Taking on Trump
Its been a while since I've posted anything. If I don't get somethings off my chest I'll burst. The slings and arrows keep coming at a dizzying pace. No one can keep up. I think that's part of the strategy. Just as in the campaign, he adds one outrage on top of another so no one outrage sticks and the cumulative effect of the outrages just exhausts most normal human beings. Most of us just want to hide from the dizzying, terrible news coming at us minute by minute, daily from the WH. I'm hoping that stronger minds and leaders than I are seeing this for what it is: warfare by chaos, disruption, denial, and sheer volume. I hope they are developing strategies to address this monstrosity of an administration and not just doing what I've been doing, reacting minute by minute.
While we need to resist almost everything this administration does and says, we really need to pick those big issues on which to fight. I started a list in my mind, but it grows, again with slight after slight after insult. I'm sure others might have different big fights but we really need to consider the fights with the largest constituencies, support, and impact and chance of success.
1. Saving Democracy itself. If we don't fight on a number of fronts, the very democracy we claim to support and admire will be destroyed or at least seriously damaged. This man is undermining so many of the foundations on which the country was built and for which the Constitution has served. Our system of checks and balances is at risk. Because the government. including SC, is in the hands of a single party and because that party seems to prize party over country, there are no checks on power and corruption in the WH. Lower courts and hopefully Circuit Courts have not yet been taken over, but extreme conservatives are on verge of a majority on SC. While the voting will not change from Scalia court, the next new justice, an idealogue will last long beyond. This assault on democracy should be the priority for fighting Trump.
2. Civil Rights and Voting Rights - without these, the government of and by the people will perish from the earth. The lies of the WH about voter fraud is already mobilizing even more voter suppression laws at state level; so called religious freedom EO and proposals are being considered that will legalize discrimination on basis of individual religious belief vs. the constitutional rights of millions and entangle the federal government in religious disputes of huge proportion; women's rights are being seriously questioned rather than furthered in our trajectory toward a more perfect union.
3. Corruption in Government and WH in particular. Never or at least not in a very long time, has someone so ethically challenged been elected President. His conflicts of interest are legendary, the questionable basis of his election with foreign power actively seeking his election and succeeding, the oligarchs he seems determined to hand most of the levers of government to, need to be challenged at every opportunity.
4. Immigration and refugees - topic that demonstrates our values and our exceptionalism are being attacked and restricted in the name of fear. While millions die of disease, hundreds of thousands die from preventable accidents, suicide, and homicides, we cower in face of terrorism that has resulted in less than 100 tragic deaths since 9/11. The loss for the families and victims of terror is incalculable, but society's loss in relative to other tragic terms is not. We must make every reasonable effort to protect society, but we must not destroy the society that has been built over 225 years in that pursuit.
We need to learn from past mistakes, not repeat them.
5. Environment and Climate Change - most scientists and world leaders agree that climate change is an existential threat to the very planet we inhabit. So far the threat seems likely to reach a peak beyond our adult lifespan, but most have children and grandchildren that will face the threats head on. We need to stop him from turning back the clock, even if we can't force him to move the cause forward. He also must not be allowed to sell, give away or decimate the resources that belong to the entire country, including those who did not vote for him. The cost of recovery of these resources would be beyond astronomical once he is ousted from his perch. We must hold the line.
Other important issues, too numerous to list exist, but if we fight everything, we will win nothing. While resistance to many of these is possible, fighting and turning them back is probably not. We must pick our battles and our compatriots. We all may not agree on everything but large groups of us agree on individual issues and we should band together on those issues while letting our petty disagreements on others slide. And they are petty disagreements when compared to the existential threat of this man and the people who enable him. Once this threat is vanquished, we can return to fighting over issues on which we disagree, but for now we must unite.
