For more than a decade, Democrats have watched Donald Trump succeed with a brand of politics that is crude, often coarse, and always volatile. They have agonized, mostly unproductively, about how to defeat it. They tried various strategies, and all ultimately failed. Now they are trying another that is doomed.First, before it was clear how powerful Trump’s methods and appeal had become, members of the blue party pooh-poohed him and airily dismissed the possibility that such a man could ever become president. But then he did.As lofty disdain failed, they had to try something else, so they turned to angry vituperation and name-calling, trying to alienate decent people from Trump by saying he was a racist, fascist, rapist, and other damnable things. When that didn’t work either, they sought to eject him from politics by pursuing him with federal and state prosecutions and impeaching him twice.
It all came to naught. Trump is still there in the White House 11 years after he descended the Trump Tower escalator and erupted into the national psyche.From left, clockwise: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) responds to cheers at a DSA rally in New York City, March 29; Anti-capitalist items for sale at a Democratic Socialists of America event in Los Angeles, Nov. 4, 2025; Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed, at lower right, smiles in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as accused-antisemite influencer Hasan Piker snaps a photograph, April 7; A protest in Washington, D.C., April 8.
