Do you remember the liberal meltdowns after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016?
There were huge “P-hat” demonstrations (riots), widespread outrage, and unhinged commentary from the corrupt media. Now, we still see that today, some eight years later, as Trump won yet again, but it’s not the same.
There’s a feeling of defeat emanating from the left.
Mostly, we see videos of mentally disturbed Democrats losing their stuff on social media and misty-eyed anchors at MSNBC and CNN still trying to tell us our Democracy is in peril (their ratings prove that few are listening anymore), but we haven’t seen any serious coordinated reaction.
The thrill is gone, according to Axios:
While President-elect Trump’s 2016 win sparked shock, outrage and massive protests, the response to his 2024 victory has been more muted.
The big picture: 2016 birthed The Resistance, a political movement to protest Trumpism online and in the streets. There’s still plenty of resistance to Trump across the country, but little mass mobilization.
- That could change as Trump moves to implement his agenda. But experts and activists expect the renewed resistance to come in different forms.
Flashback: Trump won in 2016 despite trailing in the polls, and within weeks of the infamous Access Hollywood tape and multiple sexual assault allegations.
Do you remember this (perverted) idiocy?
The ‘Pussy Hat’, created as a symbol of protest against Donald Trump’s quoted misogyny and pink because of the colour’s popular association with women/girls, an idea by the founders of the Pussyhat Project, Jayna Zweiman and Krista Suh (below) #womensart #IWD2018 pic.twitter.com/5gBykOfoQQ
— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) March 8, 2018
Seriously, a governor donned a genitalia-themed cap? Give me a break.
Flashback (2018): Governor Ralph Northam put on the pussy hat at the Women’s March RVA in Carytown pic.twitter.com/DWZHvdRyy4
— Wojciech Pawelczyk (@WojPawelczyk) February 1, 2019
But for now, “The Resistance” just plain seems to have lost its mojo:
This time Democratic voters, particularly women, were just as disappointed but less shocked, says Lisa Mueller, a political science professor at Macalester College.
- “So they didn’t have the same acute trigger to rush to the barricades that they did the first time,” says Mueller, who studies why social movements succeed or fail. “It’s very likely that there is some disillusionment with activism.”
- Mitchell Brown, professor of political science at Auburn University, says one big factor is what cognitive psychologists call habituation.
- “When you first see something unexpected, it’s really jarring and you react strongly,” she says. “But the more you see and normalize something that was unexpected … the more habituated you become to it.”
I love this photograph:
Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Movement Facing Post-Election ‘Disillusionment with Activism’ https://t.co/Jftsb5diBl pic.twitter.com/v9Pon1KePb
— FutureTrump2️⃣⏺2️⃣4⃣🍊 (@RealTrump2020_) November 25, 2024
To be sure, there are many who will continue to fight on for the failed progressive movement—especially blue-state governors—and expect some knock-down, drag-out fights over Trump’s Cabinet picks.
A failure to read the room:
REPORT: California to Lead ‘Resistance’ Against the Orange Man What Is Bad
Left-Wing Donors Wary As They Fear Funding Won’t Buy the ‘Resistance’ It Used to in a New Era of Trump
Unity, Schmunity: Leftist Governors Declare War on Trump’s Agenda Just Days After His Historic Victory
There are also plans for inauguration day protests, but we’ll see if some of the usual agitators are too burnt out from all the pro-Hamas demonstrations they’ve been attending since October 2023. And you can be sure odious former Rep. now Sen. Adam Schiff (CA) will do everything in his power to kneecap the Trump agenda, ethics be damned.
But at least for now, it feels different than 2016.
It feels like Trump broke them.
