Which Side Are You On

I don't think it will come as any surprise that the people who did not want Trump to be President are pretty upset. I just wish every one had been this upset BEFORE the election. Personally, I am getting over the mourning and grief stage and moving into the reluctantly accepting stage. I'll have to say that I am encouraged by the outpouring of protest against the current government's policies. They are certainly the most I've seen since the '60s. Over the past few administrations I had begun to fear that the progressives had lost their communal voice and, to be honest, I think we had. I think it took something so drastic to reawaken the progressive spirit that has been responsible for practically every advancement our nation has made. Without that voice to resist those who would never consider any kind of change we would still be laboring in sweat shops alongside our children.

Just as those who opposed President Obama 8 years ago, I find nothing to appreciate in our current President. Even though I understand the deep resentment felt by the working class it has been astonishing to me that so many would fail to understand the reasons for the loss that stimulated that resentment. However to have chosen as ill equipped a man as Donald Trump to carry us out of our great miasma seems to me to have been spectacularly ill considered. I have disagreed with every single action he has taken since inauguration.

It is eerie how quiet is the voice of the reactionary right in the shadow of some of the dreadful things he has done. It seems to me to be evident that the man is unbalanced and dangerous but I have to conclude that those who supported him are satisfied with how he is doing things and that troubles me even more. I have seen some rejoinders to criticism of his actions saying “it's only been 3 weeks, give him a chance.” I have to ask “a chance to do what.” His promises and his actions are what he said he would do. At least as far as trade and immigration but he hasn't been too faithful in holding those denizens of Wall Street's feet to the fire. No indeed. His entire cabinet is made up of millionaires and billionaires and he has sworn to tear down the structures put in place to lessen the chance of it happening again. I take him at his word that he is going to deconstruct the Affordable Care Act. I have to say that I don't believe him when he says he is going to replace it with something better, so much better. From the looks of things the Republicans are finding that the ACA was more popular than they thought which only confirms that people didn't have a problem with the ACA. They had a problem with President Obama. Well, I suppose we'll see how many are eager to go back home and tell their constituents they no longer have access to health care and, surprise, they've got nothing better. I can't understand any impulse to give him a chance when he attacks an entire religious faith and bans immigrants and refugees from countries that have never mounted an attack on the United States. Even if one could find a way to make the ban constitutional it could never be considered moral or ethical and it would contradict everything the United States has represented over the centuries. When he insults allies and casts doubt on decades old alliances that have kept world peace how can we give him more of a chance to do worse? How can we allow him to think that it is okay to equate American foreign policy with that of Russia. Whatever happened to the doctrine of American Exceptionalism that the conservative right hung the moon on? How can we do nothing when families are broken apart because a parent may not have legal papers? Is there no room for compassion? Is there no thought of sharing the largess that we enjoy? How are we supposed to give him a chance on that? And, by the way, where were all those voices 8 years ago when President Obama was proposing policies to unify rather than tear apart? It would have been good to have heard a few of them then.

And so a resistance is born. The Women's March on Washington was a watershed moment in social and political affairs. It remains to be seen whether or not that fervor can be sustained until the actions come to fruition. If it can be then the republic has a chance to remain a democracy. If not then we will face a government that is more and more repressive in the false hope for security and a more dangerous world in which to live. Groups are forming across the country much in the same way as the Tea Party movement was born. It remains to be seen whether or not the funding will be there in the same way it was with the Tea Party. As distasteful as many of us find it the anger will have to feed the energy of the disaffected until it becomes a movement. It was out of such energy that the Period of the Enlightenment fed the impulse to form the great progressive movement of the American Revolution and the penning of the Constitution which gives life to the effort. I am afraid that letter writing and phone calls will not be enough to change the course of repression. As it was 50 years ago it will take visible and vocal demonstrations to not only gain the attention of the ruling class but to also allow the fervor to infect the apathetic until a new governing majority is formed.

My Take is that if the progressive republic is to be saved then you will have to choose. In the inimitable words of Florence Reece, “Which side are you on?”