For a non-american itś Hard to understand Why There is little to no resistance, especially against the acts that are out-of-bounds in terms of democratic boundaries.
75.000 civil servants pressured into retirement, complete Federal services being shuttered down without having legal authority to do so - extremely autocratical actions for all to see … yet There are no marches and activities from the civil society to be seen?
Any guesses,?
People are working. Like literally working our jobs so we can survive. Nobody has time to protest.
They ARE getting out there. Just not enough to hit the international news I guess.
Also people are calling their congressional reps like crazy. The news must not be reporting on it.
Oh, and also our congressional reps still aren’t doing anything. So, yeah.
Brutal honesty: At the moment, it’s all just too abstract. Very few Americans, in America, are feeling any pain due to Trump & Musk’s actions. Life – immediate, on-the-ground life – for almost everyone in the US is the same today as it was two months ago.
Comfortable people don’t upend their lives and dedicate themselves to 24/7 protests. An additional concern of mine is that any conceivable peaceful protest is (seemingly) very easy for the Trump/Musk government to ignore. The mere presence of angry citizens won’t be enough (IMHO) to change anything. Change will almost certainly have to come through non-peaceful protest … and at this writing, very few Americans have an appetite for that. Right now, that is, with hardly anyone feeling real pain in their immediate lives.
The courts are where we are supposed to take our grievances and they move slowly. We haven’t quite come to the point where Trump has defied the courts or Congress without at least the fig leaf of a tortured legal argument. But, we’re close.
If History is any indicator, the “last straw” that sends people into the streets will probably be something entirely unrelated to offenses against legal norms.
I think it’s a combination of too much, too fast, questions about legality and whether or not the Federal judiciary, states and/or Congress are going to rein him in.
I mean, right now it’s a lot of hot air, and it’s not 100% clear what’s going to stick and what isn’t. This isn’t our first Trump Rodeo, so we’re all well aware that 80% of what he says is complete bullshit. It’s just that right now, it’s hard to tell what’s serious, what’s “Throw it at the wall and see if it sticks”, and what’s just literal hot air.
And of that 20% that’s actually serious or sticks, I think there’s a feeling that the normal mechanisms may still work; Federal judges have issued restraining orders on pretty much everything he’s tried to carry out.
Another thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that many people center-left and left/progressive are pretty much emotionally and mentally exhausted. Outrage about DJT and his allies has been dominating public discourse for 10 years. Even when he was out of office the news media kept him front and center almost on a daily basis. After the November election a lot of people have begun feeling powerless to do anything.
I think there will be a tipping point but I don’t know what it is or when it will happen. I do think what anger is building at this point is mostly focused on Musk and his bullshit. So I guess that could be what lights the fuse.
Let’s not forget that a whole lot more Americans than we thought are indeed deplorable and LIKE what Trump’s doing. He’s hurting THOSE PEOPLE, not them, which is all to the good in their book. And when what he’s doing starts to hurt them too, they’ve been well trained to blame the Democrats. The Pubs will escape large-scale accountability for their actions.
There have been marches, as well as protests at the locations of the agencies DOGE is targeting. I’d say that one reason you’re not hearing much about them is that they have been smaller-scale than the ones during the first Trump administration, due to the fact that they’ve been hastily organized, often in response to specific actions from the administration, and not always conveniently timed (I would probably have gone to the 50 States, 50 Marches event in my state capital if it hadn’t been at noon on a Wednesday). But they are definitely happening.
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I think this is the most correct answer.
If people cared about abstractions like “our institutions”, then Trump wouldn’t have been elected in the first place. A good 1/3rd actively believe the disinformation that all government is bad, all the time. Probably another 1/3rd don’t really understand how government works or why institutions are important.
The remaining 1/3rd are exhausted from shouting these warnings for 8 years, and being dismissed as crying “wolf”. We now understand that we won’t be heard until the wolf appears and begins to eat people. Even when that starts happening, the realization won’t hit, because the media will convince them that they’re being eaten by sheep, not by wolves.
Plus, the idea of protest is a little scary right now, knowing that Trump will straight-up detain people and send them to Guatemalan gang prisons or whatever.
The fact that he got the most votes makes it a little difficult for those that value democracy to take it to the streets.
