S
@billyjoebowers from what I've seen online it's a mix of:
* Gone quiet.
* Trying to cover for Trump.
* Actually stunned and starting to wake up.
* Trying to change the subject.
* With a few very very creepy people trying to argue about age (Megan Kelly).
So there's my thoughts, yes there's a lot we're missing in poiitics.
I suspect Epstein anger is only going to grow and add to this. Investigations are happening around the world but not HERE. The story is not going away. People here are going to wonder why Poland an other countries are active on this and we aren't.
#politics #uspol #epstein #epsteinclass
13/13
Democrats have faired better but the anger towards leadership is intense, and there are primaries coming. To paraphrase a few conversation, the future of the Democratic party is either letting in more progressive/activist forces, or risk the party being taken over, the past labels and structures being worn atop something new and vital.
And thats what I think we missed - the structures that were in place and grew, and the sheer depth of these shifts in politics and psychology. And no, I don't think I caught it all, just a theory.
It's an immune reaction and changes are permanent. How those changes go is the question.
12/
So this is where we are. A potential resistance built on structures we haven't appreciated, delayed but not stopped by elite failure and a complicit media, and fueled by a sea change in attitudes and anger that isn't going away.
How many tens of millions of people feel they rightfully in a struggle for their very lives? They won't give up. They also aren't going to feel very forgiving or want to go back to a normal that betrayed them.
The GOP is trying to cope with what they've wrought, and the best they can do is a mix of hiding, lying, and hoping to steal the election (ensuring of course even more anger towards them).
11/
However this anger is only going to get worse. We've seen people react to the Good and Pretti shootings, but we know the conditions in detention camps. We've heard what it's like for the children. That's what we KNOW.
What we don't know is FAR worse, especially with a Ghoul like Miller and his message board madness having Trump's ear.
When those stories break out, and they will? Look out.
10/
We see this not readiness in cases from the GOP stunned at their loss of votes to milquetoast comms from some Democrats. People are activated, are not going back, have changed their worldviews, and are different from whom they were a year ago.
The Republicans are having their own wrestling match, and I don't see a unified post-Trump GOP. We may never see a unified GOP. The Democrats can welcome an increasingly activist population or have it try to take over.
And consider how people regard various public figures, churches, orgs, etc. differently now.
9/
So my thesis on what was missed in politics was:
* The underlying network of groups, history, and ideas that allowed for the current resistance. We just didn't see it because it didn't activate as fast as it could, our news sucks, and people weren't looking.
* That these changes are extremely deep, driven by confirmation of worst fears and feelings of betrayal and they aren't going to fade but will deepen and lead to action.
And like an immune reaction, this makes permanent changes to the system. The "antibodies" have learned. I also think people aren't ready for how much this country could change when a significant amount of people assume The System is against them and is happy to kill them.
8/
The conspiracy theories of the past decade act as a scaffolding and an amplifier. MAGA has to cope with the fact their conspiracy theories were more applicable to their own "side" - which makes it easier to get disillusioned, etc. For people targeted by the conspiracy theories, being able to say "no, you" is satisfying and enraging but also clarifying.
From the violence to the oligarchs, people are horrified. Legitimately. Viscerally. From their neighbors vanishing to their jobs being cut they can SEE who's doing it to them. This rage isn't going to go away in a midterm, and anyone acting like it is in for a surprise.
7/
Then there's the Epstein files.
Epstein files play into several narratives - and not just the Qanon BS. This is about rich, powerful people who treat us as toys. It plays into the narrative that Trump is just for billionaires and oligarchs.
This is what Cory Doctrow calls "The Epstein Class" a term we should ALL use.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/09/sloppy-steve/
How bad is it? "A known pedophile billionaire is sending masked troops to kidnap immigrant children in an American City" is a thing you can say legitimately.
6/
Trump's pre-ICE surge activites had a lot of pushback but also a lot of elite failure. Minnesota brought to stark contrast the simple truth - people realize Trump, the GOP, and the Project 2025 goons will kill them if they feel like it. It crystalized everything.
People didn't cower in fear, they acted Because fear in this case won't save you if some drunk guy with a badge decides to unload his gun into you. There is no out for anyone. Resistance or nothing.
Trump is constantly terrible, each shitty thing amplifying the other. Abandon the working class, cut science, etc. Trump has pretty much assaulted our system and the Republican party (and the media and even some Dems) seem fine with it. We've been told nothing matters, shut up and take it.
But nothing will protect you from Trump and his message board incels. So resistance is the only choice again.
5/
Reactions to ICE in various cities built momentum, culminating in the Minnesota invasion. People realized more and more that they had to do it and many institutions had abandoned them. Other forms of resistance combined.
So part of my theory to this "Immune Reaction" to Trump and company is that the systems were there, they just weren't seen and took time to activate to the level that it forced recognition.
What surprises us about the realignment is we're appreciating networks and orgs and culture that weren't showy or visible. Part 2 of what is missed is how DEEP this realignment is.
4/
It took awhile for Reistance to get active as a lot of people had to realize *we're on our own* in many cases. It also took awhile for it to be visible as it was distributed, at times behind the scenes, and local.
However once Resistance got going it's now self-sustaining. The foundations were there, often missed (or derided), and what we have now is momentum. Networked people, many new, building onto existing practices, making new ones, spreading rapidly. As a Project Manager I KNOW how fast this can work.
It's just that the elite failures were so stunning that you had to deal media kid-gloving Trump, politicians wimping out, etc.
3/
First, the growing pushback to Trump and the GOP everywhere isn't out of nowhere, but is foundational work sometimes a decade or more old paying off. Like the Floyd protests prepared Minnesota, what we're seeing are formal and informal networks paying off, from local communities to groups like Indivisible.
We didn't see the pushback infrastructure as much due to speed of activation, distribution, and our crappy news.. People have been preparing since Trump 1 and before that. But it didn't activate as quickly because of Elite dysfunction
You had assorted activists, networks, causes, groups, etc. out there. But so many elites, from Techbros to R's in congress to some of the Democratic party just failed to meet the moment. They rolled over for a senile old man who barely won an election, and then only with massive help.
2/
Thanks to (@wdlindsy)
As previous I had note this blog post got me thinking about what we're missing in the current political alignment:
https://emptywheel.net/if-magat-political-culture-collapsed-in-the-woods-and-no-traditional-media-were-there-to-see-it/
I had said I had some vague idea of an "immune reaction" in politics to explain some of our realignments and changes. I think I have found what trends I'm reacting to - and maybe some of what we're missing.
My take is the realignment we see is distributed, widespread, deep, and permanent. We're not seeing something that goes away in an election or two. It's just something that has elements we're not used to seeing or didn't see. There are two parts.
1/
@cstross taking from @pluralistic - it's the Enshitularity.