The one certain thing we can take away from the enormous turn-out for Saturday’s Women’s Marches — all around the world, including Antarctica — is that for as big a story as the Trump administration is, the resistance to it is every bit as large. It is just as unprecedented.
In normal times there’d be a big show of protest like last weekend. Everyone would bus and fly into D.C. or hump it across town to gather with kindred souls and make a lot of noise for an afternoon. And then the crowd would go back to their regular gigs, getting the kids through school, putting on a new deck, planning for spring break. But “normal” is so 2015.
Millions of pretty neighborly, everyday people recognize that we’ve seriously parted ways with “normal.” What we can bank on now is that Donald Trump, the man with perhaps the lowest emotional IQ of anyone ever to set foot in the White House, much less preside over it, will be a constant, daily-to-hourly source of infuriation for everyone who turned out this past weekend … all around the world. Make that “infuriation” and “embarrassment”.
Look for example at what one day of marches wrought.
The guy makes a courtesy call on the CIA and lies to their faces about ever dissing them or suggesting they were undermining him “like Nazi Germany” and then spirals off that into a hissy id-fit about the media lying about the size of the crowd for his inauguration. He follows that by sending his hapless spox, Sean Spicer, (soon to be a regular “Saturday Night Live” bit), to add a half dozen more instantly disprovable lies on top of everything he himself said. This then leads to the Strangelovian notion of “alternative facts”, from Trump’s grossly over-exposed White House “counselor” Kellyanne Conway, already an “SNL” meme.
(BTW: If you were wondering about the cheering at that CIA event. There’s this today from CBS News: “U.S. government sources tell CBS News that there is a sense of unease in the intelligence community after President Trump’s visit to CIA headquarters on Saturday. An official said the visit ‘made relations with the intelligence community worse’ and described the visit as ‘uncomfortable’. Authorities are also pushing back against the perception that the CIA workforce was cheering for the president. They say the first three rows in front of the president were largely made up of supporters of Mr. Trump’s campaign. An official with knowledge of the make-up of the crowd says that there were about 40 people who’d been invited by the Trump, Mike Pence and Rep. Mike Pompeo teams. The Trump team expected Rep. Pompeo, R-Kansas, to be sworn in during the event as the next CIA director, but the vote to confirm him was delayed on Friday by Senate Democrats. Also sitting in the first several rows in front of the president was the CIA’s senior leadership, which was not cheering the remarks.’)
Follow what will be a routine cycle of cause-and-effect.
Universally observable event occurs. (Trump inauguration draws 1/6th of Obama’s and 1/3rd of the Women’s March). Trump declares it all a lie cooked up by “most dishonest people in the world.” Which reminds and reaffirms in the minds of the significant majority of the public who voted against him that his dishonesty is dwarfed by his astonishing insecurity. Which sets off a fresh frenzy of social media mockery. Which infuriates him further. Which keeps his limited attention span focused on affronts to his ego. Which generates more counter-attacks riddled with absurd lies. Which … well you get it.
Point being, this is not going to stop, until something breaks, and the chances are better that Trump breaks down than 60, 80,100 million … around the planet, who have the benefit of reality on their side. Character is destiny, and Trump, who no one can imagine preparing himself for the intellectual rigors of the Oval Office much less the constant assault on personal inadequacies that comes with the territory, is a character suited only for tabloid-style combat. Paper-thin ego gratification is the essence of his game.
Personally, I continue to have a “House of Cards” view of what’s coming over the horizon. It is all too plausible that the Russians (via loans to Trump by Putin-friendly oligarchs if not incontinent hookers) have blackmail leverage on him, leverage that guys like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are only too happy to apply to keep Trump their bitch. But if he is as wholly delusional as we are certain he is, the fun starts when he decides they are his bitches.
Bigly wrong-o, O Orange One.
Without getting their hands too dirty, entrenched institutional power-play Republicans like Ryan and McConnell can release no end of pressure to drive Trump into a virtual death-spiral of insane threats and name-calling. Having neither affinity or respect for Trump, it’s a scenario you know they’ve already entertained, since their preferred stooge, Mike Pence, is ready and willing to serve without histrionic turmoil should Trump suffer a debilitating medical incident, resign in frustration or be politically neutered by Anonymous or WikiLeaks or some hacker spitting up his tax returns.
Meanwhile, every step of the way to that point is a vast middle-class insurgency not just opposed to Trump but viscerally disgusted by him, to a level they never despised George W. Bush. Every day Trump will say or do something to stoke that insurgency of nice, well-educated women in pink pussy hats like a coal feeder into a blast furnace. He’s incapable of doing anything else.
