I think we're seeing the blossoming of a cottage industry of Trump opposition. When the Muslim ban came down, the governor of Washington talked to the attorney general of Washington not in terms of "what can we do to protect Washington industry" but in terms of "what can we do to stop this?" The result was a 5-state coalition with the lion's share of the tech industry signing on to oppose it on business grounds, not civil rights grounds. How many cities and states have reaffirmed their support of the Paris accords? And here we are, with Maryland and DC taking a swing with the Emoluments Clause, a legal doctrine .0005% of the population had heard of eight months ago.

There's no real downside for the assailants - they're striking from safe majorities against a "far enemy" without having to say much about local politics or anything that might have them face opposition amongst the people who can unseat them. It's like when Utah decided to spend fifty million dollars making gay marriage illegal in California - nobody in California can do much other than not go to Sundance (they didn't). But for an organization with no attention span, no central command&control, no bandwidth and no skill for political infighting, every spanner in the works slows down the machine.

I wonder what the Republican Party looks like four years from now. The Democrats aren't in great shape but it's like Bridge - once the bids are down, everyone who didn't win the bid is basically playing things out mechanically. The Democrats have very few decisions they need to make (beyond whether to be "mad" "real mad" or "hopping mad"). The Republicans? They're having to perform whatever character and ideology they think will get them re-elected and the lions' share of their time is being spent distracting the country from the guy in office while also gutting the social programs that support their voter base.

"People of Walmart?" The Germans are coming. "When you're here you're family?" When you're here you're dining alone. "Retail therapy?" "Retail carnage." And what the Republicans get to run on is tax breaks for the rich, annihilating Obamacare and charter schools.