The Logic of Surrender
When "safe" is the stupidest thing of all.
As I have discussed elsewhere, the Democratic Party is not a fighting force. That fact is being noticed by others who have noted the Democrats rush to surrender.
Why?
Why would the party of #Resistance be so quick to make nice with an incoming president who calls them “The Enemy Within”; who won a narrow victory; and a party who managed to lose seats in the house and is governing with the narrowest majority ever. I see three possibilities:
Democrats plan to be the adults in the room(tm) on the premise that Trump will be so chaotic that voters (and Mike Johnson) turns to them as a dose of sanity.
Democrats believe that Trump et al really do want to govern for all Americans and think that they can lower the tone by playing nice.
Democrats are so shellshocked by Trump’s victory that they are bowing down faster than Ted Cruz.
None of these will work.
Option 1 is simply inane.
It presumes that most Americans just want normal government and that many if not most of Trump’s voters voted for him in the hopes that he would calm down and “just cut red tape” but otherwise be normal. But for most Americans of my generation “normal” government is the one thing we have never had, and never expect. And while many if not most Trump voters may claim they want him to govern like an adult they have voted for him 3 times (6 if you count primaries) knowing full well who he is, and what he would do. He won the current election after instigating a violent coup and ran on a specific campaign of retribution, racist lies, sexism, intimidation, and Hulk Hogan.
While it is good to be the adults in the room there is no reason to believe that Trump voters will turn away from him because of it. His campaign of chaos, his adjudication for rape, and his felony conviction were hardly secret and yet they came back, including strong majorities of churchgoing voters. At this point there is zero empirical evidence for a great silent majority that will choose the adults in the room, on the contrary most voters saw the havoc, and said “I want that.”
Option 2 is illogical.
Trump ran an administration that was purpetual chaos. His only legislative accomplishments were a massive tax cut for the very rich that busted the deficit, and a backhanded repeal of Roe v. Wade. He even shut down the government in an effort to build an inexpensive wall and spent the rest of the time rage tweeting. In the intervening time (after the coup attempt) he spent his time threatening vengance, supporting the development of legislative plans calling for gutting of education funding, ending support for seniors, raising healthcare costs, and generally destroying public lands, and making foreign policy promises that were inconsistent, belligerent, and pointless. He has doubled down on his racism, amped up his sexism, and now takes explicit direction from an edgelord who stays up all night calling people retards.
There is zero evidence that Trump can or will “come to the middle” on anything, or that the, now thuroughly MAGA, GOP wants to. From the state to the federal level they are leaning in to voter disenfranchisement and violence. Not only has Trump paid no price for these antics, he has been actively rewarded and abetted every step of the way.
He does not want to lower the temperature and as for hoping he burns out, see Option 1 above.
Option 3 is dangerous.
When you are fighting a bully, and Trump is, the last thing you must ever ever show, is weakness. You don’t need to swing your fists at everyone or be a bully yourself, but you cannot, must not, back down. Once you do that, then the bully has already won. Right now Trump is running a shadow government in a honeymoon period and issuing open directives to everyone including the his pet Court. As a matter of competition, allowing him to get away with it only means encouraging him, and his followers, to do more. And, as a matter of governance signing on to nominees or bills you know to be wrong just because he won, means giving your support to things that should never be passed. Yes they may get through anyway but giving them your tacit or explicit support only means that you enable his agenda, add energy to his actions, and put yourself further and further behind.
As the past four years, and the future of this nation, show: there is harm in humouring him.
The Logic of Surrender
Surrendering, especially preemptively, may seem like a safe bet. And if you are a 70 or 80 year old incumbent or campaign consultant, it probably is. You will not be personally affected by what he does and playing nice lets you continue to play the game. For professional campaigners a well-funded #resistance is preferable to taking an actual risk.
The rest of us do not have that option.
The rest of us on the other hand, cannot “play it safe.” Trump has been given immunity from the law and claims the power to kill his opponents. Trump has promised huge damage to the climate. He and his brain trust have promised to gut education funding. Cuts of this type which have already been put in bills would cause massive layoffs and school cuts. And he has promised to cut large corporate taxes likely back to zero which would explode the deficit. Tax cuts are why we have it in the first place. Along the way he has decided to divide us from our closest allies, and bring COVID and other diseases back, and promised “bloody” crackdowns and “rough hours” of violence. We will be harmed by that, our children will be harmed by that, and we as a nation with our national fabric rotted by performative cruelty, may not survive the result.
Compromise and dealmaking which are essential for democratic government, do not come from surrender. Indeed a serious look at the Republican party shows: the only reward for surrender to Trump is more surrender.
Either you stand up at every turn, or get bent down. And if at this point the aged incumbents, consultants, and bundlers that run the party are unwilling to stand up and fight for what they say they believe in, then they need to retire the field and be replaced by those who will.