Michelle Goldberg: The Resistance is Getting Stronger

Michelle Goldberg’s columns are a mixed bag. Usually they provide some clear insight into just what every other like-minded progressive is thinking at a given moment. Occasionally, she demonstrates a willingness to 2nd guess her own impulses but today is not one of those days. Today’s column is pure holiday wish fulfillment. It’s titled “Trump Is Getting Weaker, and the Resistance Is Getting Stronger.”

It has been a gruesome year for those who see Donald Trump’s kakistocracy clearly. He returned to office newly emboldened, surrounded by obsequious tech barons, seemingly in command of not just the country but also the zeitgeist. Since then, it’s been a parade of nightmares — armed men in balaclavas on the streets, migrants sent to a torture prison in El Salvador, corruption on a scale undreamed of by even the gaudiest third-world dictators and the shocking capitulation by many leaders in business, law, media and academia. Trying to wrap one’s mind around the scale of civic destruction wrought in just 11 months stretches the limits of the imagination, like conceptualizing light-years or black holes.

And yet, as 2025 limps toward its end, there are reasons to be hopeful.

That’s because of millions of people throughout the country who have refused to surrender to this administration’s bullying. When Trump began his second term, conventional wisdom held that the resistance was moribund. If that was ever true, it’s certainly not anymore. This year has seen some of the largest street protests in American history…

While Trump “has been able to do extraordinary damage that will have generational effects, he has not successfully consolidated power,” said Leah Greenberg, a founder of the resistance group Indivisible. “That has been staved off, and it has been staved off not, frankly, due to the efforts of pretty much anyone in elite institutions or political leadership but due to the efforts of regular people declining to go along with fascism.”…

Trump ends the year weak and unpopular, his coalition dispirited and riven by infighting. Democrats dominated in the November elections.

My own take is that progressives were back on their heals for the first 3-4 months of Trump’s 2nd term, having suffered a serious loss. It seems clear, however briefly, that the far left had gone too far. But the left never backed down. Instead they just waited and hoped for things to change. Specifically, they were counting on a weakening economy to help bail them out. 

That downturn hasn’t actually arrived yet. The stock market has been strong, growth numbers are up, inflation is down, but enough people are dissatisfied with the economy overall (mostly because of the 9% inflation during Biden’s term) that Democrats and socialists have all been able to latch onto the issue to make the case for change. And this has worked to some degree. They don’t have any solutions to offer, not really. But they can continue to make the case that Trump isn’t focused enough on affordability to possibly retake the House next year. The party in power almost always does poorly in the midterms. They are riding that wave.

In short, what we’re seeing is a very normal midterm cycle so far, but progressives are framing this as a tremendous win for their views. All you have to do is read some of the comments to see just how desperate they are to believe. Remember all of the talk about the Flight 93 election back in 2016? The top comment (more than 3,500 upvotes) is making that same argument in the other direction.

I sure hope you are correct in your analysis Michelle. I hope much of the damage can be undone. This reader will be changed forever though. I have seen the powerful  ‘men behind the curtain’ – be it the extremists in the Supreme Court, Congress, billionaire businessmen, evangelical ‘Christian’ leadership, and the right wing influencers for who they truly are. And I can never unsee it. We cannot go back to the way things were. We people who’ve stood up for what’s right must demand fundamental change to ensure our futures will never be controlled by grifters, opportunists, and extremists. This real fight is still one we have to win. Against the odds, sadly. Let’s roll!

The tone of many comments is about winding up the resistance.

Given the power he has amassed, and the state of the courts, Congress, and the Republican leadership, Trump holds a lethal hand with a military, justice department and internal police force that he can use to physically assault and intimidate any opposition.  He ignores the Constitution and the rights of people in this country and the world almost hourly, as if due process and the amendment rights were never written.  America is on the brink if he is not contained.  He is like a virus running amok here, now and only the people can stop it.

Some are hoping for show trials to come:

We must keep up the public pressure – demonstrations, calls and emails to our representatives. Boycotts of companies who have caved. It’s not over until he is gone. Hopefully, he and his enablers will be tried for their crimes and held accountable.

But others are pretty downbeat about the future. Hope isn’t a strategy.

The resistance has been weak , protest limited to a bunch of old hippies ( myself included). Young people are not present in volume at the No Kings events. There is no leadership in opposition to Trump that has any significance. We need to have national strikes, massive consistent protest in the streets 10x the size of the past rallies, none of which is happening. And assuming Trump leaves office Vance , Miller , Tucker etc will be there to carry on, cheered by undiminished support from a white Christian nationalist crusade that is only beginning to gather steam. Hope is a good thing, but only if it’s based on some facts that give us a reason to believe….and I just don’t see that.

One person told a story about a junior high bully who got beat up one day. His conclusion seemed to countenance some political violence.

Moral? A bully only understands one thing. Unyielding Ferocity. Because at their hearts they are cowards. Trump is a coward. In the fight ahead, we must adopt the same attitude. No mercy. He’s shown us none. We must reciprocate.

Others would be satisfied with more prosecution.

This time prosecutions for human rights abuses, war crimes, and constitutional violations need to be pressed home by an administration interested in protecting constitutional democracy urgently and long term. The SCOTUS needs lighting up and all their recent decisions need to be revisited by a fair interpretation of the law, the tech bro’s need regulating into a position where they can’t buy elections or abuse stolen personal data, and presidential pardons need to be reviewed (in retrospect) where no reasonable rationale was provided.

In other words, we can only save democracy by using all of government’s power against our enemies. I don’t think they even hear themselves. And quite a few people are just daydreaming about some kind of utopia set free from the bonds of the constitution and the system we have.

It will not be enough to just take back the House, Senate, or Presidency .  There must be a vision for how to codify powers and responsibilities without relying on norms.  There must be a way to restore faith in a representative democracy form of government and the elected representatives who serve in that system.  There must be a better system for a fairer distribution of wealth.  There must be a better system for public education.  There must be a better system for healthcare.  There must be a better and fairer judicial system put in place.

Another one:

Changing personnel is not sufficient.  I have suggested a ‘No Kings’ amendment:

1. The president does not have the power to issue reprieves or pardons.

2. The president does not have civil or criminal immunity.

3. The president does not have the power to discharge any department or agency official, except as provided by Congressional statute.

4. The president does not have the power to increase or decrease any Congressional appropriation, except as provided by Congressional statute.

Reading through these it’s clear that Democrats don’t really know what they’re upset about. If you did man-on-the-street interviews with these folks they couldn’t tell you what they’re upset about in any detail. And they also don’t have a plan for the future that can actually be carried out without a constitutional convention. But it’s clear that they don’t care about any of those pesky details at this point. Progressives have become an emotional reaction in search of self-justification. Goldberg knows her audience well.

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