I can’t stress enough how vital it is that we get prepared for what is to come. If you are involved as I am I have no doubt that you’ve read countless analyses about the impending tyranny, but let me – on a step by step basis – lay out the many ways in which the world ruled by Trump will likely unfold. Bear in mind that these are my predictions based on Trump’s stated positions, the present conditions of the two major parties as well as our media and political system, the ripeness of our political culture for this moment, the lessons of history, the realities of economics, and the possible events which may transpire as a result of feedback.
Please know that these are things which I sincerely HOPE will be proven WRONG. I’m a father of two young children and want to be wrong. Let’s hope that I am.
Here goes:
Healthcare
You can see it now, the Republican Party is licking their chops waiting to rip the Affordable Care Act – President Obama’s key accomplishment – to shreds and send it into the ash heap of history. This is the moment they’ve been waiting for, the moment that they’ve been getting their base of supporters animated about ever since the debate began in 2009. Finally, the years of waiting have come to a close. President Trump has come to town and he is bringing his axe to chop down the mighty Obamacare tree.
No, they aren’t circling the wagons because they – the elected – are legitimately concerned that the law is wreaking havoc on our healthcare. Truth be told, this law is precisely what they promoted as an alternative to Bill Clinton’s proposal in the 1990s after it was assembled by conservative thinkers in the preceding decades. These people are only going to seriously ponder repealing the reform because it is what their base expects after 7 years of partisan demonizing and obstruction which used the misrepresentation of the law as a weapon against the party then in power. Will there be a replacement? Who knows, but the odds are that short of a few conservative pet projects – like buying insurance across state lines, health savings accounts, and tort reform – very little will be done to help the people after their right to health care is removed.
While it is possible that a public backlash from a protracted debate (which is showing some signs of emerging with a bipartisan vengeance) could stall or even kill the repeal mission, let’s just assume that Trump and his Congressional minions achieve the first step of repealing the Affordable Care Act. What happens then? Numerous studies have shown that the debt will explode, countless citizens may be stripped of their coverage – thusly risking their lives -, insurance rates will skyrocket, and the economy could well be thrown into a new recession…if not worse.
This is when Trump and the Republicans will begin their blame game. They will claim that the Democrats created this mess by forcing “Obamacare” on us. Their argument will be garbled in many cases and won’t make a lot of sense, but it will go something like “the regulations chose the winners and losers and set the stage for the industry’s collapse”. At that point they will attempt to patch work while inserting the aforementioned wish list. The most docile of their list is permitting insurance purchases across state lines, but even that could lead to disaster if unfettered greed topples state monopolies and paves the way for national or at least regional monopolies. Then, there are the so-called “health savings accounts” which is basically a scheme to have every citizen fend for themselves. If you’re poor, forget having healthcare at all. Finally, the tort reform effort will try to limit or effectively eliminate our ability to sue when a doctor does more harm than good when we entrust them to operate on our unconscious bodies.
Yes, Trumpcare sounds so grand, does it not?
Taxes
You may or may not have heard by now that one of Lord Trump’s chief priorities (pretty much second only to repealing the Affordable Care Act) is a revolutionary overhaul of our tax code. This is not surprising coming from a billionaire – if he really is one – who has done everything in his power to avoid paying anything in taxes for decades. On the surface it appears as though Trump wants to rein in on the crooked thieves in our midst who are escaping their obligations thereby forcing the rest of us to pick up the tabs. In reality, Trump is one of those who use the system to his benefit and his proposals on taxes are largely aimed at serving people like him even more.
In addition to lowering tax rates – predominantly for the wealthy and for corporations -, Trump wants to pay for these cuts partially by eliminating deductions such as the “head of household” as well as “personal exemptions”. The Trump brigade argues that this won’t matter because you will have more of your own hard-earned money now and will pay less of it later, but the truth is that this creates an effective tax increase – or at least a significant benefit decrease – for millions of working families. We’re talking thousands of dollars per taxpayer that would have come in the form of a refund will now be eradicated all the while the top 1% gets another bailout.
