NYT (“Anti-Trump Burnout: The Resistance Says It’s Exhausted“):
In 2017 they donned pink hats to march on Washington, registering their fury with Donald J. Trump by the hundreds of thousands.
Then they flipped the House from Republican control, won the presidency and secured a surprisingly strong showing in the 2022 midterm elections, galvanized by their conviction that Mr. Trump and his allies constituted a national emergency.
This year, anti-Trump voters are grappling with another powerful sentiment: exhaustion.
“Some folks are burned out on outrage,” said Rebecca Lee Funk, the Washington-based founder of the Outrage, a progressive activism group and a purveyor of resistance-era apparel. “People are tired. I think last election we were desperate to get Trump out of office, and folks were willing to rally around that singular call to action. And this election feels different.”
But for Democrats, the mission is similar: Now defending the White House, President Biden is trying to reassemble that sprawling anti-Trump coalition, casting the 2024 contest as another battle to save American democracy as Mr. Trump moves toward the Republican nomination.
Mr. Biden, however, has a lot of work to do. Interviews with nearly two dozen Democratic voters, activists and officials make clear his challenge in energizing Americans who are unenthusiastic about a likely 2020 rematch, are worried about his age, and, in some cases, are struggling to sustain the searing anger toward Mr. Trump that Democrats have relied on for nearly a decade.
“We’re kind of, like, crises-ed out,” said Shannon Caseber, 36, a security guard in Pittsburgh who called the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch a “dumpster fire.” She added, “It’s crisis fatigue, for sure.”
Ms. Caseber, a Democrat who would back Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump, added, “Any sense of urgency that we had with the 2020 election — I think it’s still there in the sense that no one wants Trump to be president, at least for Democrats, but it’s exhausting.”
Democrats are hardly alone in their political fatigue: A Pew Research Center survey last year found that 65 percent of Americans said they always or often felt exhausted when they thought about politics.
“Exhaustion is underlying the entire attitude toward our presidential election,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster. “When you’ve got two people that are opposed by 70 percent of Americans who want a different choice, it creates frustration, anxiety and discouragement.”
CNN (“High-profile Republicans head for the exits amid House GOP dysfunction“):
House Republicans were shocked by some of the recent high-profile retirements announced by their colleagues, which have included powerful committee chairs and rising stars inside the GOP.
But given the miserable state of affairs inside the House right now, they also weren’t exactly surprised.
Attention CNN: Hire some competent copyeditors, please.
“They’ve signed up to do serious things. And we’re not doing serious things,” said Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, a conservative who is retiring after bucking his party on several key issues.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a moderate who represents a key swing seat, pointed to his party’s struggle to govern as driving the departures.
“When you’re divided in your own conference, the joy of the job is harder,” Bacon told CNN. “When you have folks on your own team with their knives out, it makes it less enjoyable.”
And Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, an ally of deposed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, said this is not how he or many of his colleagues imagined life in the majority, saying, “I thought that some of our members would be smarter.”
“A lot of us are frustrated with what’s going on, and that’s just being flat-out honest,” he told CNN. “It’s foolish. And it’s been proven to be foolish. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
As the 118th Congress has been dominated by deep dysfunction and bitter divisions inside the GOP, a number of Republicans – particularly from the so-called governing wing – are heading for the exits. So far, 23 GOP lawmakers have decided to not seek reelection or resigned early, including five committee chairs, though some have cited personal reasons or are seeking higher office.
Still, the caliber and timing of some of the retirements has raised alarm bells, particularly those who are giving up coveted committee gavels that some work their whole career to achieve.
Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington is not even term-limited yet in her plum post, while China select committee Chair Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a 39-year-old who was once seen as the future of the party, recently announced he was leaving Congress after facing intense blowback for voting against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
And on the Energy and Commerce Committee alone – a highly sought-after assignment – there are eight Republicans who are retiring.
“Those are big losses for us,” said Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana, who is among the members on the panel hanging up his voting card. “It is alarming. Especially for the institutional knowledge … So, that’s a big deal.”
The wave of retirements is rattling some of the Republicans who are choosing to stick around and fueling concern about a potential brain drain as more senior members decide to leave and take their wealth of institutional knowledge with them.
“You get this panic and anxiety like, ‘OK, who’s going to step up? Is this a normal thing that happens every few years, or is it actually abnormal?’” said Rep. August Pfluger of Texas. “So, yeah, I’m very worried about it.”
Others, however, said the turnover is completely normal, especially since the House GOP has self-imposed term limits for chairs, which they argued allows them to inject new blood into the ranks. Democrats have also seen their fair share in retirements this cycle as they have been relegated to the minority. Plus, the Republicans calling it quits so far are not from competitive districts, meaning their seats are likely safe.
“Look, it hasn’t been pleasant, there’s no question about that,” veteran Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said of the past year. “But we have a lot of great young members, and I’ve looked at a lot of the recruits coming in, and I’m not too worried.”
And Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, whose rabble-rousing behavior is being partly blamed for the turbulence in the House, even seemed to relish in the departures of some of his colleagues.
“Brain drain? Why don’t you survey the country and see if there is any brain to drain in Congress. Congress has a 20% approval rating. Most of what we do to the country is bad,” Good told CNN. “I think the retirements are a wonderful thing … I have no concerns, zero concerns. We probably need a few more retirements.”
McCarthy – who resigned at the end of last year – suggested that was perhaps the goal of hard-liners like Good and GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida who voted to oust him.
“It’s unfortunate because you think of the brain trust you are losing. I blame a lot of the ‘crazy eights’ led by Gaetz. They want to make this place dysfunctional to try to wear people out,” McCarthy said, speaking to reporters in the Capitol recently. “It’s very sad … It makes it more difficult for getting people to run in the current climate.”
While seemingly unrelated, these reports seem rather obviously an indicator that the crazies—who are a minority in the Republican-leaning population (if not its nominating electorate) and, certainly, the citizenry writ large—are winning. They have seemingly unrelenting energy and willingness to absorb the anger of those frustrated that nothing is getting done. Meanwhile, their opponents are exhausted.
Former President Trump is clearly the unifying factor here. The cult of personality surrounding him has galvanized the nominating electorate to vote out “normal” Republican candidates. Those who wish to have careers in Republican politics, then, are forced to bend the knee. And, since only roughly 5 percent of House seats are even competitive on a partisan basis, switching to the Democratic Party is not a viable option. (Not to mention that even the most moderate Republicans would get trounced in a Democratic primary.)
Meanwhile, Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans (who are, for reasons already noted, effectively Democrats or non-voters), are exhausted. It takes a lot of energy to continue to fight the crazies. And, even when we win, the result is merely the ability to stop truly insane policies from passing. With rare exceptions able to be passed through Reconciliation, our governing structures allow the crazies to stop the passage of any Democratic policy initiatives. It’s basically a pie-eating contest in which the prize is more pie.
This all reminds me of the American experience supporting counterinsurgency and counterterrorism fights. We can have tactical success after tactical success after tactical sense and still lose the “war” because we eventually get exhausted of the fight.
