Below is my column in The Hill on the growing calls for an organized resistance to the Trump Administration by Democratic governors and prosecutors. They may find, however, that the resistance movement this time around will be facing significant legal and political headwinds.
Here is the column:
The single most common principle of recovery programs is that the first step is to admit that you have a problem.
That first step continues to elude the politicians and pundits who unsuccessfully pushed lawfare and panic politics for years. That includes prosecutors like New York Attorney General Letitia James and politicians like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who affirmed this week that they will be redoubling, not reconsidering, their past positions.
For its part, The Washington Post quickly posted an editorial titled “The second resistance to Trump must start now.” They may, however, find the resistance more challenging both politically and legally this time around.
It is important to note at the outset that there is no reason Democratic activists should abandon their values just because they lost this election. Our system is strengthened by passionate and active advocacy.
Rather, it is the collective fury and delirium of the post-election protests that was so disconcerting. Pundits lashed out at the majority of voters, insisting that the election established that half of the nation is composed of racists, misogynists or domination addicts who long to submit to tyranny.
Others blamed free speech and the fact that social media allows “disinformation” to be read by ignorant voters. In other words, the problem could not possibly be themselves. It was, rather, the public, which refused to listen.
That does not bode well for the Democratic Party. As someone raised in a liberal politically active family in Chicago, I had hoped for greater introspection after this election blowout.
Ordinarily, recovery can begin with “a terrible experience” when someone hits rock bottom.
After a crushing electoral defeat and the loss of the White House and likely both houses of Congress, one would think that Democrats would be ready for that first step to recovery. However, those hoping for a new leaf on the left do not understand the true addictive hold of rage.
In my recent book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I explore rage and our long history of rage politics. There is a certain release that comes with rage in allowing people to do and say things that you would never do or say. People rarely admit it, but they like it. It is the ultimate high produced by the lowest form of political discourse.
Over the course of the last eight years, the U.S. has become a nation of rage addicts.
For months, Democratic leaders denounced Donald Trump and his supporters as fascists and neo-Nazis. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and others suggested that democracy itself was about to die unless Democrats were kept in power.
Just before the election, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called those voting for Trump “anti-American.” By Hochul’s measure, over half of the American electorate is now “anti-American.”
James is the face of lawfare. She may have done more to reelect Trump than anyone other than the president himself. She ran on nailing Trump on something, anything. In New York, she was joined by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in this ill-conceived effort. They fulfilled the narrative of a weaponized legal system. Every new legal action seemed to produce another surge in polling for Trump.
Yet there James was, soon after the election, with another press conference promising again to unleash the powers of her office to stop Trump’s policies.
Then there was Pritzker, doing the community theater version of “The Avengers” and declaring, “You come for my people, you come through me.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) added that he too will “fight to the death” against Trump’s agenda.
Rather than lower the rhetoric, these rage-addicts ran out for another hit.
Our prior periods of rage politics were largely ended by the public in major election shifts like the one this month. Things, however, are different this time around both politically and legally. The problem for the resistance is the very democracy that they claimed to be saving.
Democrats lost after opposing policies supported by an astonishing share of the public at a time of deep political division. That effort included opposing voter ID laws favored by 84 percent of the public, among other things.
They are now committed to opposing policies central to this election blowout, including deportations of illegal immigrants, which is favored in some polls by two-thirds of Americans.
Likewise, Democrats have already doubled down on attacks on free speech, including blaming their loss on the absence of sufficient censorship. On MSNBC, host Mika Brzezinski blamed the loss in part on “massive disinformation.” Yet, according to some polls, free speech ranked as high as second among issues on Election Day.
According to CNN, Trump’s performance was the best among young people (18-29 years old) in 20 years, the best among Black voters in 48 years, and the best among Hispanic voters in more than 50 years.
Harris actually lost a bit of support with women, and Trump won handily among some groups of women.
None of that seems to matter this time. We have an alliance of political media and academic interests wholly untethered to the views of most of the public. Yet, with both houses of Congress under Republican control, the investigations and impeachment efforts that hounded Trump throughout his first term will be less of a threat in his second term.
For that reason, the center of gravity of the “second resistance” will shift to Democratic prosecutors like James, Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was just reelected.
Various Democratic governors are also pledging to thwart Trump’s policies despite the results of the election.
The “second resistance” will try to use state power to oppose the very issues and policies that led to this historic political shift. That means that there will be a legal shift in the focus of litigation to inherent federal powers versus state powers. That battle will favor the Trump administration.
