On the eve of the inauguration, I published in these pages a blog entitled “He will be my president too,” a reference to John McCain’s exemplary gracious concession to then President-Elect Barack Obama.
My blog that day was intended to have some taste of graciousness, but it was not all roses. I meant to emphasize a certain collective responsibility that we as Americans will all bear for the way the country moves in these next four years. It was meant both as an acknowledgment and a sounding of both hope and warning that whether we had voted for him or against him, Donald J Trump was about to be the President and we as Americans would ultimately be accountable for our actions in this time.
I made extensive references in that post to the way that the national socialist party transformed a democratic Germany into a one party dictatorship. Acknowledging that such comparisons always invite screams of hyperbole and inappropriateness, I also acknowledged that I am by no means the only one in this time to raise the concern. And while I explicitly expressed the fervent wish that such a comparison would never become accurate, I felt compelled to muse that it might do so, and wondered how we would be bound by morality, and our own safety to react.
So far, those specific warnings I voiced have not come to pass in the way I stated to be so feared. The incoming administration has not sought, at least publicly enough to invite reporting, to stifle the press or imprison its political adversaries. However, it has consistently taken actions and expressed positions that stretch, challenge, and undermine if not outright dismantle those traditional legal and normative standards that for many of us have come to define our constitutional republic.
The president has taken regulatory actions which are viewed as unconstitutional , has refused to spend funds which had been mandated by Congress in violation of the separation of powers, a core pillar of our democracy. His dismantling of initiatives designed to promote fairness in the workplace and the military directly opposes Court judgments against discrimination on the basis of sex, for example, he has claimed that the executive branch has privileges both of personnel management, that is, hiring and firing, and financial function of departments which are explicitly reserved for the legislative branch and threaten what many scholars have already called a ‘constitutional crisis’, and his threats to birthright citizenship specifically contradict the literal wording of the Constitution .
Perhaps more alarming, if one needed more to be alarmed about, are his clearly stated territorial demands, in which he claims the right to take over sovereign countries, and territories under the legal purview of other Nato members, and he has publically claimed the right to take over and “own” territory explicit reserved by the UN and prior treaties to Gaza. Attempting to mask this claim as a favor to the people of Gaza, a clear statement from a real estate mogul to establish a new “Riviera” has to be recognized, and he has explicitly denied the current population the right of return. For those who think the comparison to Hitler is completely out of line, after hearing of his stated considerations to annex Panama, Greenland, Gaza, and – perhaps jokingly – Canada, one wonders where his “last territorial demand” will be.
I guess we could count our blessings, and point out that there have so far been no hostile press shuttered and no political adversaries jailed, tortured, or killed. Perhaps, we can tell ourselves, that the fears we have of a takeover of our democracy are exaggerated and inappropriate. And maybe they are. Still, there is cause, as one legislator publicly said, to be concerned we are at the “red alert” stage.
Perhaps we don’t need to wait for adversaries to be literally jailed. Elon Musk and his DOGE associates are widely reported to have penetrated deeply into both our social security system and IRS, already in four short weeks. Is it possible that those who have opposed who even questioned the present administration will soon find their taxes audited, or their social security checks delayed or disappeared? Perhaps our bank accounts as well. Do I grow paranoid here? I hope that is all this is. A fever dream.
But things grow increasingly topsy turvy. One month in and we are bargaining with aggressor nations, chastising our allies of eight decades, calling elected presidents under attack “dictators”, and taking actions that could widely be seen as encouraging democracies to vote in parties widely held to be Neo-nazis.
We are not yet at the stage of what I have termed “kinetic fascism”, by which I mean the use of the physically coercive power of the state to explicitly violate laws and rights. Still one would have to be seeing things through very cloudy or rosy glasses not to be concerned that enough norms have been swept away to be a tad bit alarmed. It has gotten, in one short month, to the point that the governor of a major state in an official public address, the State of the Union speech, specifically invoked the specter of the Nazis, and the recent security conference in Munich was compared to the conference in 1938 when the western powers, leaving the Czechs out of the conference, agreed to Hitler’s territorial demands. Like it or not, in one short month American leaders and world press are explicitly raising the specter of a resurgence, at least of the echoes of national socialism. History doesn’t repeat itself, as the saying goes, but it can rhyme.
The question continues to be what, if anything, can be done.
