Image by Markus Spiske.
The Trump administration likes numbers. Numbers of dollars spent on his campaign and numbers of federal workers fired. Numbers of dollars the rich will get back after tax cuts and numbers of dollars that will be saved by throwing people off their health insurance (Medicaid) and food subsidies(SNAP). Then there’s the numbers regarding immigrants being rounded up and sent away. Plus, the number forty-three represents the number of countries whose citizens will be restricted and banned from entering the United States. There are also numbers describing the tariffs and numbers of voters who voted for Trump. Who can ignore the numbers of Palestinians and Yemenis killed—approaching 1000 as I write this—by Israel and Washington since Trump moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Nobody really knows how truthful the numbers we are told are and nobody seems to care enough to do much about them. Every person fired is a person who wonders how they’re going to pay for their home and their food. Every person fired supporting a family finds that scenario magnified with each family member they support. And now the trumpists are going after unions, threatening to terminate the federal government’s contract with the union representing TSA workers and talking about firing postal workers. This is the beginning, not the end of what might well be fascism.
Recently a legal resident who spoke out against government policies overseas was kidnapped from their home and held incognito. No one, not even the arrested man’s pregnant wife knew where he was for a day. Although 102 congresspeople responded to this gross violation of the Constitution, flawed document that it is, by noting that this is what dictators do, only fourteen signed a previous letter calling for the man’s release. The trumpists threaten more of these actions and continue cutting funding from schools with anti-occupation student organizations. School and corporations line up to enforce the contempt for humanity these actions represent even after the trumpists take back millions of dollars in dedicated grants. Most of the media colludes with the people in power, unwilling to challenge the authoritarians almost certain to repress their freedom to write no matter how much they acquiesce.
A billionaire named Musk is given power to reshape the bureaucracy as he sees fit. No oligarch has ever ruled a regime that did not put their greed for money and power first. Elon Musk is not any different. Nor is Donald Trump. Still, it’s not enough to only go after Musk and the rest of the billionaires forcing austerity on the very class that made them obscenely wealthy. It’s a good place to begin, but they are not alone in their onslaught. The number of co-conspirators is greater than you think but not as great as they think it is. This is a battle between the ruling class and the rest of us. Those who are not in the former but identify with that class’s interests should not be surprised when their heroes in the halls of money and power leave them as if they were compost ready to be turned over in the bin. This is a good place to once again remind those who think their interests are the same as the billionaires that the only thing the ruling class wants from them is their surrender (and maybe their children should the rulers decide a war is useful to their future.
All these numbers don’t mean much as numbers. They mean a whole lot more when it’s your neighbor who got laid off or your partner who got fired. Or your kids whose school had to close after the teachers were sent home. Wait until hospitals start closing because working class people who were on Medicaid can no longer take care of their medical needs. Wait until your parents stop getting social security checks. Wait until you can’t pay your rent or your mortgage because your job either doesn’t exist or has been privatized and your wage was cut. Wait until the ripple effect of the public sector cuts reaches your city or town—recession will barely begin to describe the situation. The Democrats—bless their capitalist hearts—would like to help you out but they’ve got an election coming up somewhere and they need you to donate to their party. Take that donation out of your unemployment check before the trumpists take that away, too. If you’re lucky, there will be another election for you to vote in. That’ll show them.
We need to fight. I mean, seriously fight. Fighting back means going beyond the courts, beyond performance protests and well beyond elections. I know it’s difficult for many to accept, but if you’re not part of the oligarchy the United States government is not interested in your existence. This is true even if you march to its orders. Even if you wear a MAGA hat and pay your dues. Most judges, politicians, military officers are either part of the problem or afraid to stand up to it. Most men and women in the media and the rest of the corporate sector are of a similar mind. That’s what can happen when one identifies with the powerful even when they have no love for you. The Democrats are slowly learning this fact, but we shouldn’t wait for them to lead given their hesitancy to risk their livelihood.
There’s a meme making the rounds that says nothing will stop this but mass non-compliance. I think that this sentiment is a good beginning. However, I believe it’s going to take something more. Those who oppose Trumpism need to make the country ungovernable ultimately. If they keep firing people, raising tariffs locking up and deporting protesters, those of us out of work will have plenty of time to go about it. Nothing is the same and it’s unlikely to improve for those who aren’t in the 1%. It won’t matter how long you wait. Might as well fight back.
