Crisis? What crisis?
The #Resist movement racks up assists for the other team by feeding Trump uncontested layups with their odd choices of hills to die on.
Trump's recent hostile takeover of policing in the District of Columbia exemplifies his hold-my-beer popularity among supporters, his ability to provoke opponents into self-destruction, and his ability to take advantage of sky-is-falling contretemps. The travails of DC are a made-for-Trump circus, and he is its undisputed impresario.
I should be at a loss to explain why the “resistance” has padlocked itself with Grade 120 chain to a strategy of diligently pursuing irrelevance by playing into Trump’s hands on crime (as well as immigration, the economy, DEI, and a host of other issues), but I’m not. I’ve learned that assuming there’s much reason at the other end of schemes forged in the rarefied air of progressive bubbles is a mistake.
Since the day that Trump walked down that gold escalator nearly a decade ago, the #resist movement has resolutely gone from owning the media coverage of Trump to grasping at the mere hope that the next existential threat to democracy will come with the right secret sauce to buff out the tarnish of repetitive failure—until that news cycle fades into stupors and vituperations like all of the others.
Trump’s opposition, far from being the effective resistance they imagine themselves to be, just keep feeding him uncontested layups. If there were a category for political assists related to baskets scored by the opposing team, progressives from the Trump era would hold all the records.
What Trump’s progressive critics fail to appreciate about Trump is that the bombast and theatrics they cite as proof of his unserious nature are precisely what make him effective in the eyes of many others. With Trump, the theatrics are exactly the point. And there’s evidence that it works.
Since Trump took his second oath of office earlier this year, less than 100 miles of new fencing has been constructed along our southern border. Yet, illegal crossings are down by 93%. It appears that one high-profile deportation of a Kilmar Abrego Garcia is worth several hundred miles of border wall. That’s the power of Trump’s theatrics. Wave a big enough stick, with conviction, and the hard work gets done for you.
Another progressive line of attack against Trump is that the people he surrounds himself with are weird. They are not like you and me. That actually ought to be an effective punch, since it’s true of all politicians.
There are no circumstances, for instance, under which I could imagine tossing back a few cold ones with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Nor could I imagine becoming great pals with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, he of the bon vivant personality and engaging sense of humor. Enjoying tea and strumpets (with a faint enchantment of Midnight at the Oasis) with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard isn’t going to happen. Nor is having a discussion about measles and raw milk with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. that doesn’t end in a fight.
Those people are kind of weird. So why doesn’t that punch land? Because it’s all relative. Even weirder people preceded all of the above in the previous administration.
How about Rachel Levine? Levine was the transgender Biden HHS assistant secretary who encouraged risky and pseudoscientific gender transition treatments for very young children while actively using the power of government to suppress medical studies that were inconvenient to their narrative. Hegseth, by comparison, looks completely sane. I’ll take the Jerusalem Cross Tattoo in “what’s less weird” for $50, Alex, anytime.
Then there was Sam Brinton, the fired and disgraced former DOE official, who was subsequently arrested and charged with several felonies while employed in government service. Brinton, who identifies as non-binary, had a weird history that preceded his career as the official in charge of our nation's nuclear waste disposal program for the first half of the Biden administration.
She/he/it (funny, in a scatological sense) was initially hailed as a breakthrough for the LGBTQIA+ community—evidently the sole criterion for Brinton’s selection. How Brinton ever obtained a security clearance is a complete mystery to me. I’m having a hard time taking any of Trump’s appointees less seriously.
Then there is this guy.
Hunter Biden. Where to begin? Put aside the laptop, the influence peddling, the unregistered foreign agent business, and the gun convictions—anybody who sleeps with his recently deceased brother’s widow is weird. As in get out of here you freak, weird. The ick factor with this one set a high bar.
Though Hunter served the Biden administration in no official capacity, he’s relevant because of what’s below.
During the four years of Biden's presidency, Democratic Party officials, high-ranking Democrats in Congress, Cabinet members, family and media representatives knew or at least strongly suspected that Joe Biden was not entirely lucid. Yet a coterie of people close to an enfeebled Biden orchestrated a Weekend at Bernie’s-style ruse. As this fooled almost no one, I can only imagine that it was done to satisfy some equity requirement for representation from the comatose community.
That’s why those “weird” haymakers don’t land. You can’t out-weird the previous administration.
Alas, I’ve allowed weirdness to bury the lede. Thank you for bearing with me. If you will forgive my 1000-word indulgence, I assure you that I shall get back to the promised diatribe forthwith.
One of my favorite progressive talking points of the Trump years is that nearly every crisis vexing America, from Social Security running out of money to eczema, seborrhea, and the heartbreak of psoriasis, can be solely attributed to Trump. Nothing else matters. It’s lame, but they must hope that enthusiasm counts.
Paradoxically, when Trump takes action to address anything urgent, the response from the opposition is Crisis? What Crisis?
As mentioned at the outset, Trump has taken steps to federalize policing in DC. The District of Columbia, our nation’s capital, is one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world. But outside of the National Mall and the Northwest Quadrant, it’s also one of the most dangerous. The murder rate in DC is six times that of New York City. Carjackings and other violent crimes are distressingly commonplace.
All that one must do to verify this is to speak to DC residents—who are not at all bashful about laying into their local government. The people who suffer the most from their DC’s failure to responsibly maintain order tend to be disproportionately poor and Black, suffering the additional ignominy of having been led into this actual dystopia by people who are rich, well-connected with the resistance, and Black.
Trump has vowed to do something to address this. The resistance is having none of it.
Having figured out that being soft on crime isn’t a particularly effective strategy in winning national elections, progressives have hit upon something new. Crime? What crime? Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently opined that he feels "perfectly safe" in Washington, D.C., and that Republicans who say that D.C. is unsafe are "full of it." According to Schumer, not even the slightest unpleasantness ever interrupts his morning stroll around the National Mall with his omnipresent security detail. A long list of prominent Democrats and DC officials have lined up to repeat this same line of attack.
The rallying cry of Crisis? What crisis? in the midst of an obvious crisis is political malpractice. It’s providing Trump with an assist for an uncontested layup. A rational opposition with some plan for overcoming political irrelevance would respond with something like While we agree with President Trump that crime in the District is unacceptably high, we disagree on the best way to reduce it. We look forward to engaging with the president and other relevant parties concerning the best way forward.
Yeah, it’s pablum. But when it hits the headlines the next morning, it offers the advantage of not making the resistance look stupid.
Even to devoted readers of The Washington Post.
Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on X at @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com.
Another brilliant column Professor Hackworth! The summer vacations with the kids were clearly restorative!