“I took down your golden boy in a week.”   
     -Mitch McConnell, on Matt Gaetz failed nomination

After learning yesterday about Matt Gaetz withdrawing from consideration to be US Attorney General, I spoke with a close friend and sister activist about the replacement nominee, Pam Bondi. She said, accurately, that the problem with Bondi is that she doesn’t seem to have Gaetz’s personal baggage but could be more dangerous because she has the legal experience and skills that he doesn’t.

I responded that, yes, that is true, but it’s also true that this big political defeat for Trump, happening because of a rebellion by less hardline Republican Senators, is a very positive development anyway. Why?

Would-be dictators actually become dictators in part because they are able to project strength and virility, making it much easier to impose their will on anybody they determine is standing in their way. But as Republican Senator Mitch McConnell surprisingly revealed, Trump’s victory clearly has its limits. When it is Republican Senators, not Democrats, not progressives, not leftists, who are the ones standing up to him, that has positive political impacts.

Many progressives and liberals and more centrist Republicans have been rocked by Trump’s victory. All of us in one way or the other have been emotionally thrown by it. But the thing is this: successful resistance, even just the fact of resistance, encourages others to do so. When victories are won because of that resistance a stronger and wider movement will be one of the results.

I have to say that I’ve wondered myself if Trump and the MAGA’s were going to be able to lie and intimidate enough to significantly alter US political dynamics and undercut the important democratic aspects of this problematic, unjust system. Were a significant percentage of the millions of progressives in the USA going to decide to keep their heads down, not show up for public demonstrations, reduce their activism out of fear, I’ve wondered. And I still have that concern. But this big defeat of Trump’s “golden boy in a week;” McConnell revealing that Trump is not going to be able to get all the Senate, and House, Republicans to just go along to get along, look the other way on anything Trump/MAGA wants, should help to lessen that problem.

As I wrote in my column the day after the election, “I remember a very similar [anxious and depressed] feeling after the November, 1972 runaway Presidential victory of Trump-similar Richard Nixon over George McGovern. 21 months later Nixon was gone from DC, resigning in disgrace before he was impeached. What was Nixon’s vote total compared to Trump’s? Nixon had a 23% margin of victory in the popular vote and won every state except Massachusetts and DC. As far as Trump, when all the votes are counted It looks like he’ll either be ahead by a couple percent or pretty much tied [as of now it’s about a 1 ½ point lead]. And Harris won a lot more states than Massachusetts and DC.”

Resistance breeds resistance. It is that resistance movement that is our hope for the future; let’s step it up across the board on issue after issue.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

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