The guardrails that existed during Donald Trump's first administration have now completely disintegrated, allowing Trump's "arrogance, cruelty and hostility toward anyone who does not believe in a white nationalist future" to run rampant, wrote journalist Steven Beschloss for Salon.
But the Democratic resistance is gaining momentum, according to Beschloss, even if it got off to a slow start during the first 100 days of Trump's second term.
Beschloss wrote that he makes an effort "to spotlight the defenders of democracy and the good and decent people who oppose Trump’s gleeful arson and the forces that applaud the flames." It hasn't been "easy" this time, however, Beschloss wrote, as Trump shifts from "nationalist mode" to "imperialist mode" right before our eyes.
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"We have every reason to expect that it will get worse with the bottomless, immunized Trump in the Oval Office," Beschloss wrote. "Trump is intoxicated on power and is acting to further enrich himself by securing his own Putin-style, kleptocratic oligarchy. We no longer hear, like we did during the first term, about people in the administration who provide guardrails. We are getting fully unleashed Trump, courtesy of the 77 million Americans who voted for him and all the others who stayed home, ensuring that we learn what 'mess around and find out' really means."
Although Beschloss blamed "far too many elected Democrats"far too many elected Democrats" who have had a "tepid or, worse, non-existent," response to Trump's desire for unlimited power, Beschloss wrote, "I am uplifted to see leaders like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Sen. Cory Booker, Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders, and Representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett grasp the urgency of this dangerous time."
Beschloss continued, "But the road ahead cannot rely on elected officials to stem this authoritarian spiral: I am looking to millions of Americans demonstrating in the streets to say they’ve had enough. That cannot be an occasional thing but an ongoing effort to ensure the survival of our centuries-old democratic experiment."