Let’s dispense for a second the absurdity of any notion that we are “taxed enough already”, and instead focus on the immediate impact these changes will have once implemented. For starters, by cutting tax revenue at such a large degree – coupled with the incoming Administration’s ambitious across the board spending plans – will drastically increase the national debt at a time when the economy is gradually building momentum. This approach would have been better employed when the economy was in freefall eight years ago, and even though it will initially create a boost in job creation (to be discussed more at length later), this will cripple our resources to respond to the next economic crisis since we’re exploding the debt during times of growth when we should be using this time to pay our debts from 2009 and before.
The second effect will be what these changes will either immediately or eventually have on the working class. Assuming that we do see a brief economic boom produced by a monstrous amount of money pumped into the economy in a short period of time, once that dust settles the reduced supply of money for each of America’s working class households will hinder the collective ability of this mass of Americans to consume. Most citizens in the bottom 50% of the economic ladder will either owe more in taxes or have a lot less in refunds every tax year from implementation onwards. If the trend of income and wealth inequality continues to widen as it has in the past few decades, this could send the economy into a downward spiral.
Simply put, the economy is 70% consumer activity, and most consumers are counted among the working and shrinking middle classes. Weakening their purchasing power – whether intentionally or not – is similar to driving a car with two rear flat tires. The economy depends on the participation of a citizenry with disposable income, and if most monetary resources are going to the few hands at the upper echelon of society then a slowdown and even an outright downturn are inescapable. So, yes, this tax plan would prove to be disastrous in the long term without major improvements in the creation of living wage jobs.
What about the consequences? Just as with the probable finger pointing to expect when their healthcare plan explodes, you can guarantee that Trump’s loyalists will point to how our tax code had been rigged for “special interests”. There is a hint of truth, but Trump will attack those interests in a way that mostly shifts the blame to the disadvantaged in America (poor, disabled, immigrants, etc.) while focusing as little criticism as possible on the rich and powerful. After all, Trump will need to silently please his rich friends if he hopes to stay in power beyond 2021.
Trade
Don’t get me wrong, this is the one area of our new President’s positions where I have the most agreement, but that doesn’t mean that everything will be just fine. It’s fine to oppose NAFTA and the now-dead TPP, but Trump has taken more of a protectionist approach than a fair trade approach. Trade is an inescapable necessity of life in the modern world, and I know that Trump understands this. Then again, his chest-pounding America-first rhetoric could prove risky.
Trump has pledged to impose a severe trade tariff – sometimes even exceeding 30% - on imported goods, has taken a tough stance against suspected (but reportedly no longer true) Chinese currency manipulation, has threatened our trade relationship with Mexico in part as an attempt at blackmailing them to pay for that damn wall, and regularly claims that numerous other trade partners – like the Japanese – are robbing us blind. At first glance someone like me is open to supporting trade tariffs to help prevent outsourcing and it was at one time a perfectly legitimate concern that China had intentionally manipulated the value of their currency to make their products cheaper on the global market. Still, the totality of all these positions – in conjunction with the fact that a boastful, candid, and vulgar president promotes them – poses a major national security risk.
Forget, for a moment, the ludicrous claims about Japan or the equally insane pledge to make Mexico pay for a border wall. Truth is that the ramifications for abandoning trade while issuing threats of huge tariffs and even sanctions for those who harm our economy could trigger a global trade war. China is presently the second largest economy on Earth, and its strength in influencing international trade almost makes it a superpower on these grounds alone. The Chinese have their economic tentacles everywhere, including here in the States. So, needless to say, engaging them in a barrage of threats about tariffs and sanctions could well motivate their government to return the favor.
Imagine, for a moment, that all products made in China suddenly skyrocketed in price here in America. These are typically the cheapest items you find in the store and the Chinese make a lot more than just cheap toys and gadgets. They also contributepieces of other items that we buy, but the “Made In” label doesn’t always say “China” on it. Additionally, imagine that all American made items have been subjected to a massive tariff in response, thereby causing our own prices to increase on the global market.
