33. The President pursues many policies that hurt millions of people, often vulnerable+politically marginalized people. The Muslim ban+his cruelty towards immigrants are the most obvious examples of measures that must be strongly resisted.
34. He has key weaknesses. He is angry, nervously defensive+deeply unpopular despite a strong economy which should have boosted his fundamentals. His immigration, health+tax policies are quite unpopular outside his base. That’s one reason he lies about these policies so much.
35.He rightly perceives that he holds the official levers of the presidency, but lacks the moral+political legitimacy every one of his predecessors walked into office with. His presidency carries a huge asterisk+everyone knows it.
36. His moral legitimacy is undermined by his open racism, his boorish incompetence, his conflicts of interest+misconduct. An astonishing stream of people within his own administration+many Republican allies, leak to reporters that he’s unfit for public office.
37. He is a minority president, who won a narrow electoral college victory—a victory itself tainted by his team’s enthusiastic embrace of Russian help to sabotage his Democratic rival.
38. Donald Trump would now be a private citizen had voters known in November 2016 what became common knowledge just a few months later--the various indictments, the intelligence community assessment, and the rest.
39. This wasn’t Bush v. Gore, where partisan GOP officials+judges wrested a win out of basically a tie. A clear majority of Americans do not want Donald Trump to be President+never did. Yet he has made zero effort to reach out to this majority, or to anyone outside his own base.
40.There is correspondingly no reason for the rest of us to reach out to him, or to grant him more than the coolest civilities. If I were in Congress, I'd clap politely when he entered for State of the Union. I would sit in stony silence as he delivered his remarks+quietly leave.
41. Democrats have other powerful advantages, too. Counties won by Clinton comprise more than 60% of the US economy. The Democratic Party represents the economic heart+future of America.
42. But let’s not kid ourselves. The GOP controls the House+Senate+now likely the Supreme Court. It has a good chance of holding the House. President Trump's base voters love him. He has a solid shot at reelection—maybe one with an even larger popular vote loss.
43. Economic fundamentals break the President’s way. Geographic sorting, gerrymandering, voter suppression+the basic design of our Senate+Electoral College help him out. It will take 100% effort+some luck to defeat him.
44. We also must be smart. In my view, this requires mass nonviolent action, but action that nurtures our own often-latent strengths+exploits the President’s weaknesses, not the other way around.
45. The President’s personally abusive behavior+racism are two of his biggest weaknesses. The Trump voters in my own life recognize that. They’re not crazy reactionaries. Most are ambivalent+somewhat embarrassed, but may still vote for him again.
46. Their most interesting common comment: “I don’t like the tweets.” Many of these men+women regard politics as a huge, both-sides-do-it partisan food fight.
47. President Trump definitely wants to cultivate that feeling, that everything in American politics is a partisan food fight. He wants to smash the norms of democratic discourse to justify his own violations of them.
48. Chaos+incivility allow people to normalize Trump, to convince themselves that he’s just unusually blunt+flamboyant. By maintaining our own discipline+civility, we can refuse to give him that.
49. Chaos does other things, too. First, it distracts attention from Trump’s unpopular policies, misconduct+incompetence. We want the argument about separating mothers from their children. We don't want it to be about what some random guy screamed in somebody's face or whatever.
50.We need to channel grassroots anger+energy in a productive direction.
So I’ll end with some thoughts on that.
So I’ll end with some thoughts on that.
51.Everyone who opposes President Trump must be 100% focused on the midterm. That means voting, registering yourself+others to vote, phone banking up+down the ballot. Fighting for whoever inspires you in the primaries+then actually showing for Democrats every time.
52. Republican activists have beaten us in retail politics. They have wanted it more. They fight among themselves, but they play a long game, vote every time in the boring midterms+down-ballot fights. That’s how they gave themselves a shot to control the Supreme Court.
53. President Trump also wants to cultivate millions’ of Americans’ racial+demographic anxieties. He’s hoping his opposition will be defined by young angry protesters becoming the stage extras for that.
54. He’s betting the FOX news images provide a net win for his own white identity politics. I’m sure he’s hoping for boisterous BLM+#abolishICE demonstrations in Pittsburgh, St. Louis+Milwaukee to mobilize his voters.
55. That's a real problem because white identity politics is potent where it most counts. There’s no perfect response to that. Sometimes, activists play right into that, which hurts everyone. More often, they're stereotyped by partisan media. We can't blame protesters for that.
56. One helpful step is for us respectable middle-aged, middle-class folk to be out there ourselves, protesting in our own way, not leaving it to the angry young people to stand up for social justice. thenation.com/article/thinki… 
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