In fairness to these Democratic politicians, they are certainly free to go to the courts, as Republicans did under Biden to argue for limitations on federal powers. But the promise of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to “Trump-proof” the state is easier to make rhetorically than it will be to keep legally.
Indeed, Trump will be able to cite a curious ally in this fight: Barack Obama. It was Obama who successfully swatted down state efforts to pursue their own policies and programs on immigration enforcement. Obama insisted that state laws were preempted in the area and the Supreme Court largely agreed in its 2012 decision in Arizona v. U.S.
Congress may even seek to tie the receipt of federal funds to states cooperating with federal mandates. For this reason, Democrats, who campaigned on the promise to end the filibuster for the good of democracy, suddenly became firm believers in that Senate rule right around 2:30 a.m. last Wednesday.
As the majority of the country walks away from the party shaking their heads, many activists are left only with their rage. Instead of reappraising the years of far-left orthodoxy and intolerance, some are calling to tear down the system or take drastic individual actions, including for women to break up with their boyfriends and husbands or to cut off their hair.
They will actually keep their rage and dump their relationships. Now that really is an addiction.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
I am sooo happy that more and more people are recognizing that much of the Dem’s problems have a mental health nexus. I have been saying that for quite a while. It is just trying to define the nature of their mental illness that is the problem. Perhaps there is an underlying borderline personality disorder-type thing going on. I do not think that “rage”, per se, captures the entire gamut of thier problem. Because there is a lot of control-seeking stuff going on, too. From an AI overview:
“Yes, people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be controlling, but not all people with BPD are controlling, and there are many other factors that can contribute to controlling behavior:
Fear of abandonment
A core symptom of BPD, people with BPD may become controlling to prevent perceived rejection or loss.
Emotional instability
People with BPD may have difficulty controlling their emotions, which can lead to unpredictable mood swings. They may try to control their environment or others to regain stability.
Impulsivity
People with BPD may act on their urges without considering the consequences.
Low self-esteem
People with BPD may have a negative self-image and try to compensate with controlling behavior.
Other signs and symptoms of BPD include: Unstable relationships, Viewing things in extremes, Changing interests and values, Self-harm or suicidal thoughts, and Paranoid thoughts.
Treatments like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help people with BPD manage their symptoms. “
Mindless is the advocacy, by a member of Harris’ staff, that Biden resign to open the door for Harris, as the first woman of color to assume the presidency of the United States, and the Democrat Party claim the honor, rather than it fall to the electorate to make that choice. Ironic that it falls to a member of the community of color to suggest that such an historic event should be achieved by bringing her in through the ‘colored only’ back door, a la Jim Crow 2.1. This convoluted thinking is pathognomonic of why they fail.
A vote for trump was anti American. Maybe it might’ve fit back when the Constitution was written and white property didn’t want to consider women and slaves worthy of voting. But in recent American history…, totally un American.
Trump was convicted of felonies. He either needs to be held accountable or his apologists like Turley need to be forced to proclaim publicly “…when you’re rich they let you do it.”
Turley is trying to skate on it in this push piece op Ed. It’s his jam. He’s just trying to use different words than the ones used in the trump quote…
Bonus question for magats: what are the differences between John Robert’s and Nick Fuentes, if any???
Lawn Boy Elvis bug, you can mix up the syntax a little, but you still expose yourself.
Sick-o-phant. How do those boogers taste?
Have another sip, drunktard.
What’s hilarious, other than your pathological avoidance of the topic always, is the fact I’ve never once tried to disguise myself here. So every time you play Inspector Gadget and try to sleuth out my identity it just proves you’re equal to a child being potty trained while you point proudly at what you leave behind for others to clean up.
^^^^^^ Troll alert and a very sad one at that
Lawn Boy, give it up bro. I out you every time. Takes no sleuthing. Your stupidity is easily recognizable.
Poopy head says what??
* ^ so you’ve identified yourself as gay? 👌
And your chronic lack of creativity with your insults just points toward serious cognitive difficulties.
You are the person that Professor Turley is writing about.
Your rage politics are completely detached from reality and will only serve to weaken support for the Democrat party. If the election didn’t prove that to you nothing will.
“Trump was convicted of felonies.” Not really. New York City convicted itself of facsism.
Well that too, but Trump was not convicted of felonies. In the first place, he as convicted of misdemeanors that were improperly strung together to claim they were felonies, and in the second place he is not a convicted “anything” unless or until he is sentenced.
