No doubt that while Dems have lost the election, progressive supporters are as passionate as ever. The protesters on the street may be Hillary fans, Bernie fans, or did not think to vote, but they want to make their voices heard. The question to me, now, is how channel that passion into action.
Markos wrote a diary “We Oppose Everything” which said the following:
They broke it, they own it. Show our people we are fighting for them, and they’ll fight back for us in return. We are the fierce opposition. And as such, we need to oppose. Full stop. From Day One.
This was echoed in another diary, “Democrats and progressives must do nothing to assist Republican policies” which said:
So where do we go from here? Enough Americans over several election cycles did not come out to vote in their best interest. In effect, many Americans decided to leave the country in the hands of others. Let us accept that. With that mandate, Democrats should allow Republicans to do everything they want to do that they can accomplish singlehandedly, that they can accomplish without any Democratic votes. Let Americans live under the policies they supported with their vote (or lack thereof).
I agree that Democrats should not lift a finger to elevate Trump or Republicans in any way. The reason, to me, is that Trump is most vulnerable when he feels emasculated. Anything that diminishes his power, that makes him feel smaller or limited, prompts outbursts from him and mistakes by his team.
Here is a couple of examples:
1) The New York Times article detailing how Trump got his Twitter taken away prompted an unpresidential Tweet from Trump recently:
2) Harry Reid’s comments saying “the election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America" and that "white nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump's victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear,” prompted legal threats from Kellyanne Conway. Not something that looks good for a President.
3) The second and third debates, when Hillary clearly got to Trump, prompted this rewriting of history tweet from Trump:
Yes, he can attack people on twitter, threaten legal action, and try to rewrite history, but in the long run it will hurt him. Now, there are reports that Trump really doesn’t know what a President is supposed to do www.wsj.com/...:
Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the scope
Trump really has no idea what it takes run the country and will be relying on Reince Preibus, Bannon, Congress, and others to tell him what to do. Our goal should be to elevate the stature of his underlings, then destroy them:
1) Dems should stonewall any efforts by Trump to achieve the smallest successes.
2) Dems should then focus fire on the failings of Priebus, Bannon, Conway, Guiliani, Pence, Ryan, whichever underling is the story of the day. Find their scandals, their policy overreaches, their conflicts of interest. Attack every department of the executive branch and make it seem like chaos is reigning.
3) Dems should highlight the fact that the underlings are in fact the ones who are in power and deciding policy, with Trump merely a figurehead for the alt-right/Republican party. He’s a weakling who’s along for a shitty ride, a President in name only.
Nothing will get to Trump more than the perception of having people working for him failing and the feeling that he has no actual power over it. You can bet that he will turn on his allies in a second (ala Christie) and have regular twitter meltdowns. He can say “you’re fired” to people in his administration, but unlike Trump Corp, this is a big political price for a White House administration.
Trump will diminish his own Presidency to save the perception of himself having balls. I guarantee it. Let’s make it happen.
