Let's Do This: Seven Reasons to Stay Calm
(But still engaged, of course)
With Trump's second term beginning, this has been an intense few days. I imagine that quite a few of you are on edge right now, and understandably so.
That said, this does not feel like it did eight years ago, when this meme was circulating about what it felt like every morning during the opening days of Trump's first term:
Much has been written about how Trump is better prepared for his second term. However, a lot less has been written about how Democrats are also better prepared—and honestly, better positioned—for Trump's second term. This has left me with a feeling of calm determination, and even optimism, about the road ahead.
Whether or not you feel the same way, please give me a chance to present seven reasons why I believe Democrats have good reason to remain calm—and, of course, engaged—even at this challenging moment in our history.
Lawsuits are underway, and more are coming
Trump has signed a record number of executive orders in his first days in office. However, because of legal challenges, not all of them will become federal policy. For example, 22 state attorneys general are suing the Trump administration over the executive order to remove birthright citizenship from the children of undocumented immigrants. Given the clarity of the Constitution on this matter, there is every reason to believe this lawsuit will be successful.
Lawsuits have also been filed challenging the legality of the Department of Government Efficiency, and against Trump's order reinstating "Schedule F" that would make it easier to fire civil servants. More are on the way. Democrats in Congress are plotting with outside groups to sue the Trump administration for refusing to spend funds already appropriated by Congress and signed into law. This is known as impoundment, which Trump has repeatedly vowed to do, and in fact appears to have already started doing.
All of this is just the beginning. We should all expect many more legal challenges to Trump's executive orders in the coming days and weeks. Further, in just a matter of days, or even hours, we could even begin to see courts put the first pauses on Trump's executive orders. That may have even happened by the time you read this article.
Granted, Trump may win a decent number of these lawsuits. However, he is not going to win them all. Even with a friendly Supreme Court, Trump lost quite a few prominent cases during his first administration. That will happen again, as many of these executive orders push the boundaries of conservative legal theory.
Here are some related actions you can take against Trump's executive orders:
Whatever doesn't get stopped in court can be repealed by a future president
As I conceded above, quite a few of Trump's executive orders will survive legal scrutiny. However, 100% of them are temporary, as is the nature of executive orders.
Every single executive order that Trump makes can be repealed, with the stroke of a pen, by a future president. In fact, the most likely outcome is that most of the orders Trump made yesterday will be repealed.
A lot of what Trump is doing is unpopular, and will hasten the end of his honeymoon
Trump's favorability ratings have increased—marginally—since the election. However, that happens to every president right after they win an election. Importantly, what also happens to every president is that, only a few months after they are inaugurated, their favorability rating starts to decline.
Trump is speeding up that inevitable process himself. Acquiring Greenland is unpopular. Pardoning the January 6 rioters is opposed by Americans by a nearly 2-1 margin. Raiding schools to look for undocumented immigrants is even less popular. Lots more unpopular moves are on the way.
What's more, this isn't campaign season. Trump and Republicans cannot distract America from these unpopular, high profile proclamations, threats and orders with attacks on Democrats. Trump and Republicans are in charge now, and all the attention is on them. They are going to have to own this nonsense, and they will begin to pay a political price for it. I expect that time to come sooner rather than later.
Strong first special election results for Democrats
As I wrote last week, the first special elections of 2025 where held in three state legislative districts in Virginia on January 7. All three showed a significant shift toward Democrats compared to the results only two months earlier in November 2024. In fact, the shift was so pronounced, that it is likely Democrats are already once again ahead of Republicans nationally.
Trump only won narrowly—by 1.5% in the popular vote and 1.7% in the tipping point state of Pennsylvania. Further, his winning coalition is flimsy. It's built on low propensity voters, followers of fringe candidates like RFK Jr. (who he secured with the promise of the Health and Human Services nomination), and fringe parties like the Libertarians. Democratic Senate candidates actually won Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, and came within a hair's breadth of Pennsylvania. Had Harris matched these Senate totals, she still would have lost the election but by a narrow 270-268 tally. This demonstrates how close the 2024 election really was. Even a slight change in the breeze will be enough to put Democrats back ahead.