Under these conditions – and this is just a hypothetical involving China and the United States, as other nations could well be forced to take sides – American imports would plunge due to the tariffs we’ve imposed but our exports would also take a hit since our products would become more expensive to make and sell. As a consequence, you have another means by which an economic crisis could emerge with people both being left unable to consume in our economy all the while many jobs would be lost due to plunging exports and sales.
There’s a diplomatic way to fight for fair trade. Globalization is coming whether we want it or not, we just have to adapt and attempt to make it work for all of us. Trump’s plans will only fuel the flames which could engulf our economy instead of lifting it up to greater heights.
Living Wage Jobs and Unions
You can’t talk about disposable income without touching on the type of jobs required to make such possible. Just to be clear and concise about it, you need living wage jobs – that is, jobs which pay you enough where you can survive without public assistance – and you need unions to shield those workers from exploitation. Need I point out the many ways in which President Trump and his allies in Congress present a threat here? Even if you said “no”, I will anyways.
In 2011, after the Republican Tea Party wave funded by Billionaires like the Koch brothers, Republicans led the way in numerous states across this country to attack public and private unions. The easiest target for them were the public unions, since these were government-paid workers who did relatively meaningless tasks like, you know, educating our kids, protecting our neighborhoods, and putting out our fires. With legislation drafted by a collection of corporate lobbyists through a group known as ALEC, these Republican state governments began casting public unions as greedy and in need of being put in their place so that their perceived excesses - funded by, gasp, the taxpayers – could be reined in with little resistance all in the name of austerity. These were tough times after all and we couldn’t afford to pay for public employee demands for healthcare, pension, and – prepare to get your rage on – vacation time!
So, these governments throughout the nation forced through a series of crackdowns on the rights of public unions to collectively bargain. Let’s be clear, without a secure right to collectively bargain there is effectively no point to having a union other than to keep the united workers in check because unions exist to utilize at least the symbolism of a united group of workers in order to bring a handful of their representatives to the BARGAINING TABLE so as to reach a suitable compromise between the employer and the employed. Republicans – by that, I mean elected Republicans - have never truly been fans of unions, but their opposition to social democracy didn’t become explicit until their favorite president Ronald Reagan fired the first shot against unions when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers for striking. After they achieved such a sweeping victory in 2010, the Republicans wanted to make it clear that they were going to dismantle this longtime foe – which has admittedly long supported the Democrats for the most part -, and the primary target in this round was the last remaining stronghold of organized labor: public unions.
Sadly, this is far from the only means by which Republicans were assaulting the right to organize. While they were launching an assault on public unions via collective bargaining they were simultaneously resurrecting a decades-old mission to institute their deceptively-named “right to work” laws. In this respect the remnants of America’s private workforce unions were the primary target. Disguised as a noble quest to allow workers who don’t want to join a union to get employed without being shackled by ostensibly burdensome dues, this plot is stemmed from the ultimate goal of ending the unity which makes a “union” possible. Once you enable an employee to enter a job where a union exists without them having the expectation to join and/or contribute to the union in some way, they effectively reap all the benefits produced by the sacrifices of their united peers past and present without themselves having to sacrifice anything in return. This creates a natural disconnect for that particular worker from the importance of solidarity and therefore endangers the common purpose of the organization.
What does all of this have to do with our new President and Congress? Everything. Trump is on record as having stated that he supports a national “right to work” policy. Not only that, but his practices as a businessman as it relates to organized workers has been quite deplorable. Add to this the fact that his Vice President is a fervent supporter of “right to work” and is no fan of public collective bargaining either. Oh yeah, and the Republican Congress – led by the Ayn Rand worshipping Speaker Paul Ryan – is just itching to finish off America’s organized labor at the soonest possible opportunity. Damn, I almost forgot to note that Trump nominated for Secretary of Labor a man whose career in fast food has consisted of lobbying against the right to organize as well as against the minimum wage.
