"Trump opposition is emboldened," says Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy. "It's everywhere." But is it?

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/04/trump-opposition-is-emboldened-says.html

Tim Murphy's observation on Saturday's mass protests against Trump's actions and policies is a great narrative on the subject, one of the best I've read. You can read it too, by clicking the link above. He does a great job characterizing the feelings of protesters, and pointing out that this is a movement that exists everywhere, that opposition to Trump's second term in office is widespread and condemning.

It's a pity that this wasn't happening prior to the election, when it would have made a real difference. But, as Murphy observes, most people think the first time around wasn't nearly as bad as what we have seen, and a lot of people just didn't believe it would go where it has so quickly. So it is that we have what we have.

What is the goal of the opposition? Protests are design to put forward the idea that a chosen political course of action is not popular, and needs to be reconsidered. For someone like Trump, who will never be influenced by protests or opposition, and who doesn't have the ability within himself to compromise on anything, the question goes back to the purpose of the protest.

The size and scope of the turnout shook the Republican party's Congressional leadership to its very core. They, of course, won't admit it, but it's not really much of a secret at this point. If that was one of the goals of the protesters, it was achieved. What the result of this will be, short term or in the long run, is anyone's guess.

The Constitutional options are limited:

Impeachment and removal, which seems highly unlikely. However, it was Republican pressure on Nixon, after the Watergate scandal broke, threatening removal if Congress did impeach him, that got him to resign. We seem to be a long way off from that kind of pressure coming from enough Republicans to force him out by resignation.
Invoking the 25th amendment, also unlikely given that many of those in the cabinet are his own hand-picked sycophants who don't see his insanity, or do see it but want to use it for their own advantage.
Putting enough public pressure on him to get him to resign on his own. I don't see this as a realistic possibility. Trump is emotionally incapable of seeing mistakes he makes. He has been the worst President in history, by far and away, worse than even poor James Buchanan, whose lack of leadership actually caused the Civil War, or John Tyler, who succeeded William Henry Harrison after just 31 days, and whose term can be characterized as one of the most anti-Constitutional, anti-patriotic times in history, except for Trump. Tyler managed to alienate himself from the entire electorate, and both major political parties in just four years.

So, considering the options, what is the goal of the opposition?

[hadEnuf]

1. The Republican Party is keeping this monster Trump in power.

That's why nothing is working or will work.

We need to drag down these Republican MF'ers one by one.

[lees1975]

4. Yes, and I think that's where the protests should have some effect.

I haven't seen a lot of media coverage of Republican reaction but there is a GOP congresswoman here in Illinois who apparently didn't get the memo about not commenting on the size of protests in her district, Mary Miller. And apparently the guy in Arizona district 6, where Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez drew one of their largest crowds, expressed his "concern."

[sop]

2. Good article.

"Trump is slashing and cutting government departments and services, based on the unproven lie that 'trillions' can be saved by cutting 'waste.' He's not cutting waste, he's cutting what the government does for its people, which is one of its constitutional functions. Trump and the Republicans operate under the false pretense that if the government is involved in providing some service, there is massive waste. It's their definition of 'waste' that is lacking in credibility. Providing medical services for people who cannot afford insurance to cover them is not waste. But they think it is. It's the populist rhetoric that is impossible to refute."

[taxi]

3. Well, you've heard this before -

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

LET'S add another line or two -
So I spoke up for myself and my beliefs,
Because my beliefs were no different than yours.
And you knew it was time.
You knew it was time to speak for yourself
and put an end to the suffering.
And together we put an end to the injustices.
We put an end to using hatred to hold us together,
Because we were fooled.
And it has to stop.