“Biden Is Trying to Jolt Us Out of Learned Helplessness About Trump,” read the headline of a New York Times op-ed in January, which argued that “[Donald] Trump’s exhausting provocations” were wearing out voters who saw opposing the former president’s re-election as a “doomed project”.
Six months later, the mood was slightly more optimistic. Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race and Kamala Harris had taken his spot as the Democratic nominee. “National Democrats seem to have shaken off their perennial sense of learned helplessness,” read a July op-ed from the Charlotte Observer.
Feelings of political powerlessness are not new. People who feel as if they are on the “losing side of politics” – meaning their political opponents are in power – can feel a “loss of control”, says Dr Christina Farhart, associate professor of political science at Carleton College.
