“You too can be president of the United States.”
Okay, welcome back. Hopefully you’ve had a break now, or at least are more willing to read another one of these long-ass tirades. I mean, if you’re here, you probably are. Hopefully you’ve read part one and part two already. If not, well, those links are there for a reason. I, for my part, need to get all my thoughts out and to say something because otherwise I’m doing less than nothing, and that feels worse than pretending things are fine. But I don’t think it’s possible to pretend that things are fine anymore, because holy shit things have escalated dramatically in the several weeks that Trump’s been in office.
Inauguration was only four weeks ago. Can you believe it? That it’s really only been four weeks, and shit is already hitting the fan in ways that I don’t think anyone was prepared for? I can’t believe it, for one. Four weeks. That’s one month! That’s it! Imagine what four years is gonna be like? I’ll sum up for you briefly what I think four years is gonna look like: the world is on fire (from climate change) and we don’t have a lot of time left to fix it before things get really, really bad. America is being held hostage by the ultra-wealthy, of which Trump is more or less the de facto leader. And some of you may be ok with Trump now, but things will get worse for you, and eventually, something is going to come down the line that’s a step too far. America needs to change, and we need to change it together. We need to fix things. But why, exactly, am I so keen on fixing it at all? What do I want to fix? Well. It’s only been two weeks, but it’s already a lot. I’ll try and make this as short as I can, because the specifics of “what’s happened” aren’t really my point, but here’s a short summary. In his first two weeks in office, Donald Trump has:
- Began mass deportations of individuals residing illegally in the US by rounding them up with secret police and massive raids (including allowing for the possibility of invading schools to kidnap children), sticking them in mystery transportation, and shipping them out of the country, all without proper due process or any sort of appeals process. What’s due process? Oh, you know. A constitutional right.
- ordered Guantanamo Bay (a place already known for committing crimes against humanity) to prepare hosting up to 30,000 detained migrants. Jesus, every day this shit gets worse and worse. Doesn’t this sound familiar to you?
- …Also canceled asylum in the US and existing appointments for people to try to legally immigrate to the US.
- Attempted to revoke birthright citizenship, another constitutional right.
- Speaking of the constitution, they removed the U.S. Constitution from the White House website (that link went to an “Error 404: Page not Found” link when this blog went live). Sure, it could just that they are editing the website and updating pages and such. And maybe I’m giving into sensationalism with this one. But that sure feels like a kick in the head.
- Pulled the US out the Paris Climate Agreement, meaning that we are one of only four countries to not be a part of it (joining the illustrious ranks of Iran, Libya, and Yemen). He also doubled down on extracting fossil fuels for good measure, further hastening climate change.
- Pulled the US out of the World Health Organization. You know. The ones who help stop COVID from happening again. The US leaving will impact the entire world.
- Initiated a trade war against some of the US’s largest trade partners, including China, Mexico, and Canada. Which is just going to make things more expensive at home, because you know corporations are not going to eat the costs of those tariffs.
- made claims about taking over Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and the Panama Canal, and hasn’t ruled out military or economic force.
- …Has also offered, inexplicably, to buy or take over the Palestinian territory of Gaza? And to kick out its 2 million inhabitants in the process so he can turn it into the “Middle Eastern Riviera”? My god, he wants to gentrify the Gaza Strip? This reads like a bad joke. But it is, against all odds, what is really happening right now.
- pardoned individuals who participated in the January 6th insurrection, including ones who were already found guilty and others who were on trial for murdering a police officer. I don’t like cops and even I think that’s out of line.
- Forced all federal employees to return to office, attempted to/is currently attempting to fire 2 million federal employees, destroyed any protections for LGBT+ federal staff, ended any sorts of federal diversity initiatives, and opened a snitch hotline for anyone suspected of being a “DEI hire or position.”
- …then proceeded to blame that airplane-helicopter crash over D.C. as somehow being caused by DEI? And also the Democrats? Instead of blaming the low-staffing of the control tower? That just feels like nonsensical scapegoating. Funny, though, blaming everything that goes wrong on an amorphous outside enemy is a very common tactic of dictators. This is literally 1984.
- Fired members of the Department of Justice who investigated him as part of the (several? I forgot how many now) investigations into him. If that doesn’t sound like retribution against political enemies and trying to clean house to only keep loyalists, I don’t know what does.
