Donald Trump’s approval rating is falling sharply. The media figures that played such a key role in getting him elected are trying their best to distance themselves from the administration. Average voters are growing increasingly frustrated with their Republican representatives at town halls. Less than six months ago, Trump was the first Republican president to win the popular vote in 20 years. What happened?
The truth is, most Americans are oblivious to the impact of the policies they vote for until they either feel the impact of them directly, or are guided on how to feel about them by the media. Trump’s tariffs are already causing this to happen on the issue of the economy, with public concern growing as the stock market continues on a downward trend. But on immigration, the average American does not feel the impact of the administration’s policies as directly. And up until now, the Trump administration and the Republican Party have had free rein to control the narrative on the media front.
They have crafted the image of violent, savage immigrants who are “invading” the country to justify their brutal policies. And the Democratic Party has fed right into this narrative; on the campaign trail, Kamala Harris was promising to increase border security in response to an issue that by all accounts does not exist.
But as the administration’s atrocities become more and more egregious, such as the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, they have become harder to ignore. Democrats are finally starting to make a fuss, and the people are noticing. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland recently went to El Salvador himself to meet with Abrego Garcia and made a public statement demanding that the U.S. government do more to bring him back.
Of course, conservatives are making every effort to spin this meeting towards their own agenda, but the truth is clear. More Democrats need to do what Sen. Van Hollen is doing. Too many of them are satisfied with throwing up their hands in defeat and saying there is nothing they can do, but that is not true. It is their responsibility to cause uproar about what the Trump administration is doing— they must spend every minute pointing to and talking about every court order violation, every abuse of power, and every unconstitutional act.
Ideally, American voters would stay informed on the policies that affect this country. But that is not the world we live in. The vast majority of people get their information from the media. It is part of Democrats’ duty as politicians to make noise, to draw attention to the Trump administration’s fascist agenda.
Even the small amount of Democratic pushback and media coverage that has already started to happen is starting to turn the tide. The people at Republican Chuck Grassley’s town hall asking if the senator is making any effort to bring Abrego Garcia back are not typical “liberal lunatics,” they’re average people from Iowa. The Democrats need more people like that to start caring about what is happening if they want to have any chance of stopping it.
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
