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As Donald J. Trump roared out of the gate with a barrage of radical executive orders, blathering rhetorical weaves and handing out ill-considered pardons to boot, many Americans of our acquaintance succumbed last Monday to uncharacteristic cynicism. Metaphorically speaking, although in a few hardy cases also literally speaking, they took a walk by the lake.
Or cleared out the basement. Or concentrated on college football. Or just felt glad they did not have to sit watching the inauguration while cameras watched them.
And we hardly are speaking only of Democrats. Plenty of traditional Republicans and independents did the same thing.
Why suffer the stomach ache, many reasoned. The people had spoken (indeed, they had). They gave Trump a democratically obtained mandate (arguably, they did) for most of the things he had talked about on the campaign trail and now was immediately doing.
Those who disagreed felt defeated and unheard but also ill-focused as to what they should do, or where they should look, next. Much of the traditional oppositional playbook has, in the dawning Second Age of Trump, come to seem ineffective, pointless, even counterproductive.
Such feelings were understandable on a day that saw such drastic changes in the political landscape and so radical a recalibration of institutional norms. In an age where party extremes dominate, such whiplash has become the dominant tenor of our political system. There is one winner and one loser and the first of those two now goes for broke, especially if their name is Trump.
