Will Senate Democrats realize it? Or have they already recognized defeat?

Once again, leadership in Chuck Schumer's caucus attempted to shut down a confirmation for a Donald Trump Cabinet nominee, which they have for every Trump appointee with the exception of Marco Rubio. Pam Bondi still sailed to confirmation last night in a 54/46 vote that included an aye from Democrat John Fetterman. The lack of other Democrat support surprised Laura Ingraham last night, considering Bondi's obvious experience and competence:

NEW: John Fetterman just voted YES to make Pam Bondi Trump’s Attorney General.

Bondi was confirmed by a vote of 54 to 46, securing the position for the former Florida Attorney General.

“The lone Democrat to vote for Bondi was Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania. It’s frankly… pic.twitter.com/UywfIBoVIa

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 5, 2025

It seems only slightly surprising that Bondi got only one Democrat vote. (It's not surprising that the lone Democrat vote came from Fetterman, who has been trying to act like a statesman of the opposition rather than a bare-knuckle ideologue.) Bondi served eight years as a state AG in Florida, making her one of the most experienced people to be appointed and confirmed to that position. She may have ruffled feathers during her hearing by rebuking the condescending questions and comments directed at her, but one would have thought a handful of Democrats not on the Judiciary Committee would have focused on qualifications rather than politics.

Apparently not. With the singular exception of Rubio's confirmation, Democrats have mainly voted in lockstep against all of Trump's nominees, because they see -- correctly -- that Trump has returned to "smash the rice bowls" of the Left, as Glenn Reynolds put it last night. Elon Musk will smash the rice bowls, and Trump's nominees will make sure they stay broken once in charge of the bureaucracies that have operated without accountability for decades:

If Hoffer is right, we must brace for a most unsettled social order in the months to come.

It’s impossible to overstate how many people’s careers and incomes — their “rice bowls,” in DC parlance — are on the receiving end of Trump’s reforms.  

The people affected will not take this lying down. 

We’ve already seen not-very-spontaneous demonstrations at USAID headquarters and the US Treasury building, death threats aimed at the DOGE team on Reddit and other sites, and hit pieces in Wired and The New York Times. 

One complaint is that Musk’s team is “unelected,” which is silly: USAID, to say nothing of the many NGOs and nonprofits it supports, is unelected too. 

More importantly, Trump explicitly ran on stripping the government down with Musk’s help — so Americans did in fact vote for this.

Democrats in the Senate and House know what this means. They have relied on a funding/ideological feedback loop to keep themselves in power and to manipulate policy for their allies. Without the ability to fund their allies, their political support is about to dry up entirely, especially among activist groups that no longer will get the funding necessary to survive. And now, with a reduction in the federal workforce in non-critical areas, there will be a lot less opportunity for the kind of insubordination that usually hamstrings Republican administrations over the last several decades.

That is precisely why Senate Democrats have begun lockstep opposition to Trump nominees, not to mention opting for obstruction and delaying tactics. In years past, they could rely on their allies in the bureaucracy to keep the grift flowing and to impose their preferred policies regardless of whom the American people elected to office. And those days are now coming to an end.

And in years past, they could rely on some Republicans to help them survive out of "comity." Those days are now over too, thanks in large part to the past four years of deceit, lawfare, and brute-force authoritarianism over speech platforms and radical weirdness. Senate Republicans have -- mirabile dictu -- sensed the moment and chosen to unite to put an end to the nonsense.

And as Harry Enten told his CNN audience, that's pretty much game over for Democrats. Trump will now run the table for his Cabinet picks, and there's nothing they can do about it (via Matt Vespa):

CNN: “TRUMP IS WINNING!” pic.twitter.com/aei9bYtSKc

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 4, 2025

Other than Matt Gaetz, Trump will get his full slate of nominees across the line. The same will eventually be true of the secondary and tertiary appointments as well. Unlike his first term, Trump has prepared well for staffing at the top while finally draining the swamp below. And unlike the last time, Senate Republicans understand the necessity of this effort to restore direct self-governance and fiscal control from the self-perpetuating progressive-elite bureaucratic state. 

So yes, Trump is winning. And you know who Senate Democrats have to thank for it, right?

They should be happy -- because Republicans really are now using it to fix a broken system. Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for his foresight!