Dark day
On Monday, Donald Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. It was a dark day for America and the world, for too many obvious reasons to bother listing. It was also a day that we’ve known was coming for the past two months. In spite of a number of viral tweets about how this or that magic wand idea was somehow going to prevent Trump’s certification, it indeed happened.
It’s the latest reminder that there simply never are any magic wands, on either side, in politics. I get often accused of being an “optimist” whenever I point out that the other side doesn’t have any magic wands. Then I occasionally get accused of being a “pessimist” when I have to point out that our side doesn’t have any magic wands either. In reality, it’s just a matter of, well, facing reality.
Of course none of this is to lecture any of you. If you’re still here by now, it’s because you’ve already accepted that there are no magic wands, that political battles are won and lost by fighting and grinding, and that rarely is anything in politics easy – or final. Trump won. Crushing. Trump is taking office. Disgusting. But Trump is taking office in a weak and ineffectual enough way that if we can keep fighting him this year and make sure there are midterm elections next year, we stand a very good chance of dominating them. How much damage will be done between now and then? A lot. Will we still be standing by then? Absolutely, if I have anything to say about it.
As we head into this week and this crucial month, let’s remember that the battle is not whether either side can wave some magic wand and automatically get their way on everything. The battle is always a game of inches. And right now the battle is over Trump’s cabinet nominations. The more of his picks we can knock off, the weaker it’ll make him. He’s already lost the Matt Gaetz battle. Whenever misguided folks on our side try to tell us that Trump’s current nominees are going to be confirmed “no matter what,” remember that they said the same thing about Gaetz as well.
So let’s come out fighting this week and see how much of a headache we can turn each of Trump’s nominees into for the Republican Senate. Yes, Trump will eventually end up getting someone confirmed in each position, and everyone who ends up in his cabinet will be awful. But that’s not the point. The point is that each time we force him to withdraw a name and try again, it makes him that much weaker. This is the fight in front of us, and it’s a fight that we can at least partially win. So let’s fight and try to win. It’s the only reason we’re here.
Donate $5
Donate $25
Donate $75
