Steve Chapman: For 2025, we should resist despair -- but also false hope

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

45% : Some of his supporters depend on government assistance and are blithely certain that he won't cut their benefits.
45% : An invasion of factories and warehouses by gun-toting agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not something businesspeople would welcome.
36% : In his first term, Trump had to contend with the possibility of being removed by impeachment or prosecuted after leaving the White House.
35% : What Founding Father could Trump convincingly invoke?
33% : Judging from their decision to return Trump to the White House, they don't put a high priority on preserving what the framers created.
31% : If there is reason for hope, it lies in the near certainty that Trump will overplay his hand.
31% : There are two ways in which Trump could go very wrong.
31% : Trump has pledged to pardon most of those who committed crimes that day.
29% : Start with the first category, which includes his vow to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada unless they shut down the flow of illegal drugs and migrants.
29% : A lot of people who helped elect Trump didn't take account of a law that he can't repeal -- the law of unintended consequences.
27% : The Washington Post recently reported on attitudes among Trump fans in New Castle, Pennsylvania, one of the poorest communities in the state -- which Trump carried.
27% : But given the promise by Trump mega-adviser Elon Musk to slash federal spending by at least $2 trillion a year and the GOP's desire to take an ax to the budget, programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and Medicaid are all at risk.
25% : During his first term, after all, Trump showed little regard for the constitutional obligations of his office, much less the norms of behavior established by predecessors going back to George Washington.
22% : But Trump also poses a danger that is peculiar to him: to basic liberties and the rule of law.
21% : Trump has sued the Des Moines Register on the ludicrous claim that it committed "brazen election interference" by publishing a poll indicating that Harris was ahead of him in Iowa.
21% : If you doubt that Trump represents a unique peril to democracy, think back to the ghastly images of Jan. 6, when insurrectionists battered police officers and bayed for the lynching of Vice President Mike Pence.
20% : In his first administration, Trump was constrained by sober, responsible aides and advisers -- many of whom came to regard him as thoroughly unfit for the office.
14% : Trump outpolled Democratic rival Kamala Harris among Americans whose household income is less than $50,000 a year, but many of them may be unpleasantly surprised by what he does.

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