There have been some - but to a certain extent they are a waste of time. The people who could possibly stop this (Congress) are not willing to at this point and marches about abstractions aren’t going to change their mind. That doesn’t mean things can’t change - there’s a reason that all of this is being done by executive order which is that Trump is not sure he can get his agenda through Congress. There’s a difference between Republican Congressman so-and-so sitting back while Trump cuts some sort of funding through an executive order and that congressman actually voting to end funding for some program his constituents want. Maybe when they start to fear losing elections for sitting back things will change- if it isn’t already too late.
Ex presidents ought to speak up. Fuck that polite old tradition.
This too. Republicans swept the last election, both houses of Congress and the Presidency. A majority wanted this. (True that it’s a narrow majority that’s badly skewed by our messed-up form of government, and should be changed, but that’s currently not a realistic option).
An analogy I saw somewhere else - the American people ordered a dish laden with the worst kind of food poisoning. If another party steps in to save them, saying “you can’t eat this, it’s for your own good”, then they will forever believe you unjustly stole their dessert. It doesn’t work. Our political system doesn’t permit it, human nature doesn’t permit it.
The people have to eat the dish they ordered, feel the food poisoning, experience the projectile vomiting and diarrhea. Then they may be interested in the cure you’re selling. Not before.
Far too much belief in magical teeter-totters that create a balance, coupled with magical laws that somehow enforce themselves.
This is exacerbated by the fact that most people in the US, and Canada as well, have never experienced the projectile vomiting and diarrhea before, nor do they know anyone who has. Despite everything that happens in the rest of the world, we have been relatively unscathed for over a century now. 9/11 was the only time it really hit us here at home. Even Pearl Harbor happened in, well, Pearl Harbor. Government oppression, consolidation of power, mass protests, riots, coups? That’s what happens in other places, and we see it on TV. So this doesn’t quite feel real to most people yet.
This is what I have heard from a few. Faith in the checks and balances to preserve their slice of Americana. And that the Constitution exists and the courts will uphold that, and court orders will actually be obeyed.
That’s what’s so distressing about this. This will require the general public to see things that they’ve mostly never seen before. Except for protests - the public actually has seen protests, going back to the 1960’s, and have convinced themselves that the protesters were the real problem all along. So protests are unlikely to be effective.
And to that last point, hopefully nobody’s missed the legislation across many states to legalize vehicular assault of protesters. If there’s a mass protest, it’s very likely some of the protesters are going to die, and it will be a race to see whether they’re killed by a rogue CyberTruck owner, or by a right-wing street militia, or ICE run amok. I’m very nervous about ICE gaining expanded powers and becoming something like the SS, augmented by a Proud Boy type paramilitary.
Honestly I’m not sure who if anyone can predict exactly how things will break down. It seems likely that we’re going to find out, though.
It’s also the middle of winter, and it’s been a brutal one in many parts of the country. Only a hard core protester is going to slog two miles in -10F cold.
I agree with the idea that we are all shell-shocked at this point. Most Americans expect the branches of government to function as foils for each other and that’s not happening. All we’re getting is indulgent smirks from the right, and mumbling old farts on the left. But there have been dozens of lawsuits already filed and it takes time for those to work through the courts. At some point, the inaction in our government will spark massive outrage, and when the Trumpies realize that their hero doesn’t give a shit about them, perhaps we’ll see some uprising.
2/3rds of the country saw Trump and decided they were fine with him being President.
Not a goddamn thing I do is going to matter unless a nicely sized chunk of that supermajority feels pain from the things he’s doing. Actually hurting, having their lives upended by something stupid or hateful Trump did. Having their friends or acquaintances rounded up, their government payments stalled, their purchases taxed. Their daughters and friends passed over because anti-DEI.
I want them to hurt. And I’ll sleep perfectly fine because I have done and will continue to do my part by voting for people who care.
Frankly, anyone in power who fails to act on these atrocities because not enough people are protesting can get bent. Write my congressperson? If she don’t know what’s going on, she’s a bigger part of the problem than Trump.
Masses took to the streets and rioted, and got shot by the National Guard, in protest of the Vietnam War. And that was despite Nixon getting solid electoral majorities, twice.
But the difference was: the draft. The protesters had a very personal and serious stake in the anti-war movement. Nothing like that is in play, now.