We got another dem candidate for the SCOTUS here…
34 felonies to be exact.
Matched by 34 Lawfare filings
Had you gotten married to a nice girl, had children raised a family, you would not be trolling for peanuts…and apprehended squirrels
🐿
New name–> Ratropolis.
<< "white property didn’t want to consider women and slaves worthy of voting."
What is white property? I'm unaware of property having an opinion about anything?
The correct state would have been "White Democrats", since that was the party of slavery, the party of secession, and the party that the victors of the civil war were gracious enough not to outlaw, who then spent nearly the following century enforcing Jim Crow laws and impeding those women and ex-slaves from voting.
Not sure if that was your attempt at propaganda, or if perhaps it's just another instance of a victim of the Marxist ideology of the teachers union.
Missed a word while typing on my phone. A normal person would immediately know what it was. But that’s obviously not you.
* During the time period no one really voted worldwide. Nations had kings and princes. You do know that? The USA was a first politically. Quite amazing really. It’s gone through many economic systems. You know that, I know.
Lighteredknot says: Like Old Abe said; “you can’t fool all the people all the time. So the majority of the people voted to render the corrupt injustices by the corrupt individuals, moot. Why would you think Wa Post and LA Times did not endorse anyone oh pseudo-savant one? Appeals courts will set the so-called convictions aside. DT should pardon all of the J 6 convictions first moment in office. You take that channel locked- Tunnel visioned brain and reacclimate it to reality.
Each and every day these so called democrats demonstrate that they are truly authoritarian thugs who will relentlessly seek to destroy our constitutional republic
Turley– “Our system is strengthened by passionate and active advocacy.”
+++
But not by sedition. That appears to be what the Jacobin Democrats have already embraced.
@Turley,
There’s an old book called “Fair Play”.
https://www.amazon.com/Fair-Play-Munro-Leaf/dp/B000I3JZ78
Its a 1930’s children’s book.
It taught children right from wrong.
The strength of America is that we’re going to stand up for the little guy and we’re all about fair play.
Now when Americans see the system rigged against someone… they don’t stand for it. Cue lawfare.
What the Dims in the Democrat party forgot is that the ends do not justify the means.
That if you play dirty to win… you’re going to lose the people.
Trump is Trump, good, bad or indifferent… he’s still a guy who the system is attacking and its not fair.
Now I’m not a fan of Joe Biden. IMHO he should be in jail w Hunter.
Yet, I felt sorry for him when those same Dims… read the tea leaves and put a set of knives in his back.
That too also turned off Dem voters. (He won a rigged primary. Just ask RFK jr. ) Yet Harris didn’t face anything. She was put on the pedestal because they didn’t want to lose the money in their war chest and they didn’t have any suitable candidates.
If you look at the DNC… they don’t have a bench. All of their senior members are seniors who want to hang on to power.
As children they are the ones who should have read ‘Fair Play’ and learned that lesson. Maybe they did and just forgot it, willing to do or say whatever that would keep them in power.
“Absolute Power will corrupt Absolutely!” maybe that’s another lesson they learned but forgot.
Either way… when you game the system… be prepared for the blow back.
-G
Just a word to the wise: I would warn my fellow conservatives that the easy part (as hard as it was) was winning the election. The really hard part will be preventing a badly damaged economy from becoming an economic crisis. The Democrats lied about how good things are. Working people are struggling more and more, and the Gubment is more broke than Kamala’s presidential campaign. And even if we do everything right, the next two years could still be challenging.
And don’t expect any help from the Left. If they can scuttle the economy and leave Trump to shoulder the blame (like Fauci did), they’ll do it.
Buying votes with bondholder money will invite trouble in the bond market. That dog won’t hunt anymore. The Democrats tried that, leading to the result on November 5th. Populism doesn’t have to be reckless. It does need to be realistic.
@Diogenes…
It is a train wreck already.
That lie is already known. Did you see the latest jobs reports?
But there is the Trump factor.
He’s not even in office and things are starting to pop.
-G
Keeping my fingers crossed, Ian 🙂
Diogenes,
Well said and I agree. Americans have been suffering under Bidenomics and Bidenflation. And it affects everyone but the top 10%. $120 use to buy a full cart of groceries. Now, a third. Dang near everything was affordable under Trump. Now, just recently the age for a first time home buyer went up to 56!
