"...we are looking at the covers of a million books written about the trump era in the future..."

There are points when criticism is demanded. And there are points where unity is demanded.

I fear that in my 47 years as an adult member of the Democratic Party (not counting babysitting so people could get to the polls to vote for McGovern when I was 12), I have never seen "us" get this one right.

Either unity is demanded, and enforced inside the beltway on things that require more internal debate. Or we fall into circular firing squad mode when unity is absolutely called for to oppose a Republican threat.

And in re: 2024. I can't tell you how many arguments I had with my step-father throughout 2022 and into 2023. I was adamant that Biden should absolutely NOT run. He accused me of being ageist and made the case that Biden was our best shot.

When Biden announced his intention to run for a second term I cried. I felt betrayed. He was breaking his promise to be a "bridge" to a new generation of leaders. And we had some fantastic leaders "on the bench." But I pulled myself together and tried to internalize some of those "he's our best shot" arguments from my step-father.

I refrained from posting my fears. I did my best to be upbeat. But the dread never left me. A couple months before the fateful debate, my step-father raised the subject. He said I had been right. He'd been watching Biden on the campaign trail. He said he agreed that Biden shouldn't have run, and he was scared as hell that it was a fatal mistake for the Democratic Party. I did the "brave face" thing and touted all I could find that was going "for us." But I felt the same dread.

I'm not sure where this leaves me. Angry at the party for falling into an "It's his turn, his decision" stance and silencing any critic or challenge? Angry that the party didn't get behind him 100%? I don't know.

But I can't say that I didn't have a hell of a lot of sympathy for people who started calling on him to drop out.

Said it before. Will say it again. There is No Way Out with the Felon in the WH.

Trumpublicans need to face reality.

He is incapable of negotiating.

His demands will never be met.

The Iranian regime cares not for the suffering of it's people. No amount of bombing will "win" this war as long as IRGC and Basij with jet skis and cheap drones can inflict damage on neighbors, oil tankers, and container ships.

The only "out" is surrender and reparations -- and epic humiliation.-- which he will NEVER allow.

The magnitude of the damage to this nation and the world done by his criminal Iran insanity will escalate every week as the year progresses.

Republicans are in denial. They have their fingers in their ears, singing "la la la." The creatures are hanging on to the fantasy that the felon's criminal war on Iran will magically come to an end and things will "snap back" to some sort of tolerable trumpian business as usual.

But that will NEVER happen with the felon in the White House. There is no out with Trump in power.

He IS the crisis.

The ONLY way to end the crisis is if he leaves.

If enough of them wake up and see this reality we'll see an effort to push him out. A push to resign for "health reasons" or some other face-saving bullshit.

Perhaps it will take a rout in the midterms to wake enough of them up, but resignation is not outside the realm of possibility.

If that does come to pass, they'll find they left it to long. It's too late. The party can't "live down" this level of chaos and destruction. And they only have themselves to blame.

That "stubborn" 85% approval among R's is 85% of a shrinking number. Just sayin'

Conversely, the high disapproval -- 90-95% -- among self-identified Democrats is 90-95% of a GROWING number.

Q1 2026 (ABC report of gallup numbers)
25% Republican
43% Independent
30% Democratic

Average across all quarters 2025 (Gallup)
27% Republican
45% Independent
27% Democratic

The difference from the average of all 2025 quarters may not look dramatic, but when looked at in the context of the past 23 years, you can see that the percentage of people who self-identify as Republicans has not been as low as it was in the first quarter of this year since 2013.



How dramatic the move is is seen very clearly when you add R+R leaning I's and D+D leaning I's.

In re: "We have to take care of each other here on this site"

Here's something I posted right after the election. Much of it still applies.

1. Mourn. That will take all kinds of forms. Lashing out in anger or despair included, but we can help support each other in ways that ultimately preserve hope and reject the cynicism that immobilizes. Which leads to #2

2. Take care of each other. Support each other and share ideas for staying sane and engaged over the coming months and years.

3, Take care of ourselves. Encourage each other to connect with things that nourish us -- personally. We need to rebuild our strength.

4. Keep an eye on developments. I think there are going to be some creative things emerging that promote citizens working together in ways to shape their communities, shape attitudes, and accomplish some pretty great things, both large and small. I highly recommend this book for inspiration.

What you post matters

Apologies in advance to all those who will write off this post as too "preachy."

Anyway, as I thought about malaise's poignant "Does anyone care?" question about The Guardian's report of an Israeli reservist who shot 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan in the head just outside his school, it struck me that the post could be taken as implying "nobody cares" about these types of atrocities.

