Does anyone get the sense that Democrats are pretty…relaxed about the upcoming Trump 2nd term? They don’t seem flustered or bothered much at all. From watching the media, too, you’d almost think that a normal Republican, like Romney or McCain, was about to take office.
…This despite years of warning - very loudly - that Trump’s second term would be far worse than his first, how it would be an extinction event for American democracy, article after article laying out in great detail how Trump would spell death and doom for this or that.
To be sure, there’ve been complaints about how bad Hegseth is, how bad Gaetz was, etc. But the furor and resistance right now, in the lead-up to Inauguration Day 2025, is not stronger than what it was leading up to Inauguration Day 2017. If anything, it feels considerably weaker and more muted.
Biden was even grinning widely in the Oval Office with Trump shortly after the election. He didn’t seem upset or displeased at all. He could have chosen just a flat neutral expression but instead was beaming. Kamala hasn’t seemed too unhappy.
It’s like Democrats are just…chillaxing their way as the 2nd term comes. Like, not even really all that bothered. Anyone else feel this way? It doesn’t make sense, considering the 2nd was supposed to be - and probably will be - much worse than the 1st.
I disagree 100% with your premise. Every Democrat and other “left” leaning individual I know is terrified. The problem is that most are either in Red states where they think there’s nothing they can do*, in Blue states where they hope local government will protect them from the worst, or are fatalistic in the extreme. None of those are “chillax”.
(*) - and we’re very careful on this board to avoid the threats of violence, political or otherwise, which may or may not be effective, but if anything are more likely to be counter-productive.
ETA - of course, you may be speaking about “political” / ruling class Democrats who are (1) somewhat protected by their position and (2) claiming that they will continue to follow the rule of Law and expect MAGA to do the same, all while trying to project an aura of “concerned but confident” which is STILL not the same as “chillax”
The Dems lost in a fair and honest election and are acting like adults about it. Reflecting on their lost and being a loyal opposition is what adults do. Doesn’t mean that they are not very upset.
That makes sense if we’re talking about losing to a normal Republican like McCain or Romney.
If Democrats really considered Trump to be Hitler 2.0 and an extinction-event for American democracy and the destruction of the nation, this relaxed approach makes no sense. It suggests that Democrats do not, in fact, think Trump’s 2nd term is going to be the utter-calamity thing they said it would be.
I could laugh gallows humor style at the DNC at this point because it seems such a tragicomedy, but I can’t. The Trump 2nd term is too bad to be funny.
I don’t know how you could possibly reach such a conclusion. Do you not read this board, or the mainstream media? Legal analyst Glen Kirschner is pleading with Congressional Democrats and any sane Republicans to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to declare Trump disqualified for office, which indeed he is. But Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Electoral College are all failing in their duties to uphold the rule of law and the essential system of checks and balances.
I see widespread despondency. There are several threads here about what a disaster and threat to democracy Trump 2.0 will be, reflecting similar stories in the media. What on earth would you expect to see from Democrats that you’re not seeing? Civil war?
I don’t want to write a thousand-word long post but one of the most prominent giveaways or cues I’m seeing is all the Democrats who are planning to run for office in 2028. It doesn’t make sense to say “I’ll run in 2028” if one believes Trump is going to end democracy in his second term - there’d be no elections in 2028 to run in. (Note that I don’t believe Trump will end democracy, but that’s what many Democrats claimed he would do in a second term.)
I live in a very liberal city (well, all cities are liberal) and the behavior I see of 99.99% of all liberals around me is “Life as usual.” Nobody is living as if they are expecting an American Gestapo to come banging on their doors. Nobody is mounting a mass protest. Social media doesn’t seem worried at all about what’s coming; the great majority of content is lighthearted memes that are non-political. The overwhelming priorities on people’s minds right now seem to be: Jobs, family, college football, what to cook for the next meal or next week, school, etc. In other words, they don’t seem to think their lives will change at all under Trump as opposed to under Biden. Nobody is living as if Hitler 2.0 is truly coming. The DNC is treating Trump like he’s a normal Republican and his presidency is just a mild weather event to be endured for 4 years.
Dems have no power right now. Not in congress, the executive, or on SCOTUS. I think Dems aren’t sure what to do. It’s not that we think it’s going to be normal. But we already went through 8 years of insanity around Trump, and we know the worst is yet to come, and we don’t know (collectively) what we’re going to do.
I think you’re mis-diagnosing what’s happening with the Dems. Many of us are very afraid of what’s coming, but we’re unable to stop it at this point.
That’s not the prevailing belief. The belief – and the actual threat – is that the dismantling of a mature, established democracy is a gradual, incremental process that consists of violating basic norms, trampling normal democratic guardrails with impunity, and undermining the rule of law, and destroying public confidence in democratic institutions. You don’t have to believe that democracy will end within four years to believe that Trump 2.0 will do a tremendous amount of damage in all those areas, and set the stage for either Trump 3.0 or his successor to carry on. What do you expect Dems to do about it?
My reality is that I don’t know what he’s going to do. I’m depending on people I don’t trust to stop Trump from doing the catastrophically idiotic things he’s said he wants to do. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.
What I AM doing is keeping an eye out for what Trump actually starts doing once he’s in office.
He’s already talking about doing things that he has no authority to do, such as rescinding city ordinances and state laws, and there will be nobody in his administration to tell him “no”. This will result in a morass of lawsuits that will clog the courts even worse than they are, and while that shit show is going on he’ll be busy enriching himself because nobody is watching. So yeah: much worse.
As a progressive liberal living in a red state I continue to keep a low profile, but I’m seriously thinking about relocating to another country as things start to unravel here. If that doesn’t demonstrate how uncomfortable I am with Trump 2.0 I don’t know what will.
Trunp will cause a certain amount of democratic backsliding. But I never thought it was accurate to label Donald Trump a fascist. And some sort of left-wing coup, in the U.S., is impossible. The only way move in a better direction is to win over swing voters in coming elections. They may buy that Trump’s policies were bad. But they will not buy that Trump should be treated as if he was going to end elections.
My family is doing the same. We are not packing bags just yet but we are giving serious consideration to having to do so and are researching our options.
My brother’s ex is already packing and moving to Portugal.