Speaking of which, you can forget about Trump promoting a living wage. Just take a look at what he said during the campaign when he exclaimed that American workers are actually paid too much. Yes, in Trumpland our dear leader thinks we should return to the days where the breadwinners of every household worked from the moment they awoke until they collapsed from exhaustion. Work hard, soldier, it’s your patriotic duty to line the pockets of the plutocrats!
As has been the common theme throughout this status, this is yet another area of policy wherein the stability of our economy is at risk. Destroy our unions and you can then start the countdown to when the employers – with the help of a compliant government – will start to peel away all the accomplishments of organized labor; especially the 40 hour work week and that minimum wage we take for granted. They will tell us that all these perks are just too expensive and that we should be happy just to be working in such hard times. No need to worry, because Trump will make sure the bad guys are all dead or deported!
The Safety Net
What of the trust funds and programs meant to avert the worst that poverty has to offer? Let’s just say that this is going to be interesting to behold. Trump’s rhetoric has been mixed, but his Republican Congress has been clear about their intentions from day one: they want to seriously scale back on all the achievements made by progressives over the past century. This means, quite frankly, that NOTHING is safe. Despite Trump’s numerous pledges to leave Social Security and Medicare alone, I wouldn’t doubt the strength and persuasive powers of Speaker Ryan – who has had his sights set on every single government program since Satan birthed him from his lava covered anus decades ago – to convince Donald Trump’s ego to betray his constituents and join the conservative wrecking crew here.
Repeatedly throughout Obama’s tenure the Congressional Republicans tried to cut each one of these programs – from the aforementioned retirement programs to the plethora of programs meant to help the poor and disabled -, but they lacked an ally in the White House. While Trump ran as a populist, the truth is that he sought this office for his own gratification. The man enjoys the attention and power it bestows upon him and if he can be shown a pathway towards rallying his most loyal supporters behind a privatization scheme then he absolutely will endorse it. Never underestimate the intentions of Congressman Ryan or the capacity he has to not give a damn about the impact that his proposals will have on the average citizen. The man is driven by pure ideology – an insane and unworkable libertarian ideology – and will stop at nothing to achieve his objective.
Ryan wants to hand Social Security to the stock market, turn Medicare into a voucher program – wherein seniors will be given an annual and limited voucher check to HELP them pay for what will likely be unaffordable insurance -, dismantle housing, energy, and food assistance, and effectively kill Medicaid by transforming it into a block grant program wherein the federal government will send money to the states without any mandate that they spend that money on insuring poor people. Long story short, if Ryan gets what he wants millions of people will die for lack of adequate care, millions will go hungry, millions will suffer without heat or electricity, and millions will gradually starve.
Economically speaking, eradicating the myriad assistance programs basically withdraws BILLIONS of dollars out of the economy since all those families receiving assistance would suddenly be left with no help to provide for their basic needs. This means that they would spend A LOT less in our economy. If you can’t see the earthquake effect that this could have on our economy then you are either blinded by conservative anti-government propaganda or you haven’t sat down and thought deeply enough about it.
In response to the inevitable damage wrought by their terrible policies in this respect, you can expect Ryan and his cohorts – likely with Trump leading the way – arguing that the suffering is all due to generation after generation becoming lazy and overly dependent on the government. In other words, they will blame the suffering masses for their own plight. We should have gotten real jobs! We need to stop looking for handouts! Worthless bums!
The Economy
I’ve already tackled numerous areas where the economy is going to be affected by specific policies. In some respects, Trump’s proposed policies could – at least initially – create a temporary boost in economic activity of a significant number. However, most of what he and his allies seek to accomplish could well end that economic honeymoon early. If his taxation and spending policies all come to fruition, the combined effect very likely will explode the national debt to outrageous numbers far exceeding what we’ve seen up until now.