I know what a caring soul malaise is, and don't mean to single out that post, but it got me thinking about the number of posts that come right out and make blanket statements like "No one in Congress is doing anything about X" or "People are dying and no one cares" or "They are committing war crimes and no one cares," or other pronouncements like "We're doomed," "It will never change," "The system is rigged and can't be unrigged."

There are two problems with such statements.

1. They are NEVER accurate.

For every single systemic wrong, structural injustice, ongoing atrocity, war crime, abuse of power, or otherwise preventable terrible thing that we want to see stopped, or lack of some good thing we want to see more of, somebody cares; somebody is doing something. Often hundreds, thousands, or even millions of "somebodies" care and have taken some step to DO SOMETHING.

Similarly, pronouncements of doom and hopelessness are disproven by examples of the amazing things people have accomplished across the history of our nation and the history of the world. People-power is a force that can, and has, moved mountains.

If the desire is for more people to do something about X or Y, or care more about X or Y, offering such blanket pessimistic, and demonstrably untrue statements accomplishes the opposite.

Think about it. If your audience believes that no one cares or is doing anything about X or Y, what do you think is the more likely response? (a) Feel anger about the hopeless horrific state of humanity and then shut down, or (b) start a citizen lobbying project to actually do something about X or Y.

YMMV, but for me, the answer is (a)

If you are pointing out a terrible thing or obstacle to progress, can you balance the message with a pointer to something the reader could do to help address the terrible thing or help overcome the obstacle?

Every once in awhile, ask yourself: Have I posted a "call to action" lately? When was the last time I promoted a group that is organizing citizen lobbyists to push electeds to communicate more effectively or to get behind some reform ? Have I spread the word about a citizen action success story recently? Have I spread the word about an elected's inspiring message or effective action?

If the answer is NO to all the above, perhaps take a little time to boost your own sense of hope and belief in people-power by seeking out things like that to post.

Please, DO NOT fall victim to immobilizing hopelessness. If you do, you are doing exactly what their firehose of shit..

... intends.

As far as I'm concerned, Job 1 is to help each other stay connected to hope because hope is a pre-requiste for action. Hope is the life's blood of resistance.

We can have a clear-eyed view of what we are up against, while recognizing the WINS and the fact that an unprecedented number of citizens have been moved -- many for the first time in their lives -- to take action in this face of the lunacy.

If you need a boost, perhaps you'll find it in the Daily Elm: We're NOT Doomed

For me, Hopium Chronicles has been an essential resource. A center of hope and action: Interviews with inspiring candidates, State Democratic Party chairs, activists, election protection experts, including a series with Marc Elias. It is not about mindless optimism, but hope inspired by being engaged and hearing about the great people out there accomplishing some pretty amazing things.

If you can connect locally, that is the most effective way to kick off a virtuous cycle of hope and action as you experience, first hand, working with good people to accomplish some pretty great things in your own community.

Find your own "go to" quotes, songs, or poems.

FWIW, Here are mine:

Quotes:
https://www.greatergoodusa.com/quotes/

Joy as Defiance
https://youtube.com/shorts/Eibfo6IkBhE

Imagine If This Moment Was Not About The Ascent of Authoritarians, But About A New Birth Of Global Freedom...
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221186840

Imagine If This Moment Was Not About The Ascent of Authoritarians, But About A New Birth Of Global Freedom...

Exacting vengeance for humiliation and rejection by the NY/DC "elite" drives EVERYTHING the felon does.

The felon is a psychopathic malignant narcissist whose pitiful, desperate need for acceptance drove him to go to any lengths to amass the wealth and power he believed would gain him a place in the highest circles of NY/DC society.

Even at the highest levels of society, that corridor is a melting pot that values pluralism and is a curious blend of progressive social values, internationalism, and high-stakes economic competition.

And he was desperate to be embraced in that world.

And he never was.

He was humiliated and rejected.

However much money he amassed, however often he managed insinuate himself into the the upper circles of Northeast Megalopolis society (from Boston to DC with NYC at it's center) he was always viewed with contempt as the vulgar, ill-mannered, grasping troll that he is.

He may have convinced himself he was a player, but he knew the truth. He was an object of contempt.

His most beloved symbols of success were mocked as tacky and gouache. The attitude toward him in upper circles was reflected in the media. Newsweek highlighted his fall (Trump: The Fall). Quotes like "You live by the glitz, you die by the glitz," from people he claimed as "friends" capture how he was viewed. Vanity Fair described his "moral larceny" and reputation for slinging bullshit. Spy Magazine was relentless, and decades later, Spy founders continued to torment him.

