Although the article "Unparalleled Resistance Looms for Trump After Inauguration" (Janet Hook, January 10, 2017) is from the Wall Street Journal, pay attention to the language used:
Remember, back in the day, when newly elected presidents enjoyed a honeymoon?
Donald Trump wasn't elected. He never gave President Obama - who was elected -twice! - a honeymoon, calling him illegitimate and Not One of Us until a few months ago.
Donald Trump isn’t getting one. His adversaries are in combat mode, as if the campaign never ended. Demonstrations are planned. Money is pouring into the coffers of liberal groups. Activists are calling for an ongoing 'resistance' movement.
Although empirically true, framing opposition to Trump as a "liberal" issue would be like framing opposition to Hitler as a "Jewish" issue. Resistance to Trump (no air quotes needed) rests on a bedrock of universal principles such as law, transparency, ethics, mutual respect, access to healthcare, and national sovereignty (do foreign leaders such as Putin have a right to choose for us who our president should be or do we just act like nothing happened?).
Mr. Trump is getting a taste of his own medicine because he, too, is behaving as if the campaign never ended. For weeks, he has continued to lob provocative tweets about his critics and the media, derided people who supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, reveled in his election victory and took a victory lap of 'thank you' rallies across the country in December.
No, he impugned a civil rights icon, calling getting beaten unconscious on a bridge in Selma and organizing a successful campaign of peaceful resistance throughout the country "all talk, no action."
He attacked Meryl Streep not on the content of what she said (that he was a bully mocking a disabled reporter and giving others permission to do the same) but based on an unsolicited rating of her acting ability (he called her an "overrated actress" … and that is relevant… how?).
Now, when he takes office Jan. 20, Mr. Trump will be facing some of the most virulent opposition ever to confront a new president. His approval ratings, while on the rise, are still the lowest of any president-elect in recent polling history.
Virulent? Really? That's the word you had to go for? How about determined, committed, principled, fierce. Would you call John Lewis's civil rights marchers "virulent"? Wait, this is the Wall Street Journal - perhaps you would.
Mark Meckler, a conservative activist involved in the founding of the tea-party movement, believes that Mr. Trump’s detractors are trying to delegitimize his presidency, not just oppose his policies. 'It’s disgusting, and is only serving to solidify the support that Trump and Republicans have garnered,' he said.
Oh, PUH-LEEEZE! A movement that showed up with poorly-spelled posters of Obama with Hitler moustaches demanding "their" country back, whose supporters ran that birther racist lie as far down the field as they could get, who shouted "YOU LIE!" during a State of the Union address by our first African-American president now finds delegitimizing a (white) president "disgusting"?
Do you know what I find disgusting? Lying, cheating, and stealing and tolerating those who do. Or working your ass off to try to steal healthcare from hardworking Americans. Or stripping women of their access to legal reproductive health services. Or calling President Obama a "racist with a deep-seated hatred of white people."
And spare me the "support that Trump and Republicans have garnered" crap. If you define "support" as having 27% of registered voters choose your man who lost by 3 million votes to our woman, losing seats in the House and Senate to Democrats, and having a president-elect with the lowest approval rating since we've been measuring these things, then you need a new dictionary.
And spare me the "support that Trump and Republicans have garnered" crap. If you define "support" as having 27% of registered voters choose your man who lost by 3 million votes to our woman, losing seats in the House and Senate to Democrats, and having a president-elect with the lowest approval rating since we've been measuring these things, then you need a new dictionary.
But I do love these numbers (although I reject the idea that women's health is a "liberal" cause - if it is this not an admission that Republicans want women to die of undiagnosed breast and cervical cancer?):
Other critics of Mr. Trump are registering their anger and disappointment with a flood of donations to liberal causes. Planned Parenthood received 315,000 donations from across the country in the month after the election, 70% of which were new donors. The American Civil Liberties Union received $35.3 million in post-election donations as of Jan. 4 — up from $3.6 million over the same period a year ago."
And we have only just begun.
#NotMyPresident
The text of the article:
"President Barack Obama in 2009 faced resistance from the fledgling tea-party movement, but polls suggested that many opponents were cutting him slack as he was inaugurated: 67% viewed Mr. Obama positively in December 2008, compared to 41% who viewed Mr. Trump favorably in December 2016, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls.
"Even former President George W. Bush was viewed favorably by more voters — 49% — in December 2000, amid the bitter, unprecedented legal battle over that year’s presidential election.
"Neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Bush saw their first days shadowed by the sorts of organized protests that are expected to assemble against Mr. Trump. The day after his inauguration, the 'Women’s March on Washington' is expected to draw more than 100,000 protesters to the nation’s capital and other cities will be hosting related events.
"Celebrities like John Oliver, in his late-night comedy show, and Meryl Streep, in her recent Golden Globe awards speech, have been urging people to keep up the fight against the new president. Mr. Trump dismissed Ms. Streep as an “overrated actress” and has derided other “so-called A-list celebrities” who supported Mrs. Clinton.
"Michael Moore, a filmmaking rabble-rouser, and Robert Reich, former Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, are calling for “100 Days of Resistance” to Mr. Trump.
"A group of former congressional aides in mid-December posted the manifesto “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” which went viral in progressive circles. The authors argued that Democrats should take a page from the tea-party’s playbook and focus on grassroots, local organizing to fight the Trump agenda.
“Their tactics weren’t fancy: They just showed up on their own home turf, and they just said no,” they said in a column last week in the New York Times. “Here’s the crazy thing: It worked.”
"Mark Meckler, a conservative activist involved in the founding of the tea-party movement, believes that Mr. Trump’s detractors are trying to delegitimize his presidency, not just oppose his policies.
“It’s disgusting, and is only serving to solidify the support that Trump and Republicans have garnered,” he said.
"Other critics of Mr. Trump are registering their anger and disappointment with a flood of donations to liberal causes. Planned Parenthood received 315,000 donations from across the country in the month after the election, 70% of which were new donors. The American Civil Liberties Union received $35.3 million in post-election donations as of Jan. 4 — up from $3.6 million over the same period a year ago.
Some people have been moved to jump into the fray of elective politics. Amanda Crabb, a college professor in Quincy, Mass., responded to the 2016 election by participating in a candidate-training webinar with VoteRunLead, a nonpartisan group that encourages women to run for office.
Ms. Crabb had toyed with the idea of running for a post on the local school committee in 2015, but backed down in part because she lacked confidence in her qualifications, she said in an interview. Now that a political novice has been elected president, she is feeling emboldened to step out.
“It’s hard for me to see him in office,” Ms. Crabb said. “He stands for so many things I don’t stand for.”
Erin Vilardi, head of VoteRunLead, said that the group has seen a surge of interest in their webinar candidate training sessions: 1,100 women signed up for the December training; another 1,200 participated in another last Saturday.
“Looking at Trump, women are saying, ‘What am I waiting for? If that guy can do it, I can,’” Ms. Vilardi said.
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