- …And also is preparing to do the same against top FBI officials, especially those who worked on the Jan. 6th investigations. The FBI are already shady enough, but apparently, they all now need to be party loyalists who are willing to do everything that Trump wants them to do, even if it’s illegal? That is… exceptionally worrying.
- In an apparent attempt to hold hospitals around the country hostage, he also attempted to freeze federal funding for loans and grants. Luckily, a federal judge blocked this, and Trump himself has since rescinded it entirely. But if it had gone through, it would have disrupted funds for education, disaster aid, housing, healthcare, and more. Hospitals reliant on federal funds would have lose access to crucial funding and resources. Trump promised to unfreeze funds once his government was absolutely sure the funding was going to the right place, i.e. make sure that everything is loyal to him and fits with his goals and agenda.
- Decided to try and end USAID, which is, by most accounts, an objectively good thing as a part of the world. It helps keep people fed. It keeps people tuberculosis-free. And he wants to get rid of it. Hmm.
- Made fun of and harassed an Episcopalian bishop who asked for mercy and peace. How low do you have to be to attack someone for asking for kindness? I’ve seen folks online saying that the bishop has committed the “sin of empathy.” Do you people hear yourselves?
- …has couched all of this in strategic, propagandistic rhetoric to make it sound better than it really is (i.e. “Protecting the meaning and value of American citizenship” instead of “ending birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the constitution”). Which is, of course, part of the classic fascist playbook, appealing to both Trump’s authority and his “duty” to “protect” America from…?
- …And more, that I don’t even have the time/energy to talk about. But that’s part of the point: doing everything at once is meant to burn us out. To stop this, we need to focus.
How, though, are these things an issue? Some of them are probably obvious, and I’ve definitely put a bit of a (light) personal spin on things, but the gist of Trump’s executive orders follow a couple of simple patterns. They largely do one of a few things: penalize political opponents and legitimize violence or control for his most loyal followers (such as firing DOJ officials and pardoning the Jan. 6th rioters), create and punish an “outside” enemy in order to demonize them and therefore unify his proponents (illegal immigrants, trans people and LGBTQ+ individuals, Muslims, any other country via tariffs, etc.), reshape the government to make it easier for him to do what he wants (see: firing tons of public officials and installing Elon Musk), or control the narrative in such a way as to preemptively squash any sort of backlash or retribution (taking up as much news space as possible with tons of clearly illegal executive orders, calling investigations “witch hunts,” disparaging the public media, trying to “save” TikTok to garner favor… that was a total PsyOp in my opinion), or transfer more wealth into him and his team’s hands (turning Gaza into real estate, tax cuts for the rich, deregulating fossil fuels)… You get the idea. Often, his moves do several of these at once, and all of them result in some sort of suffering for somebody. They are, wholesale, moves designed to push a very, very frightening agenda.
Every single thing Trump has done since he took office has been a move to consolidate power amongst himself and those loyal to him. And therefore, by virtue of being Trump, every single thing he’s done has been a move to add more wealth to the billionaires that serve him. Every single thing he’s done has been one step closer to fascism, and it isn’t even a secret at this point. Every move he’s made, every move that they’ve been talking about making for years, means that America and Americans are worse off than it was the day before. And I know that everything is difficult right now, with things being expensive, inflation, cost of living, you name it. Things were bad under Biden, too. I get that. But everything will get worse under Trump. We, as a people, have to stop this. And if you think I’m wrong here, then I really hope you’ll at least hear me out first. I’ve already told you why I think things are gonna get bad, but now I’ve got to tell you how you, me, us, we, all fit into this.
Listen, you don’t to believe me or agree with me that these things are all bad. Maybe you’re reading this and you’re even excited about some of the changes, some of the things that have already happened and are going to come down the line. If you are, I genuinely want to ask you… why? What do you believe these things will accomplish for you, personally, and for the country you want America to be? And I don’t want you to give me an answer. You aren’t going to convince me of anything, just as I’m not likely to convince you of anything here. But I do want you to give yourself an answer, first of all. Be very, very honest with yourself. What do you want America to look like? And do you really think Trump will get us there? And after that, I hope you’ll listen to what I have to say, because the truth of the matter, at least the way it seems to me, is that Trump is not on your side. No, that’s not true; Trump is not on our side. We’re on the same side here, you and me, regardless of who you voted for, because it’s us against the wealthy. Trump and his people only work for themselves, for the uber-rich. But everyone else? We’re the ones who will pay the price. And we have to work together to fix that.
