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It was a pattern that repeated itself over and over again. Trump, first as a candidate and then as a president, said outrageous things that fueled the media, which drove Democrats and the American people to engage. It was an endless circle that had nothing to do with Trump’s agenda. A source of constraint distraction that left the American people fatigued and wanted to get off an interminable ride of chaos.
Since Trump has very few plays in his playbook, he tried to start the chaos machine again. This time, he was going to take Greenland and make Canada a state.
The reaction was different this time.
The late-night hosts made their jokes, and cable news tried to make Trump’s statements into a thing. The outrage mongers on social media tried to whip a fury for clicks and eyeballs, but it quickly puttered out.
The main reason is that Democrats didn’t play along.
It is impossible to distract the country if half the nation won’t allow itself to be distracted.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) explained how the Democrats have changed strategies, “People in 2017 were deeply uncertain about what a Trump presidency would mean and wanted to raise their voices to try to influence them,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) explained to HuffPost. “This time, Trump and his tight band of billionaires have made pretty clear what the fights will be, and that’s less about protests in the streets and more about the hard, inch-by-inch fighting over tax policy and environmental regulations and building permits.”
What Warren is talking about is the ability of Democrats to turn Trump’s presidency into a legislative slog. Protests in the streets are important, but they won’t slow Trump’s agenda in the same way that Democratic Senators using every tool in their toolbox can grind the Senate to a halt.
What Trump says isn’t important at all. This is a man who, as president, told tens of thousands of lies.
Trump’s actions will impact lives, and his ability to quickly take many of those actions is fertile ground that Democrats can win on.