More than Enough.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

The theme of this issue, in case you missed it on the cover, is "Enough Already!"

Enough of the degradation of our democracy wrought by Donald Trump. Enough of the extremism of gun and God nuts. Enough of feeling bad. It's time to focus our collective energy on changing the things we can--which, as it turns out, is a whole heck of a lot.

As John Nichols points out in his uplifting piece, "Taking It to the States," pro-Trump Republicans are not just headed for a midterm drubbing in Congress. They are also poised to lose big in contests at the state and local level.

"The Republican gains of 2010 and 2014 could begin to be reversed in the swing states of the Great Lakes and the Upper Midwest," he writes. "The red states in the remainder of the country could see a surge in anti-Trump and anti-Republican voting. And states where Democrats are in a strong position could realize the promise of a progressive turn that extends from Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential run.

John's optimism on such matters is always welcome, but in this case it might also be justified. People all across the country are looking for things they can do to oppose the Trump agenda, and governors and state attorneys general are at the forefront of that fight.

There's a similarly hopeful story about the defense of public schools by education writer Jennifer Berkshire. Focusing on Wisconsin, she demonstrates that the public has had just about enough, thank you, of efforts to turn public education into private profit. "In the place where the modern era of scorched-earth-style state politics began," she writes, "local activism around public education may just transform Wisconsin's political culture."

Timothy Johnson, a reporter at Media Matters who has long had a bead on the National Rifle Association, writes an eye-opening piece about the ties that bind the NRA and gun manufacturers. At the heart of this alliance is a campaign to scare the bejesus out of NRA members, so they keep buying more weapons and funneling more money into the group's coffers.

Other writers zero in on specific threats that have gained urgency in the age of Trump.

Erik Gunn looks into the efforts to undercut the National Labor Relations Boards mission to protect workers' rights. Abby Scher tracks the...