It’s easy to forget that Democrats have been here before. Eight years ago, when Trump first took power, the party was shell-shocked, unsure both about its own message—it was still torn between Bernie Sanders’s populism and Hillary Clinton’s triangulation—and the best way to defeat Trump. As is true today, party leaders had no legislative or judicial power. Unsure of what to do, they largely sat back and let the country recoil from the day-to-day chaos of Trump’s first term.
They were aided by two factors that don’t exist now, however. The first was the mass mobilization that began even before Trump took power, and only spread as he issued orders such as the so-called Muslim travel ban. The death of that #Resistance has been overstated—which is ironic, given that Trump’s horrific second term thus far is what people thought his first would be—but it’s undoubtedly less powerful today than it was at any point during Trump’s first term. The second factor was the cloud that was already hanging over Trump when he entered the White House: Russia had clearly interfered in the 2016 election with Trump’s encouragement. By the time special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in mid-May 2017, Democrats had a plausible endgame that required no political capital. The special counsel’s investigation would find wrongdoing that would ultimately bring about the end of Trump’s presidency.
Alas. The report Mueller ultimately delivered two years later was a subtle recommendation for impeachment that was damning but ultimately never produced a silver bullet. It was clear that Trump and his cronies had cheered on Russian meddling, but there was no evidence of a quid pro quo or, for that matter, an elaborate conspiracy. It didn’t matter, though. By the time that report was released, the Democrats had retaken the House of Representatives, were actively investigating the Trump administration on several fronts, and were gearing up for a presidential primary. The Mueller investigation sated the base for the first two years of the Trump presidency because it offered what Democrats couldn’t: a clear end to this mess.
