It feels like the Blitz, doesn’t it?

For the 49.5% of the country that voted the way I did in November, there hasn’t even been a chance to yell “Incoming!” before the next bombshell. Since the election, with Donald Trump back in his Oval Office bombardier’s seat, the stress has been nonstop.

Wielding his Sharpie, Trump has rained down explosive executive orders, caused massive firings and ordered new cannonades daily — sometimes hourly — to remake and disrupt the federal government. He’s started tariff wars he had to retreat from immediately. He’s demanded tribute from media owners. His billionaire buddies are running amok. He’s unleashed waves of ever-more bizarro disruptors for federal agencies, adding to his Cabinet of Curiosities. The Senate Republican majority truckles, then buckles.

Many people on my side of the divide have sworn off reading, watching or listening to politics at all — for their emotional health, most say. That included me, some of the time. I think our side will shake it off after the first few months, tune back in and start to fight back, even in brightest-red Florida. But there’s a certain defeatist instinct we’ll have to shake off. The feeling that resistance is futile, just give the Borg their day.

It won’t be easy for us here in Florida to pretend we don’t hear the sounds of jungle mayhem up in Washington — the backbiting and the blood-letting, not just against prey but among the predators themselves. For one thing, the variety of feral Florida wildlife rounded up to serve in Trump’s administration has been impressive.

His chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is from Jacksonville. New Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the first plane to Panama to nick back the canal. The amazing Department of Justice nomination of Floridian Matt Gaetz was swapped out for the almost-as-amazing Floridian Pam Bondi. Tampa-born, Florida’s former attorney general — 2020 election denier, anti-Obamacare, anti-gay-marriage, Fox News host — was confirmed as chief law enforcement officer. Of the United States.

If a new pandemic wiped out just Floridians — and Fox hosts — there would be slim pickings left for Trump. Well, no need to worry about combating a new pandemic. There’d be no vaccines here anyway.

But in truth, Florida’s already been a Petri dish for the Trump crowd.

I should start by saying I’m happy in my adopted state. I live in a purple area of Tampa and have overwhelmingly pleasant encounters. I’m an older guy living among younger neighbors, a moderate liberal among many conservatives. One of the TV monitors in my gym shows Fox, the other CNN. (No MSNBC. That would be too much.)

Speaking for myself, I think that’s a healthy way to live. It keeps me in touch with how others think. Liberals need to do more of that. I supported Joe Biden, pre-debate. I became a Dude for Harris. But when Harris turned down the three-hour chat with podcaster Joe Rogan, I said publicly, “That’s it for us.”

• • •

Since moving to Florida, one engaging pastime has been writing about Gov. Ron DeSantis. For six years, I’ve watched with a gimlet eye as he’s wielded his political machete up and down the state, building a career out of whacking the woke. If you’re partial to MAGA, there’s been a lot to like about DeSantis. It’s been a dry run for what’s happening nationally now.

DeSantis railed against indoctrination in schools, fired prosecutors, banned reporters, took over colleges, denounced pronouns, encouraged snitches, cowed corporations, hired scary-mad health chiefs, and extirpated DEI way earlier than Trump. He even ginned up his own state police force to protect against rigged elections that never were.

(Whenever I get going on DeSantis, I always, always say, in fairness: DeSantis was also ahead in a crucially important way: He kept the schools open during the pandemic. I thanked him, and my kids and grandkids thanked him. If only he weren’t such a putz about everything else.)

But here’s something unexpected. The DeSantis tide has suddenly turned in Florida. Not in political hue, because things aren’t turning more blue. But checks and balances have been spotted in the wild. For years, especially since he romped to re-election, DeSantis dominated the state Legislature like Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. Everybody clapped, chest medallions rattled. But a group of leading legislators in Tallahassee finally had enough.

A diminished and term-limited DeSantis is now the target of political buckshot from his once-supine state Legislature. The fellas have finally gone lame-duck hunting. Before anyone cheers, let me add quickly it’s at least in part a squabble about who can bash unauthorized migrants the best.

When the scrap broke out, DeSantis posted that he was the baddest immigrant wrangler of them all, and Daddy Trump loved him best again. To prove it, he sent off posts while playing golf with Trump himself, at his course in Palm Beach! I’m speculating now, but if either golfer had glanced into the rough at the dudes irrigating the Trump course, they might have jump-started deportations then and there. But that would have left them with a tough lie.

