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There’s no denying that 2024 had a very different vibe than 2016, the last time President Trump (officially) won the White House. Let’s take a quick walk down memory lane, shall we?

This was the scene on the day Trump was inaugurated.

Christian Collins:

FLASHBACK: Six police officers were injured in protests during President Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Left-wing protesters vandalized businesses, set fires, and attempted to disrupt Trump’s oath.

Businesses aren’t boarding up across America right now because they are worried about Trump’s supporters.

It was utter chaos, violence, and mayhem. This was the birth of the left-wing anti-Trump #Resistance—a furious, energized force to be reckoned with and one we’d end up battling for the next four years at every turn. Whether they were screaming in the streets like banshees, burning US flags, storming the Supreme Court, or waging online battles, the #Resist movement was a powerful, fired-up mob, ready to fight every step of the way.

But fast forward to 2024, and that fiery, angry vibe has vanished. At one point during the 2024 election, people were actually asking, ‘Hey, where’s Antifa?’ They were nowhere to be found, leaving everyone wondering—what the heck happened? Did their moms finally turn off the basement lights and lock the door? Truthfully, leading up to Election Day 2024, it was clear the fire had burned out for many Dems. Perhaps that’s what happens when you’re stuck with a babbling, uninspiring candidate and a crumbling economy, among other unfortunate issues that have been piling up like dirty laundry.

In 2016, after Trump won, all you could hear was screaming, yelling, and bricks smashing through windows. Now, after President Trump’s (third) historic win, you can hear a pin drop. So, what changed? For one, Trump’s landslide victory left Dems with no way to spin him as “illegitimate”—there was no “popular vote” argument this time. But it goes beyond that. What we’re seeing now is a “resistance is futile” scenario. This time, instead of being shell-shocked and angry, Dems are deflated and depressed. Deep down, they saw the Trump win coming, because even though the media tried to sell them on Kamala as the greatest thing since sliced bread, they knew she wasn’t.

Puck:

As we learned plainly last Tuesday, much of the country has no interest in the political and cultural attitudes of snooty, affluent blue America. Democrats lost in good measure because of the party’s connection to those attitudes. “Look, if you decide to do identity politics, it gives the other side permission to do identity politics,” said Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan and cutthroat Democratic strategist, who called me up from Tokyo today. “And guess what? Our identity politics do not add up to a majority. Their identities are a majority, not ours. Identity politics, on its face, is strategically bankrupt. It’s nuts!”

I’ve learned one thing, though, just from existing in one of America’s progressive capitals the last few days: Democrats are not even close to reacting, or revolting, or resisting like they did in the aftermath of 2016. Back then, Trump’s first election was a fluke, a once-in-a-lifetime warping of the space-time continuum, with blame resting at the feet of Mark Zuckerberg, or Vladimir Putin, or James Comey. The legendary Women’s March on Washington, marked by its iconic pink pussy hats, was being organized on Facebook the day after Trump won. Getting involved was cool.

This time around? The organizer of the march, Teresa Shook, told The Washington Post she’s taking a pass. “It’s not the same feeling,” Shook told the paper. “Usually I get angry and mad and I have to do something about it. But right now I’m feeling like I want to curl up in the fetal position. It feels way more devastating today. Way more hopeless.”

This time around, #Resist has been replaced with #Rest. The Dems are tired, defeated, and ready to curl up and sleep for the next four years—and that’s perfectly fine by us. The Puck piece goes on:

It’s not just exhausted voters. I’m getting the same vibe from the professionals inside the Democratic Party, some of whom worked on the Harris campaign, some who worked on others. The comment I got Monday from one very-very-senior Democrat in Washington was typical: “I’m planning to tune out and watch nothing, and I am a fairly highly engaged demo!”

I considered that I could be overstating things. So I gut-checked my observations about the left on Monday with some anti-Trump media hosts who were #Resistance favorites: Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor at Crooked Media, and Tim Miller at The Bulwark. The Pod Save America guys told me their post-election episodes are outperforming their pre-election episodes, and Miller told me that The Bulwark’s most downloaded podcast ever dropped the day after the election. “We have seen paid subscriber growth far outpace cancels post-election,” Miller told me. On the flip side, there’s MSNBC, which has been awash in liberal tears since Trump’s win and has seen its ratings drop.

Whatever the clicks and downloads look like, no Democrat is under the illusion that their voters are just going to take a quick breather, sign up for new volunteer shifts, and get back in the fight. Levar Stoney, the Democratic mayor of Richmond, who is running to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, told me something similar about the people he spoke to over the weekend at his barbershop, Dave’s. “When Hillary lost in 2016, I felt anger in the streets. People were ready to be the resistance. Now I just hear a lot of disbelief and mourning. I hear people wanting to look inward, to get our shit together.”

Maybe the sentiment will pass after the holidays, after a mental health break. Or maybe a new version of the #Resistance will rear its head next year, after Trump takes office and events arise. But for now, the fatigue I’m hearing from Democrats plays right into Trump’s hands. When better to run up the score than when the other side isn’t playing defense?

Honestly, we’ve never seen the Dems this down in the dumps. The best they can do these days is shave their heads and ban sex.

Yikes.

At this stage of the game, TDS now stands for “Trump Depression Syndrome.”

The left is so deflated, you have to wonder if they’ll ever find their evil groove again. At some point, the media will have to step in, give these poor blobs a swift kick in the britches, and remind them to get off the couch and get back to what they do best—wreaking havoc on the country.

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