The Witness Chronicles, 2/19/25

Are the Democrats waking up?

The Democrats Are Waking Up, and Learning They Have Power

Geez, finally

“65% of Democrats want their party leaders to oppose Trump rather than work with him. That’s a 38-point shift from cooperation to conflict in just a month."

~ MSNBC Analyst Michael Cohen

Well, a little late guys, but better than never. Somnolent voters appear to be waking up and finding themselves in a nightmare, and they don’t like it. And the person who will take the brunt of it will be Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as he struggles to rein in his own far right and tries to build a coalition with Democrats to keep the government open.

And it is looking like that will not happen, putting him and his party between a rock and a hard place. As voters wake up and tell their Democratic representatives they are royally pissed, any possible cooperation has evaporated, fast. We’re even hearing at least one Democrat Senator talking about letting the government shut down.

If that happens, the blame will fall on Trump and his party. They, after all, claim a mandate but only have a razor thin majority in both houses of Congress. In a related story, the confirmation of Rep. (R-NY) Elise Stefanik for Trump’s United Nations delegate has been put on hold because Johnson desperately needs her vote.

If she is confirmed, NY Governor Hochul has announced she will not hold an election for Stefanik’s seat until November, denying Johnson a member vote he really needs.

But keeping Stefanik in her seat will not be enough. There must be a 60% majority to send a budget to the Senate, then the Senate also needs a 60% approval, and there is no way that is happening in this charged environment.

People who know I obsess a bit about this stuff have been asking me what I think will happen and, to be honest, I have no idea. But I do see a movement rumbling under the surface and that movement is disgust in general with what is going on in DC, the glorification of chaos and stupidity, and the total inaction as Trump and Musk’s layoffs and closings have the government paralyzed with fear.

In other words, all of us are getting sick of all of this.

I also wonder how Trump responds if his approval ratings crash, as it appears they may. As a classic narcissist his need for attention is total and rules his perspective, and the worst thing he can be told is that he is a loser. He is on a roll right now but his hatchet man Elon is not popular and getting less popular every day as he chops his way randomly through the government.

The budget fight in the House may turn out to be the wild card that flips some of Trump’s Republican loyalists over to sanity. They are the ones who have to go home and explain why they can’t get anything done and seem to only make things worse. And I might ask, all for what? That guy?

I don’t think so. And I think I am not alone.

I haven’t been writing much about foreign policy. It’s not my expertise if I have one, but the shift in just this past month is a 180, and that is not a good thing. Hanging Ukraine out to dry is not a good look for many Americans. A sharp right turn towards open facism, as we saw from VP Vance and Defense Secretary Hegseth, would normally be huge headlines but it has been overshadowed by the calamity we are witnessing here at home every day since the inauguration.

In just a week these bozos have turned Europe against us and cozied up to a murderous dictator running our largest enemy, Russia, who partners with our second biggest potential enemy, China. Given that Trump is punishing China with new tariffs, there doesn’t seem to be any coherent foreign policy strategy across his administration.

It’s not enough that Trump just ‘likes’ Putin, but in his simplistic world that is enough to base a betrayal of a staunch ally on.

The other big question I hear is how long before Trump turns on Musk? And I don’t know the answer to that either, but as Elon’s bro squad tries to get into Social Security data they are going to find out what a real rebellion is. Most Americans see Social Security and Medicare as something we have earned and saved for through withholding.

Mess with our money and all hell will break loose. Congress members know this, which is why touching Social Security is the third rail in US politics. And it looks like Elon is itching to get his fingers on the trigger. That may be his downfall. Maybe.

Isn’t this fun? No, it is not, though Elon seems to think everything is a joke, mainly because of his certainty that he is always the smartest one in the room. He may be, especially within the Trump White House, but smarts without common sense are useless in governing. Any elected official knows this but Musk faces no electorate and never will.

So, cracks in the armor? Musk, Vance, Hegseth, Social Security, firing FAA workers after four recent plane crashes, and now the budget standoff. I think that’s definitely enough to start waking people up to the reality of what these people are doing. And it seems it is.

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Martin Edic