Are You Better Off Than You Were 100 Days Ago?

Of course not. That’s how Trump just became the most unpopular 100-day-mark president in modern American history.

When Donald Trump arrives in Michigan today to mark his 100th day in office, he’ll be doing so as the most unpopular 100-day president in modern American history.

That’s an important fact to remember, since he has created the illusion of governing with widespread support from the American people - an illusion that has sometimes even convinced the opposition. It’s just not true. He won with slightly less than a majority vote, and has now lost support as a result of his actions.

In every presidency, the 100-day milestone is a key moment to check on the status of an administration and of the country. Today, Americans are experiencing an administration marked by historic shows of incompetence, cruelty, and confusion, and a country that is measurably worse off than just a hundred days ago.

The economy is obviously worse off - whether you measure it by prices, consumer confidence, jobs, or even the president’s favorite barometer, the stock market.

The effectiveness of our government is also clearly degraded. From Social Security service wait times to Veterans Affairs service levels, our country is already feeling the impacts of the “sledgehammer” that has been taken to government services. This is doubly tragic because a real effort to make government more efficient could earn support across the political spectrum.

And the freedoms that define our country - including the right to due process, the safeguards of our judicial system, and the independence of media, business, and academia from government control - have all been seriously damaged. The assault has been so sweeping and swift that even some of the president’s former cheerleaders in the media have denounced his abuses.

The good news is that standing up to this agenda can work. Even with Democrats out of power in Congress, we have seen Trump and his administration repeatedly forced to back down and reverse course on some of his most disastrous choices and policies. And ordinary Americans in town halls, street protests, and a handful of early elections have forced Republican elected officials to pay attention.

At this 100-day mark, I’d encourage you to do everything you can think of to make clear how you feel, not just to your Member of Congress but to people in your life. This is a time to talk with friends and family, even or especially if they have different political views than you do. It’s a moment to listen to any doubts and concerns they may be having - as millions of Americans clearly do - with interest and empathy while sharing your own sincere convictions.

It’s also a time to seek out and support voices focused on a better way forward. We have seen countless local and national elected leaders, and eloquent non-political voices from farmers to university leaders to mom-and-pop business owners, stepping up. They have defended American principles in the face of the last hundred days’ cruelty and chaos. And many of them are also modeling the different, better social and political life that we as a country need to build, both to turn the page on the current chapter and to be ready for what comes next.

We must never relent in responding to the abuses of this administration, but that’s only one part of the picture. To succeed, we must move beyond our inherited status quo and present better approaches for the future - and show what needs to happen for us to get from here to there. This will continue to be my focus.

Our politics, society, and economy need new answers, as we face not only today’s upheaval, but the extreme imbalances in power and wealth that made this moment possible in the first place, and the huge technological changes still to come in this very decade. I believe that Americans are up to the task - and rising to that task is one of the most important things that any generation of Americans has been called to do.