The past few weeks have seen some Democrats at certain levels within the Party urging a more conciliatory tone towards Trump and his extremist “policies,” with an eye towards the midterm elections in November. From Chuck Schumer’s strategic retreat on the budget (which I happen to agree with) to editorials by the likes of Frank Bruni of The New York Times, who partnered with longtime --many would say “so-called”—Democratic advisor Joe Trippi to pen this expression of heartfelt “concern,” the Democratic establishment has begun to introduce cracks within the Resistance against this monstrous Thing that afflicts us from the Oval Office:
In the highest circles of Democratic party politics, resistance is waning. “This is normal enough,” many key Democrats seem to be saying. When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in advance of Trump’s State of the Union several weeks ago, he focused on finding ways to “work with” the president, such as infrastructure.
Bipartisan rhetoric is nothing new from politicians, but Democrats appear to be slipping towards making substantive policy concessions to Trump. Particularly in the Senate, Democrats have, bit by bit, begun acceding to Trumpian demands.
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As it stands, Democrats in both houses appear to be on the brink of dropping demands to protect the “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children (protections that are supported by 74 percent of Americans). “He’s not asking for the kind of money that would build a wall sea to shining sea,” reasoned Missouri’s Claire McCaskill. “He’s asking for the kind of money that can say he built a wall.”
The root of the Resistance is the sense of outrage we all feel, and that outrage, for most of us, is manifested in a continual, simmering anger. That anger, in turn, fuels our resolve.
Will Stancil, writing for the Atlantic, recognizes that preserving one’s fury day in and day out at what a minority of the electorate inflicted on us last November is exhausting. We all are subject to outrage fatigue—it would be strange if we weren’t. The human mind isn’t used to constantly responding to outrage, nor are we in this country at all accustomed to putting up with the steady, unending stream of obscene and malevolent policies this Administration and its Republican enablers have adopted.
We aren’t used to loathing the nearly half of Americans who bothered to vote at all who opted, out of blithe ignorance, spite and selfishness, to vote for burning down every decent thing the country stood for during our lifetimes. That’s something new, and the mind naturally adjusts to cope with it. When people say they are feeling “numb” by all of Trump’s perfidious behavior what they’re experiencing is actually a kind of acclimation to a gross, continuing insult to our minds and bodies.
But if we do not preserve our anger, if we regard our rage as anything less than a precious stone to be guarded at all costs, we risk falling into the same trap that citizens of autocracies and totalitarian societies have fallen into for ages—that of normalizing and accommodating the tyrant by acquiescing, however slowly, through our words and actions, to the notion that he is somehow legitimate. As Stancil writes, this is an all-too familiar phenomenon:
Institutions abhor abnormality; even in politics, parties would often rather fight along familiar lines. The passage of time makes Trump’s America seem less strange. Politicos are wary of challenging a president presiding over a thriving economy. And on some level, Trump benefits from the basic dynamic that sustains any cult: His version of reality is so absurd that the only way to peacefully coexist with it is to accept his behavior as normal.
But the Criminal occupying the Oval Office is not normal. Someone who hides behind didactic Tweets because he can't face a real press conference is not normal.The Criminal in the Oval Office never did an hour of public service in his life and is wholly, completely and totally unfit for the office. Everything he has done up to this point demonstrates a malignant hatred for and intent to destroy the foundations and institutions upon this country was built. He is in a very literal sense a form of cancer on the Republic.
Stancil believes that the extraordinary successes of a unified, determined, Resistance—such as blocking the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, thwarting many of Trump’s initiatives in the Courts, and our recent string of electoral victories in deeply red parts of the country, carry with them the risk of breeding complacency. Particularly in light of premature prognostications of Democratic success in the Midterm elections, an atmosphere of self-satisfaction seems to be on the rise among many in the media and the Democratic establishment. The New York Times, which serves often as a barometer of that Establishment, and other corporate media have contributed to this gradual “normalization” of Trump by treating his so-called “policy initiatives” and the meaningless State of the Union as something worthy of actual consideration, while giving due time to the never-ending scandals of incompetence emanating from all corners of his Administration as each day’s “story du jour.”
Stancil also reminds us of how Republicans’ success in maintaining the same white-hot opposition to President Obama in 2010 should teach us the value of brooking no compromise whatsoever in dealing with Trump. The singular difference between now and 2010 is that the vast majority of Americans are on our side:
Recent shifts in elite opinion do not seem to reflect any change of public sentiment. Trump is nearly as unpopular as ever. Voters disapprove of the president by huge margins. Opinion polling consistently finds that over half the country “strongly disapproves” of him. Indeed, loathing for Trump is so profound that he is able to move public opinion towards almost any position, simply by taking the other side. (In one striking example, Trump’s opposition to NFL protests appeared to make those protests more popular.) Tellingly, there does not seem to be a single high-profile policy dispute in which the president’s position commands majority support.
This President remains either disliked or vehemently hated—take your pick-- among a large majority of Americans. He is particularly despised by women (for good reason, as we have seen again this week). To have a President viewed through this sort of prism by the American public is extraordinary, and provides an extraordinary opportunity for Democrats. There is absolutely no excuse for cooperating or “negotiating” with such a person or even to tacitly recognize his legitimacy, except perhaps in instances —like (arguably) the budget debacle, where his enablers on the Republican side force a tactical retreat through their own despicable behavior, exercised against the will of the American people only as a consequence of their current majority status:
The anti-Trump coalition may not last forever, but at this moment, it represents, in raw vote-getting terms, the most powerful force in American political life—the unified inverse of the nation’s reactionary minority.
So even in the face of this constant, disturbing and debilitating onslaught, to the extent we are able we must hold fast to our rage, and understand its power. Go to bed angry. Wake up angry. Harness your fury, guard it jealously and treat it as something to be cherished. Feel free to express it. Find ways to compensate for it if you feel you need to. But above all, channel it into action. It is a living, breathing thing. In fact, it is the only thing standing between us and the nightmare of “normalizing” this Obscenity.
