The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Resistance may be futile. Unless you live in California.

Apparently, the phrase “resistance is futile” appeared the first time on TV in a 1967 “Doctor Who” episode called “Tomb of the Cybermen.”

In Star Trek’s “First Contact,” the voice of the Borg, spoken by Jeff Coopwood, warns:

“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

Some of my friends on Facebook, those who are not giving up and moving to BlueSky, are posting memes about the new resistance.

Even Politico wrote about THE STATE OF THE RESISTANCE this week, from California, predictably, where they are still counting ballots.

“But most politicians are preoccupied with the next big task,” they say. “Resurrecting the state’s anti-DONALD TRUMP resistance.”

“We’ve seen this movie before,” they say, “back when the Golden State was the spiritual hub of opposition to Trump 1.0.”

But there are signs that “Resistance: The Sequel” will not be like the original.

Eight years ago, after the election of 2016, California leaders were “tripping over themselves to stake out the fiercest anti-Trump posture.”

Then-Gov. JERRY BROWN mused about building a wall around the state to protect itself. Top legislative leaders issued a declaration of resistance the day after Trump’s shock win, asserting that California was now the keeper of the nation’s future. And in the first year of Trump’s presidency, California state lawmakers introduced at least 35 bills aimed at blocking his agenda — plus another two dozen or so symbolic resolutions to denounce the latest controversy of the day.

In short, the “California vs. Trump” storyline was all-consuming — which some Democrats now concede was a mistake.

“There was a lot of focus on symbolic stuff,” ANTHONY RENDON, the former Assembly speaker who penned the legislature’s combative resistance document, told Playbook. He said the Trump focus took Democrats’ eyes off the ball on what voters truly cared about: the economy.

Fast forward to November 2024: The script, at first, appeared strikingly familiar.

ROBERT RIVAS, the Democratic Assembly speaker, promised that California would protect America from Trump.

In anticipation of the new president — who has made no secret of his California antipathy — Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM immediately called for a special legislative session to start next month.

Attorney General ROB BONTA held a press conference, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, vowing that “progress will prevail” regardless of who occupies the White House.

And in Los Angeles, the city council voted to enshrine sanctuary protections into city law — a move that one member said was the opening salvo in “leading a movement against this terrible, terrible regime that has taken over Washington DC.”

But look closely and there are small signs Democrats are straying from the first resistance blueprint.

The special session convened by Newsom, which begins on Monday, is purposefully narrow: Lawmakers will only be allocating more money to fund the state’s anticipated legal clashes with the incoming administration. Legislative leaders, trying to fend off a Trump-related free-for-all, have told members that any measures not related to litigation expenses will not be considered.

Newsom’s own rhetorical posture vis-a-vis Trump embodies this more chastened version of resistance. In Fresno last week — part of a tour to red-tinged California — he was combative and conciliatory, often in the same breath.

“We know what happened the last time Donald Trump was president. He vandalized our progress,” Newsom said. Then, seconds later, he promised “an open hand, not a closed fist” to the president-elect.

There was similar cognitive dissonance in Los Angeles. Even as city council members framed their sanctuary ordinance as a rebuke to Trump, they simultaneously said that any blowback from the right was unearned, since these protections for immigrants have actually been in place for 45 years.

Tonal whiplash? Sure. But message discipline is the last thing on California Democrats’ minds at the moment, as they worry about the myriad ways a president bent on revenge could wreak havoc on the policies and people of the nation’s most populous state.

And this time, state leaders are well aware that Trump’s national popular vote win — a narrowing one, as California ballots get tallied, but a win all the same — gives the incoming presidency an air of legitimacy he lacked in 2016.

All of which gives California’s Trump opposition a distinct air of resignation, rather than the rah-rah pugnacity from the first time around.

“It almost feels like a cliche now,” Rendon said. “The resistance … I don’t know what that means. I really don’t.”

I don’t know either. Black Lives Matter has disappeared. Antifa moved to Florida and went underground.

If somehow the Democratic Party had managed to defeat Trump in this election, we could have begun to dig a hole and bury this fascist, authoritarian trend in our society. Now it appears a gaping black hole has opened up in the universe and is about to suck us all into the void.

I have a plan to move to California myself to join the resistance there. A friend is starting an FM radio station. There are things I want to see. But I will not make it – we will not make it – without a generous portion of help from our friends.

After all, the Borg was ultimately defeated on Star Trek. Can we somehow survive and outlast Trump and the MAGA movement to bring democracy back from the brink of annihilation? I don’t know, but I’m willing to keep trying – if you are.

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