We are going to do our part to support the Trump economy. Christmas is back “ON.” We will dine out at a local restaurant once a week. We will support local businesses whenever we can.
And how will you feel when the tariffs start biting and prices soar? If this is all about replacing foreign imports with American products, that dog don’t hunt because we do make stuff any longer. And everyone says they don’t care if imported fine wines from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Germany get dinged with 10% (or again 25%) tariffs because that’s just for them rich folk. A lot of working class Americans who drive the trucks that ship the wines, own wine shops, stock the shelves, polish wine glasses in restaurants, own import and distribution companies (yes, there still are some small to medium companies in the business) are going to lose their jobs and their businesses. Tariffs on everything imported make no sense at all and will hurt American consumers bigly.
Mary, Trump had tariffs in his first administration, and the critics said the same thing at the time as you’re saying now. They also said Trump’s tax cuts would wreck the economy with inflation. Trump’s inflation averaged 1.9%.–virtually perfect, and the American people just voted resoundingly to resume his economic policies. The jury has spoken.
But here’s the other thing, Mary, and maybe it’s more important: restoring American manufacturing and hinterland jobs are now national security issues. We simply can no longer count on supply chains from potentially-hostile powers. Whether the Leftist-Globalists like it or not, their business model is at risk of further declines, and capital flows are returning to North America in response. If it weren’t for that, Biden’s inflation numbers would have been much worse.
Inflation or not, survival trumps everything. This is the new normal, Mary.
Correction, Biden’s interest rates would have been much worse.
True enough, but Biden-Harris damaged the very economic structure, to the point that whatever remedies Trump applies will not have immediate results, What we have seen so far is very positive stock market gains based on sentiment. That cannot last, and we need to be realistic about how quickly real, long-term, positive changes will kick in.
Agree. The Left will likely have a field day until then. They romped for three years under Reagan but then got smashed in 1984.
True. Like the beginning of the year, I am back on life-support again. So here is how I am coping.
I changed from Medicare to another plan, that gives me a $58 food/otc drug card, and no need to pay for independent drug plan, which saves me another $54 per month. I have cut my food budget to sub-$2.00 per meal. Some meals are sardines and crackers. Often, potted meat sandwiches. Less than one dollar for sardines, and $1.12 for fancy sardines with hot sauce, mustard or green chiles. One can of potted meat = 2 sandwiches. I eat a lot of cabbage, too, with corned beef. $3.00 per can corned beef at WalMart, and get about 5-6 servings out of one can. Eight or more servings out of a head of $3.00 head of cabbage. No more GrubHub, no more Audible, no more $11/month Hulu. My book budget has basically been eliminated. I can no longer pay for help with taking care of the cats and the dog. I reuse paper plates a couple of times, washing them off between meals. The cats have been cut back to 3 cans of Friskies shreds per day, along with 3 cans of cheaper wet food. I have gone to cheaper dry food too, for them, and in larger bags. They are still thriving. I switched the porch coons and possums to Old Roy Dog Food, which is about $25 bucks for a 46 pound bag. Plus, Murphy, the big stray dog in the neighborhood, can eat that. Even my dog, Peanut, likes it to some degree. I have two immaculate conception kittens who still need Fancy Feast wet food at 88 cents per can, about 3 to 4 cans per day. And Snookums, the sick cat, still needs the Friskies brand. And, there are now three stay cats that come here to feed, too. But they will eat cheaper wet food. I switched to WalMart Special Kitty Litter for the big pan, and that saves about $6 per 40 pound purchase. I am also planning on selling most of my library off. That will bring in a few bucks, hopefully.
Those are some of the things that I have to do to cope with the higher prices, and I am better off than most, since I get a social security check every month. And being house bound, I do not have a car, or car insurance, or gas to worry about. If things work out, and prices do not continue to rise meteorically, I may be able to survive without getting another job. Which means that I can get back to work on my novel.
The point is, that most of this problem is directly linked to government mismanagement, most of it by Democrats. Biden cut back the supply of oil almost immediately upon coming into office, for example. Up go the energy prices and everything else, too. (Keystone Pipeline) Plus, 11 million illegals ain’t free. So, the Democrats still wonder why most people are not voting for them???
Hope you manage to cope, Floyd. Anybody who is a friend to cats is a friend to Diogenes.
I’m worried about whether Social Security and Medicare can meet their obligations. Don’t see how that can last.
Euthanasia is being discussed.
