Why the media refuses to see Trump's rapid deterioration

I’m still on Tuesday’s election. Here are nine more thoughts.

1. Word is that some “centrist” Democrats in the Senate are eager for a deal with the president that would end the government shutdown. I don’t know what the incentive is. Just two days ago, Republican candidates were handed their asses in statewide elections in New Jersey, Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia, as well as municipal elections nationwide. I do know this, though: backing away from the fight will backfire. The Democrats are now finally being rewarded for courage. Voters like courage. They trust fighters. Guess what happens when you stop before the fight is won? You look weak. Worse, you welcome contempt.

2. “Centrists” believe they are being reasonable, which might be true, but mostly they’re being short-sighted. The Democrats want voters to give them power to solve problems, like the out-of-control cost of living. (Apparently, the regime believes the cost crisis is fake. One day after getting shellacked, Donald Trump said: “This is the golden age of America.”) But once power is given, voters expect it to be used, in their name. In this shutdown fight, the Democrats have leverage. They at last have some power. Voters are poised to deliver more when the time comes. However, if the Democrats concede now, what will that say? That voters shouldn’t bother empowering them, because the Democrats won’t do what they say they’ll do, even after voters give their consent. Lesson: Don’t be afraid of power. Using it inspires trust. Failing to use it inspires outrage.

3. Before Tuesday’s elections, I said the shutdown is legitimate resistance to illegitimate rule. Trump refuses to negotiate. He holds food stamps hostage. He inflicts pain on his own people. (More people in red states than blue are facing skyhigh health insurance premiums.) And let’s not forget his criminal conduct as president. Now that voters have spoken, it seems truer than ever that the Democrats are the spearhead against tyranny. Even the president acknowledged the shutdown hurt. US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Axios Wednesday: "I think it would be very strange if on the heels of the American people having rewarded Democrats for standing up and fighting, we surrendered without getting anything for the people we've been fighting for. “Strange,” indeed – a titanic understatement.

4. Trump will not act like a responsible leader. He wants to rule. He wants to enrich himself. He wants to tell others what to do. But he does not want to govern, because that would mean giving something away. (Trump never gave anything away for free.) The shutdown is the Democrats’ means of forcing him. They have him wedged between an election and the holidays, when public awareness of the pain he’s causing in terms of food aid and job losses and flight cancellations will be high. That’s going to pressure the Senate Republicans to think about the future.

5. Trump is accustomed to members of his party asking “how high?” when he tells them to jump. “If you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape,” he told Republican senators yesterday. But the deeper the Democrats dig themselves in, with the apparent backing of voters, the less willing the Republicans will be to take orders blindly. There are consequences to obeying a criminal president who posts AI videos of himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet and bombing Americans with what can only be called turds; who rips families apart and terrorizes neighborhoods; who murders fishermen under the guise of drug enforcement; who threatens war with countries that have done nothing to us; who knocks down part of the White House to put up a gold-gilded ballroom; and who withholds food aid, in defiance of a court order, while holding lavish parties for her obscenely rich friends. The Republicans often act like they are the exception to the rules. The shutdown is the Democrats’ opportunity to smack them into adulthood.

6. Trump will not budge. The Democrats should answer in kind in order to force the Republicans to choose between service to constituents and service to a leader who is not only indifferent to the interests of their constituents but also to their humanity. Trump will punish everyone if he believes that will hurt the Democrats. (Due to the shutdown, the FAA cut 10 percent of air travel today, the biggest cut ever, according to CNN.) He cares about his party’s future as much as he cared about the poor man who fainted today onto the floor of the Oval Office (see picture), depriving a sociopathic president of the attention he craves to relieve the misery of his sad, sad life. And the Republicans seem to be thinking hard about the choice they are facing. Politico reported that, after Tuesday’s election, the Senate Republicans have “made it very clear: They planned to blow Trump off.”

7. Whether they recognize Trump is a lame duck is to be seen. Despite the election, the Republicans are yet to act in good faith. According to another Politico report, they are now asking Senate Democrats to reopen the government in exchange for bringing back some federal workers fired in the shutdown – to trade their power for a promise to obey the law by a criminal president who has made a habit of breaking it. This should be recognized as weakness and reason for Senate Democrats to stay put. If they don’t budge and Trump doesn’t either, there’s only one way out for the Republicans – nuking the filibuster.

8. But they have to stay put. That’s no small thing for Democrats. They have a bad habit of taking responsibility when the GOP refuses to, accepting the risk of failure and blame when they do. Compounding matters is a news media that treats them as if they’re the only adults around. Moreover, reporters have made Trump’s victory seem like an act of God, any resistance to it a perversion of God’s will. Tuesday’s success should correct that. It showed not only that Trump is fallible but that reporters are liable in the rage felt by voters who are behaving like they’re victims of a scam. It wasn’t just a referendum on Trump’s second term. Tuesday’s election was a referendum on the press corps.

9. The Democrats are most vulnerable to pressure by the press corps. If they cave, it will be in hoping they get points for being reasonable or moderate or whatever. However, the press corps can be trusted as much as Trump can be. The Democrats should act accordingly. With voters beyond them, they should talk to reporters as if they were co-conspirators in a scheme to fleece the people, driving up prices, driving down wages and otherwise whitewashing lies, rationalizing evil and sanewashing Trump’s just plain obvious deterioration. “The United States has the strongest economy, the strongest borders, the strongest military, the strongest friendships and the strongest spirit of any nation anywhere,” Trump said Wednesday. Reporters won’t see his dementia, because it’s in their interest not to, but the Democrats can force them by implicating them in its cover up.