I’m sure you have reasons for liking Trump, reasons that probably make sense to you and, in some cases, might even be considered “good” reasons. Left-wing politics aren’t perfect, and I will be the first to tell you that American left-wing politics are as much of a shitshow as anything else. It is more complicated than just “right” or “wrong.” I didn’t like Harris either, even though I voted for her. But to me, leftism is the only sustainable path forward, because it puts people, not profit, first. We need to be focusing on our communities, on our people, on our fellow humans, and not on our wallets. I get that that can be hard if you’re struggling to get by, but that’s exactly my point. There are ways out of this poverty trap that don’t involve deporting immigrants and devolving into fascism. I know that people are struggling, were struggling under Biden and Obama before him, because life in America is harder than it ought to be, for a country so filthy rich. That’s the point. We need to fix that. We can make solutions to that, and I know that Kamala Harris wasn’t the solution, but at least she would have kept things at a status quo so we have more time to fix it properly, and not threaten constitutional rights and the environment in the process. Trump is going to make everything much worse. He’s already made things worse. He may be starting with immigrants, but soon, it’s going to move to everyone else. I have very little doubt about this. It may be things as simple as increasing prices, decreased freedoms, media crackdowns, etc. And maybe it stays that way. Maybe the things Trump has threatened never comes to pass, and all that happens is America becomes more expensive (plus the implied environmental destruction continues). But is that really what we want? Is that how we want America to be? And there’s always the risk of it getting worse. We cannot let it stay there, and we absolutely cannot let it get worse.
To me, Trump is very obviously a bad person (see: rapist, racist, felon, demagogue, fascist…) and a bad leader (see: nonsense tariffs, secret police, retaliation against political opponents…), and I am so tired of pretending there is a “both sides” aspect of this. The Democrats may have plenty of flaws, and I may want their party to implode so something better can rise from the ashes, but there are arguably “good sides” to them. But for Trump, there is no good side to his side, and I don’t mean Republicans generally. I mean Trump-Trump. Him and his ilk are basically their own thing now, a wealthy cabal of political and corporate elites who have mastered their misinformation campaign. They are not working for America, and they are not working for you. And frankly, you’ve either figured it out yet, or you’ll learn, because the end game of these people is taking you to the cleaners and scorching the earth. I just hope we can all change that before it’s too late.
But how the hell can we change it? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that it’s a lot of work, and there are an infinite amount of possibilities for how to make things better, and it’s gonna take a lot of time. But the good news is that there are lots of things to do, and we can all do something. If you’re looking for the concise solution to all these problems that I’ve been hinting at for weeks, well, here’s your answer to the woes of the world, straight and simple: organize. That’s it. That’s what we have to do. Organize everyone. Boost class consciousness to the point where the real people in America can fix things. Join a mutual aid group. Read some real leftist literature. Volunteer at your local homeless shelter. Advocate for environmental protections and clean energy in your hometown. Do something. Even a little is better than nothing.
Not enough info? Understandable. It’s a lot of big ideas. Here’s a nice list in more detail, to expound upon that “organize,” with bullet points and emboldened key phrases:
- The absolute number-one thing you can do right now to resist all of this is join some sort of labor union (or other collective organization). Joining labor unions and collective action organizations are arguably the most important thing you can do right now (even economists think so). Those who control the labor control the world, and right now, the billionaire class controls labor with an iron fist. Trust me, Amazon, Starbucks, etc. wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop unions if they weren’t effective at curtailing corporate influence (you know, the thing that’s robbing money from Americans). Sure, unions aren’t perfect, and there may not be a union for your position, but that means you can make one! It isn’t easy, and there is a serious threat of corporate retaliation (which is illegal, although unfortunately common), but talk to your coworkers and start/join a union, and then, just as importantly, build relationships with other unions and political groups in your economic sector. Corporations are just as much of a threat as Trump is, especially because he’s trying to turn them loose on everybody. Unios are how we defend ourselves from that. Here’re some resources on how. And if your job is complicit in some of the U.S.’s abuses (i.e. you’re a manager at a large corporation or work for a defense contractor), consider resigning or sabotaging your business from the inside. You have to watch out for yourself first, but you do have options.