Thx! I will make it! I budget everything out about a month and a half to make sure I can cover expenses. Things will be better the first part of the year. The only note I have left is a $35 month wheelchair note, and that pays off in February. Then, my daughter swears she is going to clean out my storeroom in another city. That is a couple of hundred bucks a month. That bill doubled due to bottom-feeding equity money scum sopping it up, and making the tenants pay the bill.
@Upstate
Granted, ‘Bidenomics’ was just a lame term they came up with to cover their a$$es for wrecking our economy from top to bottom and to try to give Biden tones of Reagan. The modern left is truly pathetic and insane. 🙄 They could reform and kick the Marxists to the curb, or heaven forbid, apologize for anything whatsoever since 2016 either through word or deed; they just won’t do it. 🤷🏻♂️
SERIOUSLY it’s so bad fish sourced in Alaska and the pacific northwest is shipped to CHINA for processing and packaging where it is NO DOUBT stolen and shipped back at salmon 90 dollars per pound while shellfish and fish is being shipped from Vietnam and Thailand at 10 dollars per pound that doesn’t pass inspection but sold anyway. Same for pharmaceuticals and others foods.
PROFOUND dishonesty. Less than 3rd world–> Hell.
Upstate, I had planned to work until at least 70 to save money for the government and young people. My blood pressure said otherwise 🙁
” The really hard part will be preventing a badly damaged economy from becoming an economic crisis.”
Absolutely correct. Anyone who thinks that electing Trump and a GOP Congress has automatically solved our problems, including the terrible spending/deficit/debt issues, is sadly deluded. The reality is that Trump made a lot of campaign promises to various groups that will engender more spending and/or reduced tax collections. my considered expectation is that a significant number of those promises cannot be kept. Now, I’m not faulting him for that; Harris had to be kept out of the Oval Office at any cost. Also, many of the problems are of a runaway nature such that some of them may flat out not be soluble without some drastic solution, such as limited default. And that is an optimistic assessment that assumes that there will be no obstruction from any Republicans in Congress on any cost-cutting, which imo is very unlikely. We should be brutally realistic in our personal expectations of economic gain, particularly over the short and medium term.
👍
The hypocrisy of talking one story out of their mouths and doing the other is their actions is almost certain to continue throughout Trump’s second presidency, just as it did through the campaign.
Chuck Schumer is scrambling to talk about working together again, etc. No longer interested in packing the courts, ending the filibuster, adding states to America, etc.
When the rubber meets the road, i.e. swiftly confirming administration appointments, then the country will see just how much these Democrats in Washington DC are going to do what they say.
Wherever “the resistance” is, it’s just another version of the bar room and schoolyard bullies. It will not stop until they learn that actions like those will result in their blood being on the floor – not those of their intended victims. Whether their intended victims are the Trump voters they vilify or Trump, Vance, and other Republicans.
Sore loser democrats are reaching out to John Hinckley Jr. to finish the job.
Let’s hope that left-wing women really do follow through on denying sexual access to men. This has positive ramifications for the future of the country. Imagine: no more Whoppie Goldbergs.
Edward they’re embracing the South Korean 4B movement, which is great news for civilization because it means they will not procreate.
PS. Many thanks for helping to deliver your pleasant peninsula for the Donald!
I voted 100,000 times for Trump. Nobody checked the signatures and addresses on the mail-in ballots. Bit I can’t use my right arm now.
I don’t want to become them. I want a new, trump era of EFFECTIVE prosecution. Only seek cases that you know you will win, clearly, publicly and in the courts.
The people, the individuals who committed crimes, unethical practices intent on blocking and destroying Trump must face consequences or it will continue, but it must be, overwhelmingly deserved and just. Not politically motivated retribution. The message, the lesson must be able to last generations ….
There ‘could’ be a 12-Step program for Leftists one day. Then again, I’m a dreamer.
Rage Junkies can only heal thyself by admitting seeing the world through a RED lens is a self control failure! Enjoy the endorphin rush from getting red faced and then act like an adult and rejoin civilization! Blue hairs, shaved heads, pierced noses, and militant types can certainly occupy the lonely end of the spectrum as the rest of society moves on!
Expect New York AG Letitia James to reach deep into her Gucci purse and pull out a plethora of NEW criminal charges against President Trump. She is the undisputed poster girl for the Democrat’s woke rage. Maybe President Trump’s DOJ could file criminal charges against James and give her her very own “mug shot moment ??? She’d cut quite a dazzling profile in an orange jumpsuit don’t you think Jonathan ???