• • •

Immigration, in my unpopular opinion, is the new Big Lie. Or not so new, considering this all started with migrant-baiting Trump on the escalator. I know, it’s the issue. It’s high on everybody’s list of urgent concerns, even some on our side. But I call it bogus. Yes, it’s a big mess. It’s unfair to those who waited in line, an unfair burden on some localities, and asylum laws need reforming.

But an urgent foreign menace it’s not. In this vast land, immigrants not living here legally take few desirable American jobs. They’re far more law-abiding than citizens. Fentanyl is smuggled in via legal border crossings. The data show that immigrants eventually contribute more than they take. U.S. birth rates are dropping; we need the population. We need sane, expanded legal immigration rules. Ronald Reagan, official GOP saint, offered conditional amnesty to 2.6 million unauthorized immigrants in 1986.

Yet the hypocrisy, notably here in Florida, is head-snapping. Everyone in or out of power knows there’s no way a million immigrants will be expelled from this state alone. They’re the sinew of a dozen industries, from agriculture to construction to food service to hospitality to personal care.

This state, especially this state, would be crippled if immigrants actually left. Never mind eggs. Oranges would cost five bucks apiece. Mansion lawns in Siesta Key would turn brown. You’d get even more outrageous “suggested tip” options on those electronic fast-food tablets. Retirees would spike each others’ oxygen tanks to hire away health aides. Of course, the bosses of these Florida industries will keep their workforces, with a wink and a nod.

• • •

For a long while, the nods — and the curtsies — were directed only toward DeSantis. No longer. Now, attention must be paid to the awakened towheads of Tallahassee. Some small balance has been restored, if only to disagree on how best to chase down desperate people. The personal stories that will be told in the months to come, the family lives shattered, may move at least some hearts.

But no, the pushback didn’t change the state of our soul, or the soul of our state. The pursuit, and ratting out, of perceived enemies continue to be official policy in Florida, as in the new Washington. But down here, there’s been a pause, if not a turn; a glint, for those of us who can’t see the light.

DeSantis has been a bully. As we know from popular culture, (a bit less reliably from history), bullies eventually get payback. It will take time. But if it happens up there as it happened down here, eventually some Washington Republicans will push back. If Florida is any guide, this degree of Trump strongman excess will inspire pushback. A poodle, or even a senator, will break its leash if it jerked around for too long.

Especially if they see weakness ahead.

Resistance is flickering in the first few weeks. The editorial curmudgeons at the Wall Street Journal have already called the Trump tariffs harebrained schemes, the “dumbest” moves ever. In our known universe, Republican presidents don’t run against the editorial page of the WSJ on crucial matters of business and profit. Like most bullies, Trump backed down from the tariffs when confronted.

Who and what else will Trump have trampled on in three months? In six? In a year? Judges, governors, state officials are already pushing back. In blue states, governors are being imaginative about “Trump-proofing” their states. Threatened federal workers are dodging and feinting. Some media wobble, more are standing strong. (The tech platforms, alas, are all in with Trump.)

Might we have to wait as long as the 2026 midterms when Trump becomes a lame duck himself? When the second half is underway, the end is in sight, when his primary threats no longer pack punch? Maybe. But it will probably come faster than that.

This is the Trump who launched a thousand failed or bankrupt businesses — from Trump steaks to Trump Mortgages to Trump Fragrances to Trump Shuttle to Trump Casinos to Trump University. He has a blazingly fast burn rate. Today, it’s Greenland, Panama, Gaza Riviera. You get the idea. Like his tariff wars, Trump gets ideas, launches them, then can’t hold focus. The ideas crash and burn, and it’s best not to be drawn in.

And so the hope is …? Here, in the practice lap DeSantis drove for Trump, we saw power shift a bit, but at normal, almost seasonal speed. Resistance to DeSantis broke out — Hark! Another branch of government! — just as DeSantis reached the two-year mark of his second term. Not that there was a change of heart on either side. But there was a shift in gravity. At least a seed’s worth.

Everything has a season, said both Ecclesiastes and folk singer Pete Seeger. A time to plant, a time to reap. There’s a lot of mad, vindictive reaping going on, and we don’t have the tools to stop much of it. But fret less. Excess thrives on distress. Another folk original, James Carville, says, Let Trump punch himself out. Bide your time. And as you wait, organize, gather seed, do something useful for yourself or someone else.

No hard predictions here. I got enough wrong in the last election. DeSantis, like Trump, is resilient. But bullies overstep. DeSantis overstepped. And Trump always, always oversteps.

Guest columnist Barry Golson covers the Tampa Bay senior scene. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Forbes and AARP. He is the author of “Gringos in Paradise” (Scribner). Contact him at gbarrygolson@gmail.com.