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Bracing ourselves for life after Trump's second inauguration [1]

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Date: 2025-01-17

Three days until Donald Trump’s inauguration. It’s not just that he does bad things. It’s also that he’s bad at being president. He’ll start betraying his promise, and his oath of office, the minute he’s sworn in.

Trump has promised to do a lot of terrible things on Day One:

Mass deportations

Roll back federal regulations

Defund schools with vaccine mandates

End birthright citizenship

Restore the Muslim ban

Gut climate policies from the Inflation Reduction Act

Pardon the January 6 rioters

The list goes on. And on. And on. Seriously, read it.

We don’t know which terrible things he’ll actually attempt, and which ones he’ll pretend he never mentioned. But we know that, with the presidency, House, Senate, and Supreme Court in their control, they’ll try to do as much damage as they can as fast as they can.

And this we know for sure: Trump will lard up his administration with sycophantic would-be oligarchs willing to do his bidding, and try to rig the country to benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working people everywhere.

Trump’s blitz will seek to make regular Americans believe they have no power. That’s what Trump and the Republicans want.

Democrats need to fight to show who WE are—the party that looks out for the many, no matter what they look like or where they live. That believes everyone, not just Mar-a-Lago members, deserves freedom, opportunity, dignity, and respect.

We’ve done this before. In 2017, Trump made killing the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid a Day One priority. He had a game plan. He had the votes. But millions of people mobilized and fought back. Trump lost. We won.

Trump’s attempt to shred health protections became the top issue in the 2018 midterms, and he lost the House. Because Democrats fought and organized, alongside people with disabilities, unions, and the grassroots, we made sure voters knew who was looking out for them.

These are the kinds of fights Democrats will fight for the next four years. When we effectively communicate to the American people what we stand for—things people want, like health care, fair wages, and reproductive freedom—we reshape our politics.

Great moments of progress often follow our darkest hours. The Great Depression led to the New Deal. The Civil Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Great Society followed a moment of shattering tragedy. The Affordable Care Act was made possible by the economic collapse of 2007-8 and the Democratic wave that followed.

It’s cold comfort to say that things get better after they get worse. But it’s important not to fall prey to hopelessness as we contemplate all that Trump hopes to inflict.

For all who share our values, the key is to keep fighting for what we believe. There will be policy fights. And there will be elections. In fact, a crucial one—the first big election after Trump’s inauguration—is 74 days away.

On April 1, Wisconsin will vote to fill a vacant seat in the state Supreme Court. Whoever wins that seat will be the tie-breaking vote in future Court decisions.

For the WI Supreme Court race, the state GOP supports extremist Brad Schimel, whose abysmal record as state AG speaks for itself. Should he win, Schimel would be a rubber stamp for the whims of Trump and his followers.

Meanwhile, WisDems endorses Judge Susan Crawford, whose long record of public service demonstrates fairness, common sense, and respect for the rule of law.

With your help, WisDems will mobilize Wisconsin around the simple truth that a vote for Judge Crawford on April 1 is a vote for freedom, decency, and democracy.

At WisDems, we know how to organize everywhere, all year round, to win races big and small—from reelecting Senator Baldwin to flipping 14 State Legislative seats blue in 2024. We’re ready to do it again.

Winning on April 1 will send a message: we’re still in this fight. It’s a message we need to tell ourselves. We are, once again, the ones we’ve been waiting for. Let’s roll up our sleeves and do this.

If you want to keep the pressure on Trump and ensure our elected officials are looking out for all Wisconsinites, you have the power to fuel our efforts by donating to WisDems now.

Won’t you chip in now?

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