It has been almost a year since the 2016 election. At this time last year, I am sure many of us, myself included, were looking forward to the end of the constant stream of scandals, name-calling and unbridled vitriol that November 8 would no doubt provide us. Surely, this could not go on for much longer, we assured ourselves. Surely, we would look back at this moment as an unfortunate, but short-lived, period of history, a rare quirk in America’s otherwise sterling electoral system. Ten months later, candidate Trump has become President Trump, and although the Commander-in- Chief’s supporters would assure you that the man has, in fact, become “presidential,” our everyday reality suggests otherwise.

So low is the bar for our president that a speech delivered without straying from the teleprompter’s safe, scripted gaze merits begrudging approval from MSNBC panelists and all-out celebration within the GOP. The president struggles to read daily briefings more than a couple pages (if he reads them at all) and routinely misspells common words in his tweets (most recently, “hereos”.) His administration has mirrored his campaign — bombastic, self- serving, and constantly in crisis.

With each new revelation — the firing of key staff members, plans for a transgender military ban, promises of “fire and fury” in relation to North Korea — it seems as if the breaking point has finally arrived, that members of Congress and his own party will finally take action to stem the damage he has caused. It is a familiar feeling. Familiar because, during the campaign, it felt the same way. Mocking a disabled reporter? It’s over, we were told. The

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Tapes? The end is nigh! Three consecutive debate losses? There’s no way Hillary loses. So constant was (and are) the scandals, insults and gaffes that one can take his or her pick of what to be offended or horrified by. The side effect of all this, of course, is an inability to focus on one issue for more than a few days, but, the thinking goes, it is irrelevant. How could one man maintain his support under the weight of so many transgressions?

The answer is that Trump has become an Atlas of sorts, somehow able to carry this weight, even when it is not always pretty. Despite reports of failing stamina, frustration and a declining mental state, Trump has, somehow, persisted.

Now I know what you might be thinking. How is that sentence any different from those of the other pundits and spokespeople who compliment Trump for achieving the bare minimum? You might be right to be skeptical of the notion that Trump is above criticism, but you are not asking the right question. Instead of trotting out the same tropes we have come to know and love — the calls for impeachment, the declarations of incredulity and hair-tugging at act after unprecedented act — why has no one wondered, at what point do we realize what we are doing is not working?

Maybe it is not that Trump is scandal-proof, but instead that the approach of those who seek to oppose him has become ineffective. I am talking about the viral videos of late-night hosts taking down the newest Trump tweet. Or, in the responses to said tweets, the many accounts with some variation of “Resist” or “Impeach” in their username who scream their discontent into the Twittervoid, accomplishing nothing beyond earning declarations of agreement from like-minded individuals.

I understand that with mounting tension at both the national and international level, people are seeking some outlet, any outlet, to express themselves. To say the current world climate is normal is a lie, a disingenuous one at that. But what if, and this may be a radical notion, the endless, mounting, increasingly all-inclusive bash-Trump movement is actually…making him stronger?

My thought process is simple. Trump is a candidate and President unlike any we have seen in a long time, probably ever. The response to him from media and national institutions has also been different. That is, party members openly questioning and attacking their president’s actions and agenda, as well as a media landscape that, in many ways, has been divided into either pro-Trump or anti-Trump camps. And thus, we have created a cycle. Trump does something outrageous, the media unleashes the full capacity of its fury, tensions rise, repeat. This is not to say the response to Trump’s actions is unwarranted or incorrect. And yet, even after every expert has been dragged out of the woodwork to explain how the president is wrong, after every joke that can be made has been made and after every “final straw,” he still won! And — he’s still president!

Sadly, it is too much to expect the GOP to exercise their ability to remedy this situation (it’s becoming increasingly apparent that they wouldn’t even know how to do it if they tried), and a man with the ego of Trump is unlikely to resign. That leaves us with the bleak prospect of three more years of this administration, at the very least. It is that “very least” that we should be focusing on, rather that commiserating and poking fun at a situation we ultimately will not have control over until November 8, 2020.

Instead of trotting out the same tropes we have come to know and love — the calls for impeachment, the declarations of incredulity and hair-tugging at act after unprecedented act — why has no one wondered, at what point do we realize what we are doing is not working?

When your candidate, party or ideology loses an election, you are supposed to analyze what went wrong and figure out how to fix it for next time. Our (the opposition) treatment of Trump, whether on social media, in print or on the television, has not changed since his candidacy — in fact, we have doubled down on this same approach. If the ultimate goal is ensuring that Trump and his supporters hold power for as little time as possible, we should be prepared to explore all possible ways to see this become a reality.

Rather than raising our voices to counter the drivel coming out of the White House or searching for new adjectives to describe how bad the newest scandal is, what if we stopped, breathed and re-assessed? In the midst of these ten months of political turmoil, there are pressing questions that need addressing, questions that could help guide our next steps forward. How to best address Trump’s base, which has remained largely intact, for one. Additionally, how are we going to support those who are actually affected, not just off put, by the Trump administration’s policies? And who, or what, can serve as the unifying message that will rise above the temptation to drop to the bar the president has set?

As tempting and satisfying as it can be to simply stay the current course of defaulting to outrage at every new development, I suspect it could result in the truly ominous prospect of a second term. I hope to never have to experience another election like the one in 2016 again, but I worry that many of the factors that led to that result remain entrenched and unquestioned, however justified they might be. Instead of reverting to the same, let’s do what Trump cannot — look inward, critique, assess, analyze and change.