“Maybe that’s a better word than fatigue.” “People are getting fatalistic,” said Michael Podhorzer, a political strategist at the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The problem, rather, is a sort of numb despair. I know of no one who cares about politics who feels relaxed now. People set out to make Obama president, and they did, so they felt they could relax. Barack Obama’s impassioned movement quickly evanesced once he was in the White House.īut our polity is not healthy, and the mood today is, obviously, nothing like it was in 2009.

And there’s nothing new about Democrats demobilizing after they win elections. In a healthy polity, people shouldn’t have to think about politics all the time part of what made Trump’s presidency so nightmarish was his sick genius for monopolizing attention. To some degree, this is both inevitable and salutary. It’s family, it’s work.” They have, she said, “backburnered politics” for now.

“Many people are just worrying about other things. But after four years of Donald Trump and a year and a half of a pandemic, a lot of politically committed Americans are burned out.īut “in the outer ranks of people who became politically engaged, that’s where I see the biggest shift,” said Putnam. Maybe some people are reluctant to protest because of Delta. But it turns out the Supreme Court can functionally suspend Roe without making too many waves. Wade, which I suspect it will next year, it would spark a furious backlash. I’ve always assumed that if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. There’s no way they’re going to be the same.” “But are the numbers of people showing up going to be the same?” she said. Lara Putnam, a historian at the University of Pittsburgh, told me she was impressed by how many events are being planned in Pennsylvania - more than for the original Women’s March. That’s about 10 percent of the people who showed up there for the third Women’s March in 2019. Organizers have applied for a permit for 10,000 people in Washington. I’ll be happily surprised, however, if any of the events are very large.

Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, part of the coalition organizing the protests, told me there are 650 marches planned nationwide. This Saturday, there will be demonstrations across the country to protest Texas’ crowdsourced abortion ban and the Supreme Court’s refusal to enjoin it.

Relax now ver 1.2