Nope.
She’s not capable of doing that until after Trump leaves office in 4yrs.
We’re just emerging from a very dark and un-American four years of our history. The conformity demands were everywhere and just as stifling as during the McCarthy red scare. The forces of darkness that held us there will naturally resist our liberation. Perhaps surprisingly Family Ties and Desperate Housewives star Justine Bateman is onto it and expresses it very well:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/family-ties-star-justine-bateman-023031937.html
I want to see the FBI guy that rifled through the underwear drawer of our First Lady terminated first, followed by everyone else involved. I can never forgive that abuse of government authority.
*the Constitutionalists v.
Anti- Constitutionalists
Time to call on the MIT Math dept we paid for to analyze the stats of 2020 and 2024 elections and similar requirements to vote and verifications?
Throw out foreign money and laundering in colleges and universities. Throw out money laundering in campaigns Harris and a billion dollars. Throw out domestic food exports processing and packaging. Bought a pack of Walmart jello. DISTRIBUTED by Walmart but no manufacturer listed. It’s awful with red dye 40 not used in the usa. What a junkyard.
Happy veterans day…perhaps the 23 dem governors can pee on their Graves as American farmland is sold to Canada, China, Saudi Arabia among others.
* It’s called–> piss on it.
MSM has already proven it is not credible, not to be trusted and not even to be watched as they will only lie to you.
Meanwhile, the Democrat party is doing everything to blame everyone else other than themselves of their own failures. And they are further alienating those whom they are putting the blame on. If they are expecting a blue wave in the mid-terms, insulting voters is not the way to go about it.
The second resistance is going to be much smaller as it is only the truly dedicated cult leftists who will continue their fight against … what exactly? As it has been noted time and time again, we have had a Trump admin once already that was highly successful up till the COVID lockdowns. None of the fearmongering Democrats declared that would happen, happened. And now they are doubling and tripling down on it. The adults in the room are growing ever so tired of their teenage angst and hysteria.
I realize that to some, MAGA or America First are just silly “Trump” slogans, so they must resist “him” with every fiber of their being. But for Trump supporters, there is nothing silly about them. When the “resistance” organizes against all things Trump, they are announcing loud and clear that they will resist policies that would put America First by Making America Great Again.
Resist all you like. Drag out your grieving process as long as you need. The longer it takes them, the deeper the support will get as more and more of the resistance snap out of their demoralized state.
OLLY,
Here is the thing I cannot figure out, what are they “resisting” to? Secure borders? Deporting criminal or even gang illegals? Lower taxes? World peace? Common sense? Of course they are going to scream about Hitler, Nazis, Handmaids Tale and a bunch of other nonsense that will not happen. Did not happen in Trump’s first admin.
Upstate, apparently they are resisting reality. They’ve been brainwashed into believing they are living in some fictional, dystopian world lead by Trump and his army of MAGA stormtroopers. It really does not matter what good could come for this country or the resistance from Trump’s America First agenda. What matters to them is eliminating this fascist and his army, just as the psyop conditioned them to believe.
* just piss on it!
I learned that.
“Over the course of the last eight years, the U.S. has become a nation of rage addicts.”
When making a claim like this, one should shift into quantitative thinking: What % of Americans are rage addicts?
By my estimates, it’s about 20%. This is based on surveys that specifically looked into this question, and personal experience with friends, family and colleagues.
You will grossly overestimate rage based on the highly unrepresentative nature of what media chooses to tease your eyeballs with. Rely on your direct interpersonal experiences — those cannot be manipulated to get your attention.
It might be that this % is somewhat elevated now because of social media’s propensities, but I suspect a slice of Americans have always been politically closed-minded and zealously defensive — it’s just that they never had a voice in the public square (published print / broadcast radio-TV) until Internet 2.0 came along with unfiltered, user-supplied content.
Gentle mockery of defensiveness is the antidote to closed-mindedness. Taking up counter-militancy is the worst response. Open-mindedness (the liberal ideal of authenticity and courageous truth-seeking) is a powerful force — don’t ever give up on it if you prize your freedoms.
You may be correct, but that begs another question. How may more people can that 20% bully into endorsing their rage, and pursuing the remedies they prescribe, even if they aren’t really buying the arguments, just to avoid themselves becoming the object of that rage? It clearly isn’t zero. My guess is that each member of that 20% is capable of coercing 2 or 3 others into behaving counter to their inclinations. That effectively would turn your 20% into 40% or more.