In my last blog, before the inauguration, I suggested mostly relatively passive approaches. Now, four weeks in we have already had a large nationwide protest, thankfully still peaceful from both sides. I confess though that after attending a protest in NYC I can see that there will be little benefit. There were a dozen messages, mostly competing, addressed to diverse constituencies, and mostly unrealistic. The chant “Ho ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” is, with all due respect to those who coined it, not a viable message. First of all, there is no legal way for him to go, at least for the next four years, and one hopes no one is calling for extra-legal solutions! Yelling “fascist” up and down may make one feel good but is of no benefit.
What would we want? That Elon Musk stop playing with our tax returns? That Trump stop firing essential workers? That the administration stop using the justice system to at least appear to either buy cooperation, reward supporters no matter their crime, or use the arms of the government to enact personal retribution. Perhaps all these things.
I believe we need to consider responses. True, he won the election, but that does not mean unbridled, unregulated, unopposed, and uncommented upon acquiescence. We are not a monarchy, not yet. It is our right and duty to respond. It is a question of how. I view the range of responses to the events unfolding and likely to unfold as falling into four buckets, depending on what happens.
First, we can accept what is happening as within the bounds of a change in administration, whether we like it or not, and stay watchful. After all, despite our fears, there is no evidence of Elon Musk stopping any Social Security payments, whether the executive can trim its staff is being adjudicated, and like it or not Trump’s team has the right to make foreign policy decisions provided they do not violate international law. He has said he intends to take over Greenland, Panama, and Gaza, but so far we have seen no troop movements. We could just sit tight, keep our mouths shut, and continue to watch CNN, MSNBC, or even Fox News if that is your liking. Emotionally upsetting yes, but one could argue that as of yet we have seen him flirt with but not cross such a firm red line to mandate active response.
Second, we can protest. In writing, on air, in gatherings, peaceful gatherings, carry signs. “Sing songs, carry signs, mostly say ‘hurray for our side.” And this has a value, if enough people make it clear that some paths, such as DOGE having unfettered access to my bank accounts, gets enough people to carry enough signs, such as policy may be mitigated.
Third, there remains the question of “resistance”. What would resistance mean?
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, there is and remains no, none, zero justification for violent resistance, political violence is almost always wrong, it is not justified now, and one still hopes will never be. We are not now, and I hope never will be staring at the old cliches about meeting nazis at the doors with guns drawn, that is NOT and hopefully will never be in the cards for this country.
Still, there may be some actions which the new administration is taking which go so much against the values, standards and expectations which Americans have traditionally held, both for our own lives, such as our own privacy, and the long-standing traditions we have proudly held regarding our nation’s reputation on the world stage which make many of us feel that some serious response to the administration policy is in order.
One form of resistance is economic. This coming February 28th, for example, has been suggested and advertised as a “retail blackout”, a single day in which as many people as possible will agree to spend as little as possible. Such an action would serve more as an indication of widespread concern than a serious blow to the economy.
Few at this point, are calling for extended boycotts, or general strikes, although such tactics have been used in other venues. But it is well worth considering one day of holding off any purchases to signal to those who have the wherewithal to fund campaigns that enough people want some norms honored to be able to inflict at least some temporary discomfort on the profit makers.
Finally, the fourth and ultimately most effective response is neither ignoring, protesting, or resisting, but rather political change. I said above I was at a protest over this last President’s Day and it showed me more than anything, I hate to say it, but why Democrats lost. A dozen different messages and a dozen different audiences and no one is really speaking to the concerns of the American people.
One of many possible takeaways from the last election, and I know that Democrats love to wring our hands and blame ourselves, but there appeared to be no one or two unifying organizing principles. Were we against billionaires, against tax cuts, against fascists, against homophobia? Were we in favor of Israel or Europe or Ukraine, or Gaza? Did we want to guarantee abortion rights, increase the representation of underprivileged minorities, fight for the working man, encourage innovation, improve our alliances, protect our borders, or protect immigrants? Those principles which were articulated were clearly not done so in way to galvanize support from a majority of the populace. How do we do that?
To recapture the confidence of the American people will take some serious consideration of what unifying principles affect and can be articulated to a deciding proportion of the population, and which must be left to the sidelines.
But that is a discussion for another day.
I started this series of arguments with the blog “He is my president too”. We are all, now, if not responsible for what becomes of this nation, then at least likely to be held, by history, accountable. If, as others in far greater positions of authority than me have expressed, there are real concerns about going down a terrible hole, one reminiscent of the most dangerous holes in history, we need to be more diligent about paying attention.