I met Greg, who is about my age, as we both had an early dinner in Center City, and while our conversation was calm and friendly, as a progressive Democrat, he is very literally scared and even angry about President Donald Trump in ways that seem to me wildly over the top.
“If I had to pull a gun on a Republican, that’s what I’d have to do,” Greg told me. “This is the greatest crossroads in our country since the Civil War.”
It didn’t feel particularly threatening. Even though he knew I am a Republican who voted for Trump, I figured he didn’t mean me.
But he sure as hell meant something.
Later in the day, in a drowsy West Philly of big houses which is so far to the left it makes Center City seem like Texas, I talked to three students. I was curious if they had experienced strained relations with friends or family over politics.
“Yes,” one young woman told me, “but not often, I think I’m a good judge of character.” The clear message was that anyone who would vote for Trump is not somebody she or her friends want anything to do with.
Our conversation was cut short after they told me Trump’s DEI cuts were a big issue for them, to which I asked, what do you mean by DEI? At that, they moved to another table. Once again, it wasn’t unpleasant, but it was pointed.
Down the block, at a charming local bookstore, John, the owner, was kind enough to find me a book by Mary Beard I hadn’t read, and to talk a little politics.
“It’s a lot of change all at once,” he told me ominously, echoing something I hear from a lot of voters.
One thing that almost all the Democrats I have spoken to in the City of Brotherly Love seem to believe is that there are large swaths of Trump voters out there in the hinterland who must certainly regret having voted for Trump.
We saw this attitude on “Real Time with Bill Maher” over the weekend, when guest Batya Ungar-Sargon shocked him by saying not only does she not regret her vote for Trump, but that she is proud of it.
I faced similar incredulity from Greg: This assumption, based on slim to no specifics, that Trump’s actions this time around have been so drastic, that surely we must understand what a profound mistake we made voting for him, even if we can’t say so in order to save face.
FLASHBACK: PHILADELPHIA IS KAMALA HARRIS’ ALAMO, AND THE NERVOUS DEMOCRATS HERE KNOW IT
Or so they believe.
Much of this comes down to bubbles, and no, it isn’t just progressives who live in them. In my little West Virginia town, it’s perfectly normal to see MAGA hats in the Walmart, and few people seem to think Trump’s presidency is a crisis. So, to what, exactly, are people in Philly and other blue enclaves reacting so dramatically?
One thing I sensed from everyone I spoke to was that this iteration of a Trump presidency seems entirely unrestrained to them. This time, there are no Republicans like John McCain to show Trump a thumbs down, no cabinet members urging restraint. This is Trump unleashed.
It isn’t even about results, because in two months the results of Trump’s policies are not in yet. It is about the actions themselves.
The firing of federal workers, the tariffs on our allies, a friendlier approach to Putin, deportations of illegal immigrants, even something as mundane as renaming a certain body of water “The Gulf of America,” feel like personal attacks to many Democrats. And there is nothing they can do to stop it.
At least in the short term, there does not seem to be anything that can extinguish all the hair on fire on the progressive left.
But, amid the overwhelming and unhinged reaction to Trump among Philly’s Democrats, I did meet one Republican, a tourist, who offered a bit of a warning sign for the Trump administration.
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“I’m proud to be a Republican, and to have voted for Trump,” he told me over a late-night cigarette outside our hotel, “but these tariffs have me nervous.” I pressed him on why and he said, “I’m a salesman. If everything we sell from Mexico shoots up in price, we don’t know what to do.”
“Well,” I queried, “how long do you think it would take for that manufacturing to move to the U.S.?”
“Two, three years,” he said. “But I’m not dealing in two or three years, I’m dealing in two or three months.”
One thing everyone agrees on is that Trump is moving fast. For some, that causes horror. For others, it is thrilling. But Democrats are much mistaken if they think Trump voters are expressing regret, even the ones who are a bit nervous.
Donald Trump is, after all, doing exactly what he promised to.
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