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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA good Salon piece on not counting the "Trump is TOAST" chickens before they hatch
A wounded animal in the wild will still muster the strength to bite you. Trump hasn't finished robbing the bank. Miller hasn't reached full Nazi Orgasmic Climax yet and there are still more brown people to deport. Russell Vought hasn't finished twisting the Project 2025 knife. Trump's decaying before our eyes, but leave the corks in the Champagne bottles a little while longer.The comforting story that Trump's power is fading obscures the risks facing us
By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/02/sorry-trump-isnt-a-lame-duck-yet/
These events have led many Democrats and prominent commentators to declare that one year into his second term as president, Trump is now a lame duck. The MAGA coalition shows signs of cracking, Heather Cox Richardson recently wrote. Something fundamental has shifted, the American Prospects Robert Kuttner argued.
Theyre right. Something does increasingly appear to be off with Donald Trump. He resembles a prizefighter doubled over from a gut punch staggering, grabbing the ropes, looking to the referee for help. But I am deeply worried that, being eager for change, we are jumping to inaccurate and shortsighted conclusions about Trump and the GOP. If such hopes do not come true MAGA is not falling apart, and if he regains some semblance of control we risk being left in a far worse place emotionally and politically than when we started.
Heres the inconvenient political truth: Donald Trump is far from a lame duck, and the future of American democracy and society is far from certain.
The original definition of lame duck describes a weakened politician or other leader rendered increasingly irrelevant by their party and the public because they are in the final months of their time in office. In all likelihood, Trump will be president for at least three more years.
snowybirdie
(6,502 posts)Hmmm...I'm betting not
Miles Archer
(21,176 posts)MY PREDICTION is that Trump is pure walking evil, just like his dad, and Fred lived to age 94.
And Fred lived with Dementia, and according to Mary Trump, it first became a major debilitating factor around...AGE 79.
The clock is already winding down on Leavitt and Trump's propaganda goons being able to lie about Trump's physical and mental health.
And in order for Republicans to invoke the 25th Amendment, they'd have to muster a unified front, which I don't think they're capable of.
But what we are seeing right now...getting progressively worse on a daily basis...no, I don't believe Republicans can sustain that for THREE MORE years.
I don't know how this is going to play out. I'd assume that something dramatic will happen as early as next year. We'll see.
Woodwizard
(1,239 posts)They will just shield him from exposure. Just like Reagan.
His cult will buy any excuse they are fully invested.
Had a discussion with a closet maga one of those that say well I don't like him but and then spew fox news bullet points on all the great things he is doing.
So I asked about Jan 6 th
About the boat strikes.
About the pardons.
About ICE running around with their faces covered.
About DOGE and how it came up empty and what kind of security breaches may have happened
About his crypto currency enrichment.
There was more on the list.
I got from him I have TDS. It is a cult.
One big mob mentality of hate.
Miles Archer
(21,176 posts)We were Facebook friends, 3000 miles apart, but in 2015, we lived in the same town. HELL of a nice guy in EVERY regard EXCEPT his politics. LIVES to own the libs, and he told me one time too many that I had "TDS" and I said "enough," and sent him to the cornfield.
DFW
(59,526 posts)On Feb. 18, 1943, with bombs falling over German cities already, Goebbels rallied Berlin with his "Do you want total war?" speech. The crowd yelled out JA so loudly, that after his speech, Göbbels quietly was heard to comment that if he had told his followers to jump out the window, they would have done it (Putin wasn't born yet, remember).
German generals were already quietly acknowledging that there was no way to win the war. They were retreating from Russia, and the battle of Britain was long lost. They started work on the V-2 (V for "Vergeltung," or Revenge) rockets, the first of which hit London on September 8, 1944, by which time the allies were already in France, pushing toward the German border. By January, 1945, the Russians were already in Poland, on their way to Berlin. Years before Berlin fell, the military brass in Germany who had the most knowledge of military strategy knew that the war was lost. They also knew that suggesting a negotiated surrender meant their deaths, and so, except for the doomed Wolfsschantz attempt on Hitler's life by Stauffenberg and his small group, no German internal resistance was mounted from within the military. They KNEW they were doomed, but saw no other path but to go along.
So it is with Trump and his Trumpanzees. They no longer see any way to offer any resistance. They may not fall out of the next 8th story window (and no guarantees they won't in the future), but they will become Republican Party pariahs. They have no Willy Brandts waiting in exile somewhere. They are all yelling "JA!" when Trump exhorts them to his version of Total War. This not being Berlin, 1943, they don't HAVE to do this. They do it of their own free will. In some aspects, this is even worse than Berlin, 1943, because if they bail and say, "I'm done, I'm not going to be part of this any more," they will not be rounded up and shot. Indeed, they can stand up and say, "I'm a Republican, a loyal American, and I will neither betray my political beliefs nor stand by and watch my country be destroyed by some maniacs who claim Republican values, but in fact have none." Willy Brandt wasn't a traitor to Germany, just an enemy of the National Socialists. Twenty years later, he was the Chancellor. The Republicans DO have an out. If they are so cowardly as to have the opportunity, and refuse to take advantage of it, so be it. They have enough nut cases still yelling "JA" like the ones that did so for Göbbels. But at some point their number will start to diminish. When that starts, it will happen quickly, and in four years, it will be harder to find a MAGAT in America than it was to find a Nazi in Germany in 1947. But UNTIL that comes, watch out. There were still Germans yelling "Sieg Heil!" in May, 1945, too, don't forget.
Fiendish Thingy
(21,708 posts)I think Miller, Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, Vought, Bessent et al know they will have free reign for at least one more year, maybe more, and will do their best to make the most of it, enacting their own extreme agendas with Trumps blissfully ignorant approval.
Once Dems retake the house, their momentum might be stalled with the extra scrutiny and oversight, so some of them may resign, cash in, and take their pardons on the way out the door.
The only casualties with any permanent negative consequences might be lawyers such as Habba and Halligan, who may be facing disbarment, which a pardon cannot protect them from.
And Kash Patel, who will likely lose his singing girlfriend, private jet, and no longer get comped at Vegas casinos, and will probably only find employment as a referee for womens nude mud wrestling at some joint off the strip.
dalton99a
(91,436 posts)Job 21 : 7
BlueTsunami2018
(4,788 posts)Hes there until he drops dead. Nothing he does matters.
yardwork
(68,689 posts)The hysterical hate speech is ramping up. They're goading people into violently turning on their families and neighbors.
edhopper
(36,928 posts)Are lame ducks.
Reelected Repukes have a "mandate".