But the story of that insurgency is bigger than Trump.
I was marching in D.C. It’s not hyperbole to say that my life is forever changed. I have fewer years to live than the youngest of my traveling-companions-on-the-bus, who is 17. Turned out I’m the matriarch.
Stunning wisdom among the young people (a cluster from St. Thomas University and several others, including my grand-daughter). The wisdom of a woman who marched in the 1960s, who was arrested the first time at age 13. The wisdom of a woman who marched against the Vietnam War. And the wisdom of the several males who traveled with us.
We all have rear-view mirrors, and we are determined that we will never go back. We recognize that the immediate now is gross, repugnant, not to be tolerated.
We agree that the Republicans’ trump is not normal. That his cabinet is not normal. That his family and hangers-on are not normal. That none of this can be normalized.
The new normal began in earnest on January 21, 2017 — the day of the Marches all over the country and the world.
This is not an exclusive effort. Point of fact, it is one of the most inclusive collectives ever assembled, here or elsewhere. On Saturday, I learned what intersectionalism means. Just wow!
You are all welcome and needed. Are you in?
I don’t expect much out of Mr. Trump- we know he uses these non-issues to deflect criticisms of what he is really doing. My real beef is with the press in that they allow themselves to be pulled into these non-issues and do not concentrate on real issues. On this morning’s news, I heard several minutes on the “who had the bigger crowd” issue and very little on the following which also happened this weekend:
Trump made changes to the official White House website. He removed references to climate change, rights for LGBT individuals, a strategy to fight HIV/AIDS and much more. They added new language saying investing in the military will be a top priority, along with law-and-order talk.
He rescinded a recent move to lower costs for younger homebuyers seeking a home loan through the Federal Housing Authority. The mortage premium cut — estimated to save $500 per year — will be “suspended immediately.”
He signed executive orders about the Affordable Care Act. The language allows companies and states to forego the law’s individual mandate. That mandate was the cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act. (Most information taken from: https://mic.com/articles/166204/inauguration-day-what-trump-got-done-weekend-off#.jL2kBqVxf).
How can we let ourselves be lead so easily into small non-issues and ignore these items? It’s like arguing with a toddler or an active alcoholic- one has to keep redirecting and let them know they will not get by with misdirecting the conversation. Our press and our populace need to stand strong in the face of his diversionary tantrums or we will lose so much!
1) Congressional Republicans can’t be perceived to be forcing Trump out, because that will piss off diehard Trump loyalist voters who they desperately need in 2018 and 2020. Such is the peril of having an insane political base.
2) I think Trump resigning — while declaring victory after a productive few months under Republican monopoly — is the most likely of the President Pence scenarios. Trump and his people will hate the job and will see more dollar signs on the horizon.
3) If I was of the age to start a garage band, I’d strongly consider “The Incontinent Hookers.”
Well, part of the “fun” will be watching how GOP leadership goes about cutting Trump’s legs out from under him if indeed he decides he’s got more sway with the masses than they do. Devoted Trumpists are easily rallied by talk radio. But more or less normal, tribal “true conservative” Republicans will see no downside at all in replacing Trump with Pence. Especially if Trump has descended to the state of a hapless, running national joke, which seems entirely likely.
I see you as the crazed party animal drummer for The Incontinent Hookers. The guy who drives his car into hotel swimming pools.
I agree that congressional Republicans will be eager to swap Trump for Pence. It’s just tricky for them to do that without causing their political base to sit out the next election. You’re right that talk radio could be capable of persuading many of the 2016 Trump voters to abandon Trump and turn out in 2018, but I’m not convinced they can persade enough of them. Those Trump diehards have proven to be unbelievably loyal to this cat through a whole lot of shit. If even 15% of the 2016 Trump voters stayed home in 2018 because they felt Trump was treated badly, that could make the 2018 math much more dicey.
But getting rid of Trump would seem to be a pyrrhic victor. With a rant-weary, scandal-weary 2018 electorate, progressives are arguably better off running against President Trump in 2018 than the relatively “fresh face” President Pence. Pence is substantively as bad as Trump, and worse on social issues, but he might be more marketable in 2018.
It’s a fun parlor game, but who the hell knows.
I would like to think that Saturday was “Inauguration Day for the Resistance.” I would also like to think that “the people, united, will never be defeated” . . . but I won’t place any bets on it.