Gretchen Whitmer, Cory Booker And The Canny Political Strategy Of Total Surrender

Let's go over the basic rules of resisting Trump.

Fans of the movie Fight Club will recall that the titular organization’s first rule was “You do not talk about Fight Club.” Its second rule was also “You do not talk about Fight Club.” Yes, it’s so important, they said it twice (like “New York, New York”). I’d argue there’s an equally important rule for fighting Donald Trump: “Do not let yourself be photographed or filmed standing near Trump, especially on his turf or under his terms.” (That’s admittedly not as catchy as the Fight Club rule, which is why I never made it as a screenwriter.)

Tuesday night, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was captured on film standing near Trump … again. She greeted him on the tarmac when he arrived in Michigan. She offered a polite handshake, but the adjudicated rapist pulled her in for a hug, which she returned with a tentative pat on the back.

Later, when Trump spoke to U.S. soldiers in a nearby aircraft hanger, he invited Whitmer to speak because he loves humiliating her. She avoided praising Trump — a paltry victory — but she did successfully shake his hand.

Gretchen Whitmer Didn't Need To Hand It To Donald Trump

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So, that first rule of resisting Trump

The first two rules of Fight Club are, of course, intended to be broken. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) wants to build a cult with followers willing to break society’s rules. Although, it’s revealing that the one character we do see affirmatively break the first two rules is the weak-willed Bob (Meat Loaf). (Watch below.)

However, Democrats really shouldn’t go around breaking the first and second rules of resisting Trump. There’s no upside. You just get beaten senseless.

Whitmer’s defenders will point out that the governor was lobbying the Trump administration to expand Selfridge Air National Guard Base, located north of Detroit, which was at risk of being shuttered by the Department of Defense, which is currently run by a drunk. That’s why she was at the White House a few weeks ago for her previous public pantsing. This deal will secure 30,000 civilian jobs and add $850 million to the state’s economy. Of course, it’s reasonable to ask how corrupt and lawless an administration can become before you’ll no longer justify working with them, no matter the immediate personal gain. Trump also benefits from these deals and the opportunity to appear presidential. The fate of democracy might actually hinge on Democrats not allowing Trump’s any wins, even the ones where they get a cut.

Lisa Murkowski reveals the ugly nature of Trump's rule

I’ve written over at

Public Notice

how Trump doesn’t govern through persuasion but rather violent coercion. He’s willing to punish Americans who don’t show him sufficient fealty. This is why Whitmer paid Trump protection money with her soul. I understand her motivations. I just think it’s a bad idea to give in to mob tactics. If Trump withholds funding from a swing state because the governor won’t let him take her pride for a ride, then Whitmer should appear on every news program from now until 2028 making it clear that Trump’s a common gangster.

Republican governors actively undermined Barack Obama’s agenda. They even rejected federal funding for high-speed rail or to expand health care access. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was photographed wagging her finger at President Barack Obama on an airport tarmac outside of Phoenix. Of course, she felt free to have a heated debate with Obama about immigration policy because she knew he wasn’t a petty thug. Joe Biden flipped Arizona and Georgia and their Republican governors never had to debase themselves for federal assistance. Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema told Biden he shouldn’t come to Arizona to promote the passage of the American Rescue Plan in 2021, and she was a Democrat the time!

Why Some Democrats Might Believe They Have To Work With Trump

Whitmer’s defenders keep playing up the material benefits of her deal, but Democrats shouldn’t just passively accept Trump’s Godfather conditions for assistance. Otherwise, uninformed voters will simply hail him as President Art of the Deal, and Trump will never stop asking for more. At this rate, Whitmer might end up appearing at his Michigan rallies during midterms or the 2028 election. It’s not as if Michigan will stop needing federal funding.

With Trump, there’s no twist where all he eventually demands in return for a “favor” is that you make his son’s bullet-riddled corpse presentable for an open casket funeral. He’s going to take your dignity and then come back for whatever you might have left. (Watch below.)

The third rule of resisting Trump …

Donald Trump is very unpopular. His approval has dropped to 43 percent in Georgia, a state he carried just six months ago. However, Democrats aren’t behaving as if America’s turned on Trump.

Tuesday, 16 Senate Democrats voted to confirm David Perdue as Trump’s ambassador to China: Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, John Fetterman, Ruben Gallego, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Amy Klobuchar, Gary Peters, Jack Reed, Jacky Rosen, Jeanne Shaheen, Elissa Slotkin, Mark Warner, and Cory Booker.

This brings us to the third rule of fighting Trump: You do not vote for his nominees, ever, under any circumstances, even if they were once part of your secret special Senate club. (The wording’s admittedly cumbersome. I’ll work on that.)

Slotkin, Fetterman, and even Gallego aren’t surprising inclusions in this band of blunders, but Booker is disappointing. He’d impressed me during his record-setting speech on the Senate floor.

“I have been imperfect,” Booker said. “I confess that I’ve been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say, ‘We will do better.’”

That apparently was just the hunger and urgent need to urinate talking.

Cory Booker’s Testimony

Andy Craig, fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, offered a plausible explanation for this shameful vote. Democrats still, in the year of our Megan Hilty 2025, want to bolster their “bipartisan” credentials and not look like extremist liberals. After all, that’s why John Kerry lost the 2004 election. He was painted as “the most liberal senator.”

The Democratic Party’s donor and consultant class might believe Kerry lost to the guy who was president on 9/11 and lied us into a war because people thought he was too liberal, but in the real world, voters considered Kerry a shallow flip-flopper who infamously said, “I voted for it before I voted against it.” According to a 2004 Time magazine poll, only 7 percent of Americans believed Kerry was someone of strong faith. They most likely meant “religious faith,” but that could also apply to his overall convictions. So, if Democrats today don’t want to follow in Kerry’s windsurfing wake, they should show Americans that they actually believe in something beyond the next election.

Democrats uniformly voting against David Perdue is actually more critical to preserving democracy than “sit ins” on the Capitol steps. Perdue helped promote Trump’s 2020 lies that endangered Georgia election workers. He said he wouldn’t have signed off on the 2020 election results if he were governor. He’s now rewarded with an ambassadorship, while the few Republicans who resisted Trump stay home.

Democrats seem to think that Georgia Republicans like Brad Raffensperger and Gabriel Sterling resisted Trump simply out of the goodness of their hearts. They might have believed in democracy, but they also might’ve assumed there’d be, you know, negative consequences to enabling a coup. Perdue will receive taxpayer funded lodging in Beijing.

Now Republicans know that if they help any GOP candidate try to steal an election, there’s no downside. Even if they fail, Democrats will “turn the other page,” prosecute some random knuckleheads, but refrain from pursuing anyone too high profile (like a senator). And if the coup plotters prevail, they’ll reward their accomplices with ambassadorships. Attorney General Merrick Garland didn’t protect the rule of law with his obsession with norms and perceived impartiality. He only emboldened future coups.

Anyway, that’s the speech Cory Booker should’ve considered giving on the Senate floor when refusing to vote for Perdue’s confirmation, and Gretchen Whitmer should consider Maine Gov. Janet Mill’s response to Trump’s lawless terror. She stood up to Trump in defense of her most vulnerable constituents. There are times when normal politics are insufficient.

There’s a reason why Vichy France is not remembered fondly, even if there might have been short term benefit from its actions. It’s also the fourth and most concise rule of resisting Trump: Don’t collaborate with fascists.