Trump Resistance Bears Fruit

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One year ago I went to the polls with the expectation of electing the first woman president in the 240 years of this country. There were tears of joy in my eyes as a slipped my ballot into the scanner.

Like many people, I sat transfixed and appalled as the numbers came in that night. By the next morning, those emotions had turned to outrage, outrage that has only deepened over the last year.

The Resistance began almost immediately.

Elected on the basis of electoral votes by a right-wing base that gives new meaning to the word base, Donald Trump is systematically dismantling all the norms for governing. The Republican House of Representatives and Senate, who should be reveling in their majority, are mired in bills that are antithetical to the people they serve and beholden to their corporate donors. They refuse to acknowledge that Trump is dangerous, both in terms of his behavior and policies. That is, unless they’re safely on their way out the door.

Republicans have not been able to pass a healthcare bill and Trump has been chipping away at its provisions via executive order. Now they’re looking to enrich themselves with their tax bill.

They refuse to acknowledge – beyond the “thoughts and prayers” pablum – that we have a problem with guns.

They’re looking to strip away mandates that protect women, minorities, immigrants, LGBTs – anyone who is not rich, white, and male.

Individuals are appointed to cabinet posts and the administration have no experience or view that are antithetical to the policies they’re supposed to be implementing. 

And Trump supporters blindly have no idea that the policies they’re attempting to implement will hurt them the most.

The Democrats’ drum-beating, calling attention to all this just hasn’t been loud enough. Connecticut is lucky to have outspoken Democratic legislators – Murphy, Blumenthal, DeLauro, Himes – but they must feel like they’re pissing in the wind.

Until Nov. 7, 2018.

A grassroots resistance emerging over the last year is slowly bearing fruit.

For those of us experiencing the Trump Funk – a sense of hopelessness, exhaustion, and information overload – this is invigorating. Virginia and New Jersey went Blue and the discontent was reflected in various other elections, including a mayoral win in Utah in which a woman who was part of the Warren Jeffers cult escaped, ran for office, and won. In addition, Maine voters decided that they wanted to expand Medicaid, repudiating Congress’s attempts to throttle it.

According to The Other 98%, here’s the shakedown: two new Democratic governors, two black lieutenant governors (VA, NJ), two transgender officials, a Black Lives Matter lawyer as DA in Philly, a Sikh mayor in Hoboken, a socialist in Virginia, and the first black woman to serve as mayor of Charlotte, NC.

This is a start. According to CBS, nearly two dozen Republicans have announced that they will not seek re-election. The mid-term elections are a year away, and at the rate things are going, Republicans’ butts will be swinging in the wind.

That doesn’t take into account the progress of the Mueller investigation, which to many of us is moving all too slowly. However, it’s produced indictments against Manafort and Gates; Papadopoulos has been arrested. Flynn and son are waiting in the wings. Hopefully, Trump realizes that his ass is grass if he fires Mueller.

The kicker is that the whole lot of them must go. Pence may be more articulate and civil than Trump, but he is just as dangerous, in an insidious way. 

At the rate breaking news in unfolding – can we spend a night not riveted to Rachel and friends? – we’ll learn the outcome soon enough. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that his administration will not survive the full four years.

The question is: Can we even survive another year?

In the meantime, we can dream.