An out of control debt spiral will trigger astronomical inflation, plunge the value of our dollar, risk our credit rating, and even endanger the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency as a result of the threat our situation would then pose to the global economy. All of this indicates a self-inflicted crisis which may well escalate into the deepest depression in world history. The worst part is that this crisis doesn’t have to happen.
Still, Trump will not take any responsibility for the calamity to come. Rather he will take a page out of Vladimir Putin’s book. For Putin, when the sanctions imposed by the West on his country in retaliation for his government’s decision to invade Ukraine caused the Russian economy to plummet, he pointed his finger at the evil Western powers and blamed them – as opposed to his own pursuit of rebuilding the Russian empire – for the suffering of Russia’s people. Having previously enjoyed a popular record of presiding over economic progress before his focus turned towards the former Soviet states, he fed on the populace’s anger and promised to remain strong in the face of this onslaught by Russia’s enemies. He promised to fight for those who were struggling from his irresponsible actions on the global stage. You know what happened then? Putin became more popular and powerful than ever before.
This model for using anger to unite the people around a tyrant in a society falling apart due to its own actions is what the Republicans – again, led by Trump – have been praising as a sign of “strength” and “leadership”. EVERY American should be alarmed by this open praise of authoritarianism. If you don’t think that Trump will look to how Putin weathered the storm created by his own abuses and misuses of power, then you don’t quite understand what’s going on and have not been paying attention to both current events and to the lessons offered by history.
Income Inequality
Intimately connected to each of the previous subjects is the matter of income inequality. Without a proper balance of wealth distribution an economy will ultimately cease to function in providing for even the most basic needs. A strong and large Middle Class is crucial for a capitalist system to persevere, lest the bulk of society slip into inescapable poverty as the rich collect all the short term benefits. This is a basic lesson of economics and history and must not be ignored.
Just before the Great Depression income and wealth inequality was extreme and widening. With the poor being poorer than before and the rich enjoying all the fruits of the common man’s labor, the result was that the Middle Class was getting weaker and felt a great sense of instability. Then, when the dominoes began to fall, this instability led to an epic crash which almost wiped capitalism off the face of the Earth That was until decades of government intervention and stiff bank regulations helped to use bits and pieces of socialism to save capitalism from itself by ensuring that our nation’s wealth was distributed just a little bit more equally alongside some dependable safeguards against the abuses of our banks.
Then, starting with the Reagan years, accelerating through the Clinton years, and peaking with George W. Bush’s tenure, we saw each of these staples of progressive protections against economic injustice steadily ripped to shreds. This unwinding of the former protections which shielded the people from the worst that greed could do to us eventually precipitated in the crash of 2008 and our near-depression experience in 2009. When Obama and Congressional Democrats failed to return our previously high standards of protections in 2010 – under the soon-to-be slain Dodd-Frank Act -, we lost out on what was seemingly a once in a generation opportunity to rein in on oligarchs once more. In other words, a sequel of the 2008 crash awaits around the corner, and it could have been prevented if only the Democrats had found it in themselves to take a stand against the economically powerful when it mattered.
Fast forward to our present predicament and you find that the incoming Administration could give a rat’s ass about inequality. Why should they? Their leader, Donald Trump, has thrived in a world built for the rich at the expense of us peasants! He is surrounding himself – in large part – with fellow wealthy individuals who will likewise have no regrets about exacerbating the great divide in wealth. These people came to power on a campaign based on fearing the invasion of “illegal” immigrants and Muslims, and had little to do with the very real crimes perpetrated against every working person on a daily basis.
These are the same people who believe – at their core – that inequality is best for society because it somehow inspires us to work harder. To them, the wealthy produced all of their own wealth and we at the bottom of the barrel ought to feel privileged that they are charitable enough to pay us anything for our work. They will prioritize tax cuts for the superrich over guaranteeing the rights of healthcare and retirement insurance to every citizen. There is literally no reason for anyone who isn’t rich to genuinely think that the party now in power actually cares about them.