Republican legislation remains stuck in the mud
I have written repeatedly about the difficulty Republicans will face passing major legislation this year, to the point there they might not even be able to extend the Trump tax cuts. However, Republican problems are actually much deeper than that:
March 14 government funding deadline. Government funding runs out in seven weeks. Republicans need to work with Democrats to prevent a government shutdown, which would look very bad for Republicans and Donald Trump. Democrats have leverage here because of the filibuster in the Senate and because obstreperous House conservatives render the Republican majority in that chamber a majority in name only. Democrats also have absolutely no incentive to quickly come to terms with Republicans on this, and can make Republicans twist in the wind for a while.
Debt ceiling. See above. This is exactly the same situation, for exactly the same reasons. Democrats have the leverage here, not Republicans.
No plan on how to pass their reconciliation bill or bills. For quite some time now, Republicans in Congress have been unable to agree if they will attempt to pass Trump's legislative agenda via one reconciliation bill or two. This may seem like a small point, but it really is not. Republicans cannot even begin work on their agenda until they make this decision. Amazingly, even after meeting with Trump on Tuesday, they still can't decide what to do—and neither can Trump.
Democratic energy is up
While we are not seeing the mass protests, shutting down of congressional phone lines, and record breaking small donations of eight years ago—for reasons for which I provided last week—the numbers I can see are showing clear Democratic engagement.
Admittedly, these numbers are mostly what I can see at Bowers News Media and Wolves and Sheep, but they are all encouraging. We have experienced growth of between 30% and 75% in all metrics—article views, donations to candidates, new subscribers, email interaction rates—in the past 30 days. In my over 20 years in Democratic and progressive grassroots politics, I have never once seen a surge in grassroots activity for the organization I work with not be accompanied by an overall surge in activity in the broader Democratic and progressive grassroots ecosystem. This is because all Democratic and progressive grassroots organizations are drinking from the same pool. We do not create Democratic and progressive grassroots enthusiasm—we feed on it.
I am seeing numbers equal to, or even surpassing, the election season right now. It wouldn't surprise me at all if others are seeing the same thing.
While this is not the level of engagement we saw eight years ago, I am also not necessarily sure that is a bad thing. An explosion of that size was also uncontrollable, and honestly felt like it started getting rapidly out of hand. A huge amount of the resources that were generated for grassroots progressive organizations were eventually turned toward internal disputes and targeted at Democrats and even at the progressive organizations who received the new members, volunteers, and donations. I'm not keen to see that happen again. Fortunately, right now, I don't see it happening—at least not at the same level it did last time.
We have the votes in Congress to seat the legitimate winners of future elections for the House of Representatives and White House
I hesitate to even include this one, but because there are a decent number of vocal people concerned about it, I am going to go ahead and do so anyway.
The final arbiter of House elections is the House of Representatives itself. The final arbiter of presidential elections is Congress, both the House and Senate together. In both cases, we have the votes to make sure that the legitimate winners of the 2026 and 2028 elections are seated.
I understand the fear that many have that we will not have free and fair elections moving forward. However, the truth is that Trump—even if he tried, which I think is dubious, since he will never be on the ballot again himself—does not have the votes to overturn future elections.
There are 215 Democrats in the House, two Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and dozens of Republicans who voted to certify Trump's 2020 defeat. Trump doesn't have the votes to seat illegitimate winners of House elections.
The Senate is even better. Fewer than 10 senators went along with Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election, a number that has likely not changed all that much in the intervening four years, or will change all that much four years from now.
In the swing states for president, most governors, attorneys general and secretaries of state are Democrats. The Democratic hold over these states will likely only improve in the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump doesn't have the votes to raise the debt ceiling. He doesn't have the votes to adjourn Congress. He most definitely doesn't have the votes to overturn an election. We are going to have a legitimate chance to take the federal government back in 2026 and 2028. I, for one, believe that we will.
Thank you sharing energy and hope in these very depressing times!
So much good news, thank you. Never give up.