- Join a local branch of a political movement. This could be something like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, if you feel, as I do, very strongly about the direction America needs to go in (note: I’m not vouching for this organization specifically, I don’t know enough about them to say one way or the other, but they seem legitimate). There’s also general labor movements, like the The General Strike. Or you can find other political groups near you. Maybe a local environmental movement, or a local mutual aid group, or a local soup kitchen, or a local food not bombs group, or a different specialty movement. Local organizations often have ties, or at least connections, to nationwide groups, and you can get a feel for what you may or may not like by going to events and seeing what it’s like. Again, the most powerful thing you can do is organize. The people around you are going to know the specifics of how you in your region can make change, so the best thing you can do is go local.
- Get involved in local politics. This is just like the one above, but instead of joining a local branch of a national organization in order to change the national government, just try to focus on your local government instead. Local ordinances and laws will affect your day-to-day life just as much, if not more than, federal laws, but they are the ones you can more directly influence. Run for office, campaign for local candidates you like, get familiar with who’s running your town, county, or state. Call your public officials! Tell them what you think! Even if you don’t like the current system, you can still work from within it. Fight back, change your town’s laws for the better.
- Boycott corporations. Maybe the second most powerful thing you can do, besides voting with your labor, is voting with your wallet. These corporations only have power because they are so wealthy, and they are only so wealthy because they take our money. Sometimes there are no reasonable alternatives (such as in the case of healthcare), but you don’t have to buy from Amazon, or Walmart, Temu, or Whole Foods. Buy from local farmer’s markets! Join up with your neighbors and buy in bulk wholesale from suppliers. Skip out on streaming services and pirate media (if it comes from large corporations). Stock up on things that might be banned, like Plan B or certain books. Support your local library. Buy things used, or refurbish, or resell things that might be useful. Consider the Buy Nothing project. Find alternatives to fossil fuels (i.e. solar, sustainable energy neighborhood cooperatives, bikes, etc.). Quit or limit social media, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. There are lots of ways you can redirect your money away from corporations and back into the pockets of your local community. It may not always be cheap (because corporations artificially keep their prices low via suffering and conglomeration), and you may not be able to do everything you want to. But even a little bit is still something. These corporations will dry up without money.
- Know your rights. Don’t talk to the police, and make sure everyone with you knows not to talk to the police. “No digas nada.” Don’t say anything. Even if you are undocumented, you are still supposed to be guaranteed certain rights under the law. An example of those can be found here, in both English and Spanish. You do not have to answer any questions the police ask of you without legal defense present, you do not have to let them search you without a warrant, and you do not have to listen to them unless they tell you explicitly that you are being detained. If they do try to detain you, for any reason, shout loudly and clearly things like “I AM NOT RESISTING ARREST. I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY SEARCHES OF MY PERSON OR MY PROPERTY.” And if you see people being arrested, film it (as long as you aren’t on government property). The police, especially ICE, are not our friends. You cannot be held for an extended period of time without cause, and you can make it as uncomfortable as possible for them to do their jobs (especially if you are white/are a citizen). If you see ICE or cops, loudly say stuff like “DON’T SAY ANYTHING. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO LEGAL COUNSEL. ARE THEY BEING DETAINED? WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR REASONABLE SUSPICION?” Know your rights, and make sure everyone else knows theirs, too. Do not make their job an easy one.
- Minor sabotage, especially if you are a federal employee. There are lots of little things you can do to clog up the gears of fascist bureaucracy. Remember that DEI snitch email from a few weeks ago? It’s closed now, but wouldn’t it be great to spam that email account with tons of bogus reports? Is your job at the federal government complicit in some of these abuses? Work slowly, delay action, make stupid speeches that take up time, follow laws to the T and don’t take any shortcuts, do everything in your power to make things as inconvenient for the bastards as possible. Or do exactly what they tell you not to do, just to fuck with them. That said, you don’t even have to do anything that would get you fired. Just be Colin Robinson, from What We Do In The Shadows. The CIA once wrote a document about sabotaging your business, intended for use by rebellious individuals in, uh, Nazi Germany. I think a lot of the ideas still apply. Just be a pest, as much as legally possible.