Wealth inequality – which is already at levels eerily comparable to the years leading to the Great Depression – will get far worse under Trump, and he won’t do a damn thing about it except attempt to divert attention to some easy scapegoat. In fact, we might delve so deeply into this division that a revolution of tumultuous proportions may become inevitable. For the sake of my children, I hope that I’m wrong.
Immigration
I get it; our immigration system is a mess and has been for a very long time. Then again, George W. Bush in 2007 and Barack Obama throughout his presidency tried to address the holes in this system but ultimately failed to do so only because Congress couldn’t agree on the terms each set forth. What’s funny to me is that all the Conservatives who swarmed to Trump’s anti-immigrant positions did so while simultaneously praising Ronald Reagan. Don’t they know where Reagan stood on immigration? Don’t they realize that Reagan granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants in the 1980s while overseeing what was supposed to be the first part of immigration reform? That’s right, our modern immigration system is broken mostly because Reagan and Congress didn’t finish the job three decades ago!
Look, I understand that people are just fed up with the way our government has been selectively enforcing this antiquated system. On the one hand, there are some legitimate concerns pertaining to the exploitation of labor by a handful of businesses which intentionally hire undocumented immigrants just to work them at a fraction of what a documented legal worker would be required to have paid to them. On the other hand, it has been well demonstrated that the bulk of these jobs being “stolen” are jobs that most Americans are content with not taking. So, truthfully, the real victims in this injustice aren’t American workers for supposedly missing out on shitty work but rather the victimized are actually those people who are doing the shitty work!
Go ahead, turn a blind eye as well to the living conditions in the Third World for which our country and economy shares some responsibility when you consider the impact of our incursions into their political affairs over the decades as well as our disastrous trade deals. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the overarching ripple effect of our long-failed war on drugs! Millions of people have been entering this country – mostly from Central and South America – to flee a life full of nightmares in pursuit of a chance to eat, sleep, and rest without fearing for their safety. The people that many regard as “scum” are just people who yearn for freedom and happiness. These aren’t things to which only Americans are entitled, you know.
Yes, there are quite a few people who try to cheat the system out of selfishness, but every culture on Earth has those undesirable types (HELL, WE JUST ELECTED ONE AS PRESIDENT!). Yet that doesn’t mean that we should treat these people as anything less than human since the emergencies they faced compelled them to rush to the American Dream instead of waiting in a decade-plus long line. You don’t want them here? Newsflash! Many of them don’t want to be here either, but they have no choice in most cases!
If you sincerely feel that Trump’s promises of mass deportation – which he has edited numerous times, now claiming that it will focus primarily on the violent criminals – or of constructing some ridiculous wall will finally bring an end to this perceived “crisis”, then you must excuse me for a second while I attempt to avert death and keep my ass attached whilst laughing hysterically: BA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ACK HACK ACK ARGH….HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
What would the wall and these deportations accomplish if he succeeds as he initially pledged? The wall will help to grow the national debt, millions of children will be orphaned lest we deport countless American-born children to the Third World, and (again) the billions of dollars in economic activity generated by this undocumented work force would help to trigger a possible recession…or worse. Get the picture?
National Security
Among the primary themes of Trump’s campaign for president was the insistence that we are a nation in grave danger from some apparently omnipresent terrorist threat. With attacks happening overseas and massacres happening here at home, numerous unsettling actions by terrorists supposedly aligned with ISIS have led many Americans to conclude that radical Islam is taking root and that we are under siege. Truth be told, there is a hint of truth to this danger, as the terrorist attacks across the globe have grown more frequent over time. Still, an authoritarian like Trump feeds off and depends on a perpetual state of fear to help boost support for a tyrannical agenda.
