Just do it.

Trump is the "Just Do It" president.

He gets shit done.

He destroyed the East Wing.

It was a powerful message from Trump, and a net-positive one for him. Americans want decisive action so much that they tolerate being lied to, stolen from, and having their democratic republic turned into a corrupt, crony-capitalist autocracy.

One of the ideas floating in the zeitgeist is that the U.S. is so rule-bound and full of veto points that nothing good can get done. Congress is hopeless. Lawyers stop everything. We are a helpless giant.

Gulliver, restrained by the Lilliputians 

Democrats tend to blame corporate lobbyists. Republicans tend to blame environmental nitpickers. Affordable housing advocates blame NIMBY neighbors. So many reasons things cannot get done. Excuses, excuses.

American voters grew impatient with uncontrolled immigration during Biden's term. Biden said he couldn't process asylum claims so nothing could be done. The problem festered.

Trump said he wanted a White House ballroom. I know of no groundswell of public opinion demanding a White House ballroom, but no matter. Trump wanted it, so he acted. It was an act of defiance immediately after the No Kings rally. It was a complement to the image of Trump dumping poop onto protesters. He just did it. Take that, America. 

There were no images of historians and architects in white lab coats holding tweezers to examine and study the wainscoting. We saw an excavator dropping the building into a dumpster.

It is a synecdoche for the Trump presidency. It was quick and dirty, but he acted and he didn't care what critics thought.

Too many immigrants, too fast, too unregulated?  Bring in ICE and get it done. Are they brutal? Yeah. It is a brutal job.

Too many illegal drugs coming in from Latin America?  Bomb boats suspected of carrying drugs. Is it murder? Yeah. Trump says they deserve to die.

Universities too woke? Take away their research grant money away. Does it stifle health research? Yeah. But universities projected elitist values.

America has a trade imbalance? Place high tariffs on everyone. Does that damage trade relationships? Yeah. But they will try to negotiate something.

Campaign magazine: "Arguably, the best tag line of the 20th Century."

Elon Musk's chainsaw was a powerful image. Musk's error was in thinking that American's disliked "federal bureaucrats."  They do. But they also like weather data, air traffic control, veterans health care, and forest fire suppression. Quick and dirty backfired here. Musk got pushed out.

Trump chooses his own targets with a better eye to popularity. He is keeping his campaign promises. He can claim a mandate.

Democrats have a mythic hero: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They want a party leader to stand up and do things the way FDR did. Remember: FDR took bold action on the Depression. Some New Deal programs worked. Some didn't. He got criticized by naysayers and do-nothings. But he acted.

Trump is a dangerous man with corrupt, venal, autocratic instincts and utter disregard for the rule of law. The tear-down of the East Wing demonstrates that he will destroy what he doesn't like to make room for something new. He is a change agent. He is not a ditherer. He commands resources.

Democrats criticize Trump's methods. There is room for a Democratic alternative to Trump. But Democrats need to voice solutions, not just criticisms. Democrats risk looking like all they can do is complain about the methods of people who do try to fix problems. Democrats need to voice an effective triage plan to determine who can stay in the U.S. and who will be deported, and then sell that plan to the American people. Let's hear a plan.

If Trump is replaced it will be by somebody who takes the metaphorical equivalent of an excavator to the problems of inflation, housing and healthcare affordability, the deficit, immigration, wage stagnation, and the other problems facing the country. 

Trump -- for all his many, many faults -- knows how to send a message of action.

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