- Join a protest. I am thrilled to see the number of protests popping up all over the US. Protests are important for a number of reasons. For one, they demonstrate strength and solidarity to the those in power. Two, protests in largely right-leaning areas demonstrate to left-leaning people in those parts of the country who might feel isolated politically. They build unity and camaraderie. Three, good protests are jumping-off points for more concerted, focused resistance efforts. I’ve been to enough protests to know that they very rarely get anything done on their own. But they are fantastic recruitment drives for more regularly-scheduled activism work. So join a protest. And find the people in charge, or someone handing out fliers, and figure out how you can get involved, and help organize the next one.
- Stage a protest or other civil disobedience action. This one is easier than it sounds, depending on what scale you want to organize at. Is your local town or school passing some sort of weird draconian bathroom laws? Protest them yourself! In fact, I wrote up a description of how to do exactly that (for kids, but the ideas are still relevant) here, as a part of teacher’s resources for my book (which, by the way, I have yet to see a cent of royalties from. Damn corporations.).
- Consider more intensive direct actions. At some point, protests and boycotts might not be enough. There are other things you can do that are more direct, such as high-profile disruption and industrial sabotage, such as shutting down pipelines or blockading speeches. That being said, sometimes these actions are illegal. In my book, that’s ok, especially when the government is acting illegally and causing irreparable damage to the Earth and its people. Consider joining organizations that organize and promote direct action, like Climate Defiance. These kinds of actions aren’t for everyone; don’t do them if you aren’t comfortable with the action/potential consequences. There are plenty of ways to contribute that aren’t direct actions, and plenty of support roles for these direct actions (fundraising, legal, medical, etc.) that don’t put you in the line of fire. But if you’re starting to get to your breaking point… Direct action might be the way to go.
- I, for one, believe in the possibility of bloodless revolution to fix the things that are wrong with America and the things that are wrong with Capitalism. I do not believe that political reform and “working from the inside” is enough to make things totally right, but I also don’t think that the time is right to pick up arms and start shooting people. You absolutely do not have to agree with me on the revolution bit to still engage with these actions (and I’ll still respect you if you don’t agree because any work is good work), but if you do agree with me, America needs class consciousness. Organize your family, friends, neighbors, and town. Reach out to loved ones, and focus on who is within your circle in addition to joining larger movements. These big changes cannot happen with a small vocal contingency. We need everyone on board to make it work. Spread the word, and learn more about it. Each of us are a revision process, and so is this government and this world. We are the ones who can and must make it better.
And, finally, some brief, general thoughts on what we can do, what to expect, and ways to avoid falling into a spiral of doomer thoughts.
- Don’t believe him. To summarize this very interesting video/essay, Trump and his team are overloading the news cycle faster than people can respond, but his actions aren’t really doing anything. Most of them are getting blocked. He wants to look strong, but he’s not. Believe in the constitution and the rule of law, which we, as a nation, should still collectively support, even more so than any individual leaders. Sure, I still think work needs to be done, and I don’t want to take the risk that he does get something to stick, but in the meantime, don’t believe him. And don’t give up hope. Like the video says, these are not the actions of a man who knows how to make these changes stick. There is as much a possibility of us getting through this as everything else. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something, and it doesn’t mean that the threats aren’t real, all the same. Protect the most vulnerable people in your life.
- Finally, if you aren’t convinced that what Trump has done/is trying to do is enough to justify action, write down, for yourself, what would be enough to justify action on your part. I mentioned last week about drawing that line. Now is the time for you to actually draw that line. Where is it? Decide for yourself, and then decide what you’ll do if/when that time comes. I really like this youtube video and that channel (Innuendo Studios) in general for an idea of what I’m talking about. He’s been making these videos for a while now, and they are as enlightening as they are frightening. And this particular video, about the Rubicon, is basically exactly what I’ve been saying, but worded more succinctly. I promise I didn’t copy this guy’s homework, we just happened to have similar ideas. And I hate it, but here’s another interesting video echoing what I’ve said before… by John Green. Good grief. I can’t decide if I’m still jealous of that guy or not, but the lingering resentment from my childhood remains. But it’s definitely a video worth watching, he’s a smart guy.
