An opening big enough to drive a truck through
“A Democrat, located in the wild, is usually thinking defensively,” writes Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley. I couldn’t agree more. It’s that defensive crouch I’ve mentioned time and again.
His point is that Donald Trump’s revenge-a-palooza is so damned unpopular, it has opened a door for Democrats with a taste for offense big enough to drive a truck through:
The opportunity is, well, most of these things are unpopular, and House elections are held every two years. Lake is a two-time loser. The determinative swing cohort of American voters elected Trump not so that he could let the country’s weirdest crime guys out of jail and shut down Alzheimer’s research but rather so that he could end inflation—something he has not spent much time working on, relative to the amount of time he has spent attacking Los Angeles with horses. There’s an opening in Trump’s approval rating chart big enough to drive a truck through. By 2028, Democrats may even have a few candidates emboldened enough to propose that the party get some revenge of its own.
The question is will they? Wa-a-a-y back in December 2016, I suggested:
Institutional reserve leaves Democrats as a party in a perpetual, defensive crouch, looking for all the world more like abused spouses than bold leaders. All defense, as if in the age of Trump they have something left to lose.
There’s even less to lose today, isn’t there? Fight or die.
* * * * *
Have you fought dictatorship today?
Good Trouble Lives On (Thursday July 17, in memory of John Lewis)
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense