Well, maybe it’s not really on yet in the physical sense. It is certainly on intellectually. And neither task is going to be easy.

When the President says that it is time for the Russia-Ukraine War to end, and that he will end it by working out a “deal” with one of the two warring parties, but not the party that was wronged, you know we have a problem.

When the Secretary of Defense says that these negotiations will wind up with Ukraine having a smaller land area, and that Ukraine will never be able to join NATO, and the negotiations have not even begun, you know we have a problem.

When the much too young Vice President lectures the security professionals of our NATO allies that their problems don’t come from Russia or China, but rather from left wingers and immigrants in their countries, you know we have a problem.

When co-President Elon the Musk sits down with a far right, Nazi inspired party leader in Germany (and then gives a Nazi salute back home), and the much too young Vice President follows suit, while ignoring Germany’s current governmental leader, you know we have a problem.

When the President tells you that Vladimir Putin, the man who invaded Ukraine, clamps down on news sources in his country, and kills or imprisons his political prisoners, you know we have a problem.

When thousands and thousands of federal jobs within the United States are cut without any sort of process and without any thought to whether or not the individual people or the jobs themselves are important to the country’s well being, you know we have a problem.

When the President sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and let’s his co-President without official authority control a press conference along with his 4 year old son, you know we have a problem.

When the co-President fires hundreds of employees at the Department of Energy and then realizes that he has fired the people that protect and safeguard our nuclear arsenal so that he has to try to reverse the firing, you know we have a problem.

When the President is determined to cut out entire federal departments, such as the Department of Education and USAID, without any sense that some or most of their programs might actually be helpful, and without any regard to the individuals being fired in the process or their families, you know we have a problem.

When the President decides that only he can run the Kennedy Center to ensure that programs do not violate his ideas of culture, you know we have a problem.

I could go on and on, and yes, we all know we have a problem. Or do we?

I say that because the polling being done still shows that half the country (the polls vary, but settle at about 50-50) believes in Donald Trump. Do I think that the polls will remain that way? Not at all. And the reason I don’t is that when pollsters ask particular questions on particular issues, the approval of the Trump policies tend to lose by a fair amount. But there is that messianic belief that these temporary losses and problems are just the first step in something much bigger, and that boom times are coming our way.

And, what is even more disheartening is that the polls still show that the Democrats are viewed as much more problematic than the people Trump has put into place.

Trump supporters at this time seem to be of several types. There are the very wealthy, who want to become wealthier and view Trump as a vehicle for themselves and their families. There are the Evangelicals who believe that God has a plan for the salvation of their own souls and of America, that Trump is the chosen person to implement that plan, and that a Time of Troubles is something that God is creating to lead to the fulfillment of what would be their version of a Second Coming. As I have long said, if you can believe in the Virgin Birth and if you can believe that Jesus walked on water, you can believe anything. Then there are Trump supporters who are convinced that immigration will be the downfall of America (and this is the one area that the Biden administration just blew) and believe that if you can stop people from coming into the country and kick out those who either came in illegally or who came in under presumed false claims for asylum, you will save America. And there are the pro-Israel Trump supporters, who believe (as to most of the Evangelicals) that Trump will support any anti-Palestinian moves the Israeli government may want to take, obviously including clearing out Gaza (and building the Trump Gold Coast) and moving all or most Arabs out of the West Bank, creating a larger Israel form the river to the sea.

You add all these folks together and you have a formidable number of people who need to have their minds changed. Or maybe their minds won’t be changed, and you need to concentrate on those who supported Trump as the presumed better of two alternatives, or those who don’t support Trump, but also don’t go out to vote. Whichever of these tasks is most important, you need a group of Democratic Party leaders up for the job. And they are at this point hiding under the bed.

There is such disdain for the current Democratic leadership (I don’t understand why, but it is fact), that they cannot right the ship. New folks are needed. Members of Congress, governors, members of state legislatures, mayors, common folk. The Democrats have to regroup and totally change their image. Not in 2026, but right now in February 2025.

This is a total rebuild. When the Democrats rebuild, the country will start to rebuild. But who will win the rebuild race? the U.S., or Gaza?