- To reference that video up above, I, for one, have no issue calling Trump a fascist. I’m not afraid of calling it “early” because, deep down, I think we crossed the line back in Reagan’s era. Or at least began fording the Rubicon, to borrow that video’s terminology. At the very least, my line is in the past. I think we need to take action now because something needs to change. Things were/are not great in America prior to Trump (lack of healthcare, lack of labor rights, lack of community, racism, sexism, you name it), and Trump is just the most recent expression of late-stage capitalism. People have been taking actions for generations already, and I think it’s worth continuing that action, because the work isn’t done.
- We have to do something. Only you can decide when and what that means for yourself.
So, thoughts for the class? First off, this is all well and good, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is just a starting point. I am not the greatest source of this information, I am just a source of this information. We can all learn more, by working together. Because for some of us, things have already crossed a line from “unacceptable” to “grim dystopia.” And while some of us are working together on it now, you may not be there yet, the time might come where you’re gonna hit that line. Where will it be?
For me, that line came a long time ago. I haven’t always been as politically active as I could be, but believe me, I’ve been trying to stop this for a while now, in the little ways I can. All I can do now is work harder. Even though I live in Sweden now (more on that later), I haven’t stopped fighting this fight. But my big question is this: you know why I feel there’s a time limit, you know what they are already doing, and you know some things you can do about it to run against this. So the big question: what are you gonna do now?
I can’t answer that one for you, and I deeply encourage everyone reading this to seriously consider what you can do in your day-to-day life that pushes the world in a direction toward peace and prosperity for all. Only when we defeat the the evils of racism, fascism, capitalism, sexism, only when we defeat the evils of everything that stands in the way of all people achieving wellbeing, can we truly build the best world possible. There are lots of ways to do that, and maybe my way isn’t the best, but I hope that, deep down, we’re all in agreement. Every day, we should try to make the world better. That’s what this is all about.
I still want to say love in the answer. I came across this speech by Charlie Chaplin, from 1940, and it feels as true today as it did at *checks notes* the beginning of World War II. I still want to say that outreach, that organization, that compassion, that kindness, and mercy, and forgiveness, are the answer. I still want to say that we can get through this, that maybe it won’t be so bad, that maybe four years will speed by in the blink of an eye, and we’ll see a left-wing surge and reinvigorate America and the world into something worth believing in. And truly, maybe it will all be ok. The world has been through worse. In the history of humanity, we have seen some of the darkest things imaginable by the collective consciousness. In the grand scale of all that has happened, millions have died in petty wars, cities have burned in split seconds, empires have fallen into shambles, plagues have destroyed centuries of society, and the worst disasters nature can muster have erased entire ways of life. And yet life, goes on. Though it might feel like it now, I do sincerely believe that this is not one of those darkest moments. Trump’s win is, very hopefully, just a blip on the cosmic radar of human history, not the beginning of one of those darkest moments. He is just one man. It is just one election, in one nation. We will continue. We will persevere, as we always have. Fingers crossed, we will all be here in four more years. As the saying goes, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. It just… feels like we’re running out of time to make it to the end of that arc.
At any rate, politics comes in waves. Sometimes those waves are fascist. It takes some cycles and people figure it out. Things get worse, then they get better again. The world goes on. Terrible, horrible things happen, and still the world goes on. Right now, at this moment, this is not one of those terrible horrible things. Worse things have happened in history. But I truly hope beyond hope that it isn’t the start of one either, because I am very, very worried. And yet, the world goes on. Life continues. Not all of us will be here for the next election, but that has been true every time. I hope that this time is no different, and that as many of us as possible are all still here, all still kicking four years down the line. But it might not be easy, and we might not have that much time left. Life will continue. But we may be looking down the barrel of our own gun, with billions of lives on the line. I, for one, don’t like those odds. If there’s gonna be a line in the sand, it needs to be drawn together. It’ll take some time and effort to get there, but there is hope. You, me, we, us, are the ones that have to do that. Because no one else is going to do it for us. At the end of the day, I’m willing to fight for it.
I hope that you are, too.