Having his most desperate need met by rejection and contempt inflicted an intolerable wound to his eggshell ego. And now, everything -- absolutely everything he does -- is driven by the need to exact vengeance for that wound.

To "get back" at "them" -- the ones that inflicted the wound -- he attacks their pluralism, their progressive values, their internationalism. He "shows them" by amassing even more wealth and power in the process.

He seeks to destroy and corrupt executive agencies that advance the rule-of-law and progressive social values. He advances the interests of the illiberal democracies and autocrats that are hellbent on destroying the rules-based international order forged more than 75 years ago. He rejects the transatlantic alliances that are held dear, not just by "the elite," but by all of us who believe in the idea of "The Good Will of the American People" as a powerful force committed to advancing human rights, human dignity, and self-determination across this planet.

It is ALL the petty vengeance of a psychopathic, narcissistic troll against his perception of the values held by the "movers and shakers" that rejected him.

No writer imagining a fictional foe hellbent on sabotaging the U.S. could have come up with a plot as devastating.

Motives of psychopaths may be beyond the understanding of those of us who are sane, but the effects of every action -- every single action -- is sabotage.

Sabotage the rule of law, on which all else depends. Corruption of the DOJ, openly violating the law and the constitution, openly violating civil rights, to the point of murdering people, open corruption and abuse of public offices across the executive branch, and on, and on.

Sabotage entire economic sectors with the imposition of illegal tariffs.

Sabotage research and scientific progress. Cuts and unlawful impounding of NIH and NSF funds, arbitrary restrictions on international students, and political targeting of entire areas of research has created an unprecedented crisis. Over 95,000 employees left federal science agencies by 2025. According to a poll by Nature, over 75% of scientists were considering leaving the U.S.

Sabotage health by directly attacking a public health infrastructure that needed bolstering, not destruction, making health insurance -- already far too expensive -- impossible for millions, cutting Medicaid, corrupting Medicare, cutting CHIP, cutting WIC, SNAP, and school nutrition programs (with the added benefit of putting farmers out of business), attacking life saving vaccinations, and more.

Sabotage national well-being and identity by seeking to destroy the most basic truth of America -- that we (with the exception of Native Americans) are a nation of immigrants. Immigration is a massive driving force in our economy and the contributions of immigrants widens our horizons. Our congress failed to enact the sort of immigration reform that we have needed for decades, including a path to citizenship for the undocumented who have been here for years, a truly robust asylum system, and more legal paths that would undermine the kind of exploitation of undocumented labor this nation has become addicted to. But as broken as the immigration system has been, the current insanity is horrific. Seeking to end birthright citizenship and purge immigrants -- whether they are here legally seeking asylum under system so backlogged it is no system at all, under TPS status, or undocumented -- is an act of sabotage.

Sabotage agriculture, with trade wars that are closing overseas markets, ending food bank and school nutrition markets, decimation of the workforce through the cruel and insane attack on both documented and undocumented immigrants, criminal war of aggression on Iran disrupting fertilizer supplies, and on and on.

Sabotage the security and prosperity made possible by more than 75 years of values-based alliances with nations that have a common interest in safeguarding democracy, individual liberty, and a rules-based international order. We have never been more vulnerable as the principle source of our security, intelligence from allied nations, has been cut off (you can bet we are getting no warnings from those the felon has told to go to hell).

Sabotage international security, by withdrawing support for Ukraine against Russian aggression -- aggression that will extend to the whole of Europe should Ukraine fail, and intentionally alienating nations with whom we share common interests while giving aid and comfort to the illiberal forces and nations that seek to destroy us and our growing list of former allies.

Sabotage everything AI touches (and that is pretty much everything) by dismantling the nascent regulatory framework that could have protected us against the frightening consequences we are now vulnerable to.

Sabotage and corrupt the national information environment by promoting propaganda and lies, taking over major media outlets, protecting social media conglomerates from liability for the damage done by failure to moderate, and on and on.

Sabotage education at all levels with direct attacks on universities, illegally dismantling the Department of Education, diverting funds from public education to privatized and Christian Nationalist schools.

Sabotage everything we stand for by starting a criminal war of aggression, targeting schools and hospitals in densely populated neighborhoods (see NYTimes) and unleashing all the terrible consequences of attempting to destroy a country that has more that twice the population of California and more than four times the land mass of that state. The world, and as the aggressor, our nation in particular, will be suffering consequences of this for decades.

And so much more. The sabotage in one area has tentacles of destruction that reach into others, compounding the damage in those areas, and beyond.