Not only is Donald Trump returning to the White House, not only do Republicans have 53 Senate seats and about 220 seats to control of the House of Representatives, but Republicans now control almost 55 percent of state legislative seats nationwide. Republicans won control of the Michigan state House of Representatives, and the Minnesota state House of Representatives shifted from a 70-64 Democratic advantage to a 67-67 tie. (Rough year for Tim Walz all around.) Twenty-three states have Republican governors and GOP-controlled state legislatures, just 15 states have the Democratic equivalent, and 12 states have divided governments.
If the election of Trump came as a shock to Democrats, it is perhaps even more shocking that, at least for now, a solid majority of Americans are giving the incoming president the benefit of the doubt. The latest Economist/YouGov poll found 51 percent of Americans have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Trump, the highest level going back at least as far as the start of his first term as president. For a long, long stretch, that number was around 40 percent.
This weekend a CBS News poll found 59 percent of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the transition. Perhaps this figure reflects that Trump’s announced cabinet picks have something for everyone. For hawks, there’s Marco Rubio. For doves and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, there’s Tulsi Gabbard. For those who see the Covid vaccines as “a gift from God,” there’s surgeon general nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. For those who hate vaccines and erroneously believe they cause autism, there’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For those who love dogs, there’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi who adopted a dog abandoned during Hurricane Katrina. For those who hate dogs, there’s Kristi Noem.
That CBS poll also found, “there seems to be a sense of exhaustion, as fewer than half of Democrats feel motivated to oppose Trump right now.” And who can begrudge Democrats exhaustion after an election cycle that arguably started a week after the midterm elections? Saul Alinsky warned in Rules for Radicals, “A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.”
Other signs of “the Resistance” from eight years ago are absent this time around.
After the 2016 election, Trump foes launched a serious last-ditch effort to convince the presidential electors to become “faithless,” and change their votes, preventing Trump becoming president. Celebrities and actors from The West Wing and Will and Grace appeared in commercials, urging electors to not vote for President-elect Trump. So far this year, there’s nothing like that. Democrats in and out of office are trudging in acquiescence towards Inauguration Day; Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman said he expects to vote to confirm Rubio as Secretary of State, and he said he is open to voting to put his former rival, Mehmet Oz, in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Trump won the second-highest number of votes for president ever cast, no one’s questioning the legitimacy of his victory, Democrats in the Senate are signing off on some of his cabinet picks, and he starts his second term with at least an initially high approval rating. Trump may not be normal, but he’s starting to look normalized.