Five Reasons for Optimism

There are cracks in the hateful regime's bulwark. Believe that its days are numbered.

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico spoke at a rally in Houston Wednesday. (Photo by Danielle Villasana via Getty Images)

I am not the guy to tell you we’re winning everyday. The ongoing destruction, the desecrations and violations, are grave. Once we have a real president again, he or she will have to devote an extraordinary amount of time to cleaning up the awful mess caused by this corrupt human who never should have been allowed anywhere near the levers of power.

Yes, some days the horrors are particularly hard to stomach, including yesterday, when news broke that Donald Trump’s Injustice Department was considering another vindictive prosecution, this time of E. Jean Carroll. She is the courageous 82-year-old writer who was raped and defamed by Trump—and won multiple convictions against him—and now faces further assault from Trump and Todd Blanche, his abusive criminal defense attorney, currently installed as the acting attorney general.

But our challenge is to both comprehend and confront these dispiriting attacks while also recognizing that this hateful regime will not last—that there are visible cracks in the bulwark, indeed encouraging signs that its days are numbered. Here are five reasons for optimism.

1. The Democrats can win the Texas senate seat

Trump got his preferred candidate this week, Ken Paxton, who won handily against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff. Impeached by his own party, indicted on multiple felony counts for investment fraud, a serial cheater, Paxton is a walking, talking illustration of corruption in politics. He’s running against James Talarico, a gifted speaker, a former public school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who leans into his faith to articulate the positive values that drive his public service. “This is a spiritual battle between selfishness and service, between greed and greatness,” Talarico said at a Houston rally Wednesday.

The contrast could not be more vivid, suggesting that the Democrats have a real shot at taking this seat if Talarico succeeds at convincing Texans to reject Paxton’s corruption and extremism. If Talarico wins it would be the first time a Democrat won a statewide election in more than three decades. And even if he fails? The Republicans will likely spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hold the seat—dollars that won’t be spent in other races.

2. Trump has added to the number of aggrieved Republicans

John Cornyn is respected and popular among his Republican peers and a reliable vote for Trump. Now he sees how little his loyalty was valued by Trump, as do other Republicans who kowtow to the malignant one, even when they know he’s wrong. It’s a damn shame that it takes defeat and the impending loss of power to convince him to speak up, but we can hope he’ll follow the lead of North Carolina’s retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, who’s been sticking it to more than a few of the reckless miscreants surrounding Trump. And let’s not forget the promising words of defeated Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie about the Epstein files: “We’ve taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture and that was just six months. I’ve got seven months left in Congress.”

3. The staggering corruption may actually have limits

It’s not like the Republicans have suddenly discovered their morality and their duty to the Constitution. But Trump’s appalling $1.8 billion slush fund to award Jan. 6 convicted criminals and others deemed wrongfully treated by the Biden Justice Department has actually triggered real criticism, not just from a scattering of Republicans but reportedly dozens. It seems there actually are Republicans who don’t think it’s a good idea to award violent insurrectionists who assaulted police officers. Imagine that.

The opposition was enough to derail an immigration bill vote, causing Wisconsin’s Trump-reliable Sen. Ron Johnson to acknowledge this as a “galactic blunder” and Sen. Mitch McConnell to call it “utterly stupid, morally wrong.” Add to this the likely fact that congressional funding for Trump’s grotesque billion-dollar ballroom likely cannot garner enough votes to go ahead.

4. Disapprovals of Trump are rising—and he doesn’t care

The Economist yesterday tracked Trump’s net approval at minus-24. Voters disapprove of Trump on every key issue: inflation/prices, jobs and the economy, foreign policy, immigration and crime. Not only do three-fourths of Americans say the economy is “fair” or “poor,” two-thirds recognize that it’s getting worse. The Economist forecasts that Democrats have a nine out of ten chance of retaking the House and called control of the Senate “a toss-up.”

But the recklessly untethered Trump has said loud and clear how indifferent he is. A few weeks ago, he bluntly said, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” And Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting, he said, “I don’t care about the midterms. That’s not much of a surprise to anyone paying attention, but the Republicans are panicking. Note this unfettered remark from Thom Tillis: “The stupid stuff is killing our chances!” Said one GOP pollster, “If his highest goal were to maintain control of Congress, he would not be doing what he is doing.”

Add to this the continuing mess he’s making in the Middle East in his unsupported, unauthorized war of choice with Iran, which is adding to the opposition even by Republicans who actually believed him when he pledged that “you’re not going to have a war with me.” There are no signs that he knows how to end it—his pendulum swings are exhausting—or that he cares about the economic repercussions sure to be felt well after the midterms.

5. The demand for accountability is rising and real

How many violations and violators of the law are there in this Trump regime? I don’t know that I can count that high—and as long as the GOP holds onto power, the more reason we have to doubt that justice will be served. But this week a Florida Bar complaint was filed against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who surely has behaved like the law does not apply to her.

The ethics complaint was filed by a coalition of legal groups defending democracy and the rule of law, as well as more than 120 retired judges, law professors and attorneys, including the retired chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. They targeted her violation of professional conduct, which included her mis-handling of the Epstein files, her “misleading the public,” “reckless disregard” for the law and a “shocking lack of competence” in failing to properly redact sensitive victim information. The groups also accused Bondi of violating state bar guidelines in her role in political prosecutions and violating more than 100 court orders in immigration detention cases.

This complaint follows a previous one submitted last June, which the bar declined to pursue stating that it “does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.” Well, those days are over for Ms. Bondi, so maybe the reluctant Florida Bar will discover its duty now.

This is not exactly a call for full accountability, but it is a start. And may this be just the beginning for Bondi and all her other lawless, arrogant pals who believe their duty is to the corrupt, felonious Trump and not the rule of law. It will take a Democratic Congress and ultimately a Democratic president for full accountability to proceed, but it’s a positive sign that the will is there.

We have another 157 days until the Nov. 3 midterms. It will take the Republicans’ overwhelming defeat before we can genuinely envision this hateful regime ending up in the dustbin of history. Our optimism then will be truly earned and deeply satisfying.

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