It was a wake-up call for America. In January, Donald Trump took the oath of office, declared himself “saved by God to make America great again” and issued a barrage of executive orders. In the ensuing months the US president and his allies moved at breakneck speed and seemed indomitable.
But as 2025 draws to a close with Trump struggling to stay awake at meetings, the prevailing image is of a driver asleep at the wheel. Opinion polls suggest that Americans are turning against him. Republicans are heading for the exit ahead of congressional contests next November that look bleak for the president’s party.
“He came into office and, like a blitzkrieg, was violating laws and the constitution,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “The American political process is slow-moving and so he was able to do things that were extraordinary.
“But this is a guy whose legacy may well be the political collapse of Republicans in this era. Put another way, rather than asking who is going to be the inheritor of the Trump mantle and the so-called Maga movement, we may be talking in a year or so about which candidates can escape the odious distinction of having been connected with Trump.”
You’re preaching to the choir, Brother, I’ve been an Unafilliated Independent since I first registered to vote in 1977. So forgive me if after decades of trying other paths (I voted for Ross Perot, twice, although I wouldn’t do that today), I’ve long given up on some sort of a reconfiguration of our election system. At least until we can get total control, and have the will to make bold changes in the direction of this nation, we will have to work within the system and hack it, game it, hijack it, push it, cajole it, market it into getting what this country needs.
The best way to get what we want is to hijack the Democratic Party, the same way MAGA hijacked the Republican Party. In the case of the MAGAs, they just forced the Republicans out of their larval stage, and into their inevitable final form - MAGA.
The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of the people, and the workers, and it has been tempted to stray from it’s mission by many of the same toxins of The Right. It’s time to force the Dems from their larval stage, and into their final form as a true representative of the vast majority of Americans, and not just a tiny group of extremely mentally ill financial hoarders.