Perhaps "the beginning of the end of the Trump era," if Democrats can seize the moment, according to Shadi Hamid.

"For a moment, it seemed like anything was possible. With Donald Trump’s popular-vote victory in November, the old order had been dealt a devastating blow. Democrats were mostly despondent. The resistance had petered out. Where to go from here? No one really knew.

- - - - - - - - - -

Trump was riding a wave of exhaustion with Democrats’ cultural overreach. After he won the presidency for the second time, centrist and even left-leaning friends would suggest on encrypted group chats that some good might come out of this after all. I’d meet people at parties, reading groups and “salons” who would whisper — or, when intoxicated, shout — that they could finally say what they really thought on issues such as gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives without fear of being ostracized.

- - - - - - - - - -

Some wear and tear is beginning to show up in surveys, with Trump’s approval ratings on a downward trend. For the first time in NBC News’s national polling, a majority disapproves of Trump’s handling of the economy, a striking reversal for a president who has traditionally received high marks on economic issues. The stock market has plummeted, inflation has ticked up, and Republicans increasingly face angry constituents at town hall events. Institutional opposition has grown as well, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a conservative, issuing a rare public rebuke after Trump called for a federal judge’s impeachment.

- - - - - - - - - -

Trump is squandering what might have been a once-in-a-generation realignment. Already, the moment has begun fragmenting into something else, something not yet defined but unmistakably different. This is the paradox of our political moment: Permanence announces itself only to dissolve almost immediately."

This is a gift article from The Washington Post. Yes, that Washington Post. - https://wapo.st/4iQC0M6