What Resistance 2.0 will look like

Trump's honeymoon won't last long

Look, I get the impulse to be dejected. I feel that way too. But this isn’t any time to succumb to despair.

Donald Trump is going to end up with a fairly narrow popular vote majority primarily based on a backlash against inflation - the same inflation that has toppled incumbent governments all over the world since the pandemic. There’s no sign here that the American people have wholeheartedly embraced his MAGA agenda. It’s just that in a country which is divided almost 50/50 between two parties, small shifts in support can lead to big changes in governance.

My social feeds and DMs are full of dejected liberals talking about giving up on politics, or despairing at the electorate. I get this impulse as well. It is indeed maybe time to tend a bit to our own gardens, and look to how we can make positive change in the world closer to home.

But Trump’s time is not going to last for ever - or even that long at all. And when it’s over, we’re going to be called into action again.

The feeling in liberal circles today reminds me of 2004, when George W. Bush won the popular vote after presiding over years of irrational militarism and and repression at home. Many people on the left hated him so much that they couldn’t imagine that a majority of the Americans could support him, and they woke up with a different view of their country.

Then what happened four years later? That same country elected Barack Obama in a landslide.

You see, the worm can turn quickly. And it will doubtless turn on Trump again. He rounded out his last term as the most unpopular president in the history of polling, with his constant scandals and abuses of power wearying voters down to the bone. I find it confounding that the same voters could opt for him again four years later. But I am also sure that he will quickly polarize the majority of the country against him once again.

The backlash will come for many reasons. It will come because his policy ideas are self-destructive and idiotic. Slapping 10 - 20% tariffs on all imported goods will drive inflation - the main concern that voters reported at the ballot box - through the roof. It will also come because the public will tire of the circus that constantly surrounds him. It will come because he will pursue inhumane programs like mass deportation, which the public will reject just as they rejected family separation. And it will come because the American public almost always moves away from the party in power.

For now, Resistance 2.0 perhaps does mean focusing closer to home. There’s time for self-reflection, and for preparation. But when the new president gets buried in chaos and scandal again - which will probably be about a day after Inauguration Day, if not before - the left needs to be ready to offer an alternative, not mired in despair.

The biggest concern is whether American democracy can survive the next four years unscathed. Trump and his allies have promised, in their own words, an unprecedented assault on opposition politicians and the media. They will be newly empowered by a Supreme Court case which gives the American president nearly unlimited authority to act outside the law. It may take the combined efforts of civil society, Democrats, the press, and other groups to keep the torch of freedom burning. This task will require vigilance and persistence, too. The reward will be a free and fair election just under four years from today - one which sends Trump’s successor packing.

America Explained will have to adapt to this new era, too. There’s going to be more about Trump, what he’s doing, and how he can be stopped. I’ll likely be appearing in liberal media more in my guise as a Trump critic, as I did in his first term. But I also won’t retreat from the core mission of this newsletter - providing sharp analysis and historical context which go beyond a mere angry critique. Knowledge is power, and I want to help empower all of my readers.

Because it’s going to be a tough four years, and we’ll need all the knowledge and power we can get.

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