work on human rights or climate or criminal justice. Some of you can commit to addressing immigration or the underground railroads for abortions. Some of you will find your commitment or have skills and resources to bring to multiple issues. Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit priest turned anti-war organizer, once wrote: “One cannot level one’s moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many of them. But you can do something; and the difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything.”
We do not know what will happen. But we can know who we can commit to be in the face of what happens. That is a strong beginning. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving. Let Julian Aguon have the last word: “No offering is too small. No stone unneeded … All of us, without exception, are qualified to participate in the rescue of the world.”
What can you do?
If You Haven’t Left Twitter Already, Please Do So Now
twitter’s lifeblood today is libelous, racist and bigoted rants, spewed by shameless liars. It’s owned by a soon-to-be trillionaire who grossly overpaid for the privilege of pushing his own caustic untruths at a rate of his choosing; a man more than a few have compared to a real-life James Bond villain—only I would argue he’s not even one of the interesting, clever ones like Blofeld or Goldfinger. Just one of the creepy one-and-dones. More bleach-blonde Christopher Walken than cool, ‘70s Telly Savalas. But I digress.
This same man—and this is the truth—played an essential role in getting Donald Trump re-elected.
So why are you still on Twitter? It’s so easy to leave! Go into your account settings. Tap the “More” button on the left. Select “Settings and Privacy”. Click “Deactivate your account.” Enter your password. Click “Deactivate” again. Done.
“But, but, but… It’s how I get my news.”
No. It isn’t. At best it’s how you get your opinions re-enforced by like-minded people you follow because they tell you what you want to hear. At worst, it’s how you are lied to by anyone from a Russian bot to the soon-to-be President.
Oh, and get rid of your Tesla too. There are so many better electric cars out there.
For what it is worth, I left for BlueSky and have not regretted it for a minute! So much better!
What else can you do?
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas. This list is by no means exhaustive!
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Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
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The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
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Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
Looking for something more specific?
Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT:
Want to focus on CIVIL RIGHTS:
HUMAN RIGHTS - GENERALLY:
LGBTQ+:
WOMEN:
Don’t let the options overwhelm you! Try to pick one thing and see if it calls to you. If it doesn’t find something else. There are so many ways to get involved and help!
Huge thanks to DKos used dabug for help with this list.
More than ever, I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 💙❤️💛💚✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
