[Trump] has successfully destroyed more in two and a half months than even I, ever the catastrophizer, thought possible. He has enabled a secret police force, inflicting terror on millions of people in this country. He is rapidly normalizing disregard for the judiciary. He has brought a leading university and several giant law firms to their knees, and some large media companies have arguably assumed a supplicant position as well. That is a spectacular amount of institutional and societal damage....Today the Times editorial board chastises law firms and universities that have bent the knee to Trump:
... the most likely path to American autocracy depends on not only a power-hungry president but also the voluntary capitulation of a cowed civil society.But elsewhere in the paper, the people who have opposed Trump since before his second inauguration are othered. Yesterday, the Times published a story headlined "7 Americans Weigh In on Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs." Of the seven, five voted for Trump in 2024 and one -- a Trump admirer named Dave Abdallah from Dearborn, Michigan -- voted for Jill Stein. Only one voted for Kamala Harris. The Times has interviewed these voters before, in one instance under the headline "What Some Reluctant Trump Voters Thought of His Speech." But here and in other Times stories they're presented as just "Americans" or "voters," as if they're a representative cross-section of the country -- as if, in other words, Harris voters aren't really American.
... This is a moment for courage.
The playbook begins with a recognition that capitulation is doomed. Some law firms and corporations, as well as Columbia University, have made a different bet, obviously. But the example of law firms demonstrates the problems with capitulation.
... Mr. Trump can threaten the firms again whenever he chooses and demand further concessions. These firms are in virtual receivership to Mr. Trump. So is Columbia, which yielded to Mr. Trump after he threatened its federal funding. The university did not even win the restoration of that funding when it agreed to his demands; it won merely permission to begin negotiating with the administration.
Standing up to the abuse of power is inherently difficult.... But crises usually do not end on their own. Resolving them requires courage and action.
But Democrats exist. Democrats are Americans. We've been reminding the media of that this week, even if the conventional wisdom is still that we're weird outliers and also insufferable elitists. Here's Nate Cohn in a Times newsletter today trying to reconcile reality with his priors:
This week, the next two years of American politics began to come into focus, and it does not look like a MAGA or Republican “golden age.” The special House elections in Florida and the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin confirmed that Democratic voters were not, in fact, stunned into submission by last November’s election....Translation: The Democrats did okay on Tuesday, though they're still a bunch of cringe elitists. That cringe elitism is why they did well, and will probably keep doing well enough to have a decent midterm cycle.
In one key respect, the elections on Tuesday were not significant: They do not suggest that Democrats solved any of the problems that cost them the last election. Instead, they mostly reflect the party’s advantage among the most highly informed, educated and civically engaged voters. This advantage has allowed Democrats to excel in low-turnout elections throughout the Trump era, even as he made enormous gains among the disaffected and disengaged young, working-class and nonwhite voters who show up only in presidential elections.
Still, Democrats won’t have to face many of those disaffected and disengaged voters until 2028. The results last Tuesday thus offer a plausible preview of the next few years of elections: major Democratic victories, including in next year’s midterm election.
In fact, the Wisconsin contest was a high-turnout election by special-election standards -- 2.3 million people voted, compared to the roughly 2.7 miilion who voted in gubernatorial contests in November 2018 and November 2022, and the 1.8 million who voted in the last state Supreme Court contest in 2023. This is lower than the 3.4 million who turned out in Wisconsin to vote for president last year, but it's high turnout for a special election in April.
And as for that new Republican coalition that includes "disaffected and disengaged young, working-class and nonwhite voters," don't assume that it's durable:
And this polling was done before Trump announced his tariffs.
Also, despite the emerging conventional wisdom that Democrats are all rich coastal elitists, I'll note that the one Harris voter in that "7 Americans Weigh In" story is a black South Carolina retiree on a fixed income who needs to replace a beat-up car soon.
Which brings us to yesterday's demonstrations.
On Friday I said I was I worried that turnout would be diminished in the big cities as a result of smaller demonstrations elsewhere. That wasn't a problem. Turnout in Washington, Boston, Chicago, and especially New York was huge -- and there were impressive crowds in smaller cities and towns all over America. From the Times:
Mass Protests Across the Country Show Resistance to TrumpInterviewees include "Marilyn Finner, 65, who works in customer service" in Chicago; "Don Westhoff, a 59-year-old accountant"; and "Fiona Smythe, 56," who mentions concern about cuts to the Forest Service at a rally in Ketchum, Idaho.
Demonstrators packed the streets in cities and towns to rail against government cutbacks, financial turmoil and what they viewed as attacks on democracy.
They came out in defense of national parks and small businesses, public education and health care for veterans, abortion rights and fair elections. They marched against tariffs and oligarchs, dark money and fascism, the deportation of legal immigrants and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Demonstrators had no shortage of causes as they gathered in towns and cities across the country on Saturday to protest President Trump’s agenda. Rallies were planned in all 50 states, and images posted on social media showed dense crowds in places as diverse as St. Augustine, Fla.; Salt Lake City and rainy Frankfort, Ky....
On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the protest stretched for nearly 20 blocks. In Chicago, thousands flooded Daley Plaza and adjacent streets, while, in the nation’s capital, tens of thousands surrounded the Washington Monument. In Atlanta, the police estimated the crowd marching to the gold-domed statehouse at over 20,000.
So now can the press please stop saying that (a) the resistance is dead and (b) all Democrats are un-American weirdo elitists from the Acela Corridor? Probably not, but let's hope. We've provided enough evidence for a significant change in the conventional wisdom.