The big post-election question (which I will be discussing in tonight’s FPM+ Town Hall) is how the Left is going to react to the election. Will it be a repeat of Trump Term 1, worse or better?

While my instinctual pessimism points to door number worse, there are signs that this time around the Dems are in freefall and the Left has trouble mounting any kind of meaningful counter. A key variable may be that there is a lack of energy or desire on the part of the leftist base to do it all again.

Consider this to be a data point.

“The Rachel Maddow Show,” the liberal network’s highest-rated program, drew 1.3 million viewers on Monday, about a million shy of her October average, according to Nielsen. In a crucial ratings metric — viewers under the age of 54 — it was the least-watched edition of the show since April 2022.

That performance mirrors much of what has been happening at MSNBC in the week since Mr. Trump’s election win. MSNBC has averaged 550,000 viewers since Election Day, a 39 percent decline compared with the network’s average in October. In prime time, MSNBC’s audience has declined 53 percent, according to the Nielsen data.

The opposite has happened at Fox News, MSNBC’s conservative rival. Fox’s audience in prime time has grown 21 percent since last Wednesday, with an average of 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Its total day audience has jumped 38 percent.

During the Trump administration Part 1, I documented how the media had grown rich and fat on Trump hatred. If the opposite thing is happening this time around, it would be a positive sign.

Some media people are saying that they’re burned out and it seems a bunch of media viewers are burned out too by the endless doom.

Now all of this could be a temporary low before they rebound again, more furious than ever, but people have their limitations. And even Alinsky warned that you can only push the same button so many times. The button, at least for now, appears to be squishy and on the way to breaking.