Will Democracy Make It?

We still have a year and a half to go before midterm elections are planned. 

Courts have thwarted or slowed down many, but not all of Trump's attempts to ignore the law and rule as a dictator. 

The U.S. Senate in considering his budget, has removed some of its worst provisions as beyond the scope of a budget bill, but is still on track to pass its main outlines which cuts about $1.3 trillion of spending for the poor to pay for $1.3 trillion in tax cuts for those making more than $500,000.

The financial markets convinced Trump to back down from his absurd tariffs (mostly) and to back off from trying to fire the chief of the Federal Reserve to undermine its independence.

State and local governments are doing their best to push back and compensate for the federal government's failings.

There has already been irrevocable damage to scientific and medical research, to higher education plans (especially for international students), to the attractiveness of the U.S. as a tourist or international student destination, to the reputation and credibility of the U.S. abroad, to U.S. soft power, to the rule of law with the January 6 traitors and dangerous criminals pardoned and with Trump granted absurd legal immunities, to human rights at home and abroad, to large numbers of people who are dying due to cuts in U.S. foreign aid (which were illegal since Congress had made the appropriations), to U.S. public health, to international trade relationships upended by the tariffs, and it will only get worse.

The U.S. Supreme Court has undermined lower courts trying to keep Trump's lawlessness in check and dealt a serious blow to the rights of transgender people, although it has not delivered wins to him across the board.

There have been protests, some moderately big, which have caught public attention but haven't done that much to swap politics in Washington D.C. and red states. But both abroad and in domestic vacancy elections and state and local elections, it appears that there has been a strong anti-Trump swing that is likely to manifest if we manage to hold another mid-term election next year.

We aren't out of the woods yet. Democrats probably aren't responding as effectively as they could. The dire state of things isn't penetrating to the public consciousness fast enough although it is trickling in.