Pledging to “destroy ISIS”, to kill the families of suspected terrorists, to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (thereby killing the two-state solution), to reinstate and even do worse than waterboarding, register Muslims, ban Muslim entry, and to capture the oil of the lands that we’ve conquered in waging the “war on terror”, Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t give a damn about the rule of law. Human rights and principles against aggression be damned, Lord Trump has some scoundrels to kill! A man who has to repeatedly ask why we have to be cautious about using nuclear weapons is not a man who will observe and respect the fine art of diplomacy or pivot from warfare to policing. His vengeance possesses no off-switch. Our hysteria is his calling card.
Each one of these policies represents a threat to our national security. For starters, you’re never going to see terrorism defeated because terrorism is a tactic meant to instill fear and it will always exist for as long as one individual or one group of people develops a motive to scare or harm another. Likewise, destroying “ISIS” is another near-impossible goal as it is a terrorist organization. Such organizations are open to new recruits, and ISIS doesn’t limit itself to recruits in one country or one hemisphere. Rather anyone can join this band of cowards at any given moment. In other words, seeking to destroy ISIS is much like taking a tiny hammer to play whack a mole.
Secondly, carrying out the brutal actions herein promoted by Trump purportedly to defeat or even intimidate ISIS and other terrorists all place us in direct contravention of international law and are more likely to inspire more terrorists – mostly as we create martyrs from ISIS – and trigger more heinous attacks. Finally, by tolerating such horrendous human rights violations against one community only opens the door to other perceived undesirables coming under attack soon thereafter. As the snowball of oppression gains steam, there is literally no limitation as to whose rights will be stripped away next. It could be Muslims today and intellectual common people tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the threats posed by Trump’s foreign policies aren’t merely limited to how he handles the so-called “war on terror”. His openness to provoking renewed hostilities in Israel – and the wider Middle East – over the embassy there could also enflame that situation as the City of Jerusalem is presently under Palestinian control and is a hotly contested holy site for both Judaism and Islam. Then, I noted earlier the great economic power of China and how a trade war with them could prove disastrous. Well, Trump’s approach to Taiwan – a country which we have not officially recognized in compliance with an agreement we made with the Chinese – could start a “hot war” with China; which, by the way, would also lead to the trade war mentioned above. It’s called the “One China” policy, because both the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan recognize themselves as the legitimate “China” ever since the revolution of 1949. If we recognize Taiwan formally, we will end our compliance with the afore-referenced agreement and there’s no telling what happens next since Taiwan is the ONE issue which China considers to be non-negotiable.
Finally, and this is far from the only danger, Trump’s close relationship with Russia could force a global realignment of political and military alliances. With his control over the world’s most powerful military and deadliest arsenal, Trump’s willingness to turn a blind eye to Putin’s actions in resurrecting the Russian empire while also threatening to weaken NATO and the UN ultimately does more to embolden Putin than it does to restore peace. The Russian people may not want a conflict, but Putin only cares about power and his dream of creating an empire for a lasting Putin legacy. Continuing down this path might lead to the destruction of our postwar institutions which have kept the world on a stable footing and produce a renewed superpower in Russia.
The Environment
Simply stated, President Trump does not give a damn about the environment. He is taking action to abandon our climate policies – including putting a reported gag order on the EPA -, acting to resume work on the pipelines, he will attempt to boost coal mining, and he will seek to expand oil drilling and fracking well beyond what President Obama approved. If you care about the future of this planet or about our future living here, I strongly suggest taking a stand now in defense of clean water, clean air, clean soil, and fighting climate change. This section doesn’t require more than one paragraph only because the message is clear: if Trump succeeds in the all-out assault on our environment, our water will be poisoned, our skies will get more polluted, our soil will be eroded, unnecessary earthquakes will increase, countless humans and other life will die, new wars will emerge, and global warming will accelerate.
The System of Checks and Balances
Coming into power with a united government has its perks. For the Democrats, although they had an ideological division with the Supreme Court, the unity between the executive and legislative branches enabled President Obama to stop and reverse the decline into a depression (even if they didn’t go far enough), save the auto industry, establish a weak reform of banking regulations, and create – with strong guidance from lobbyists – the Affordable Care Act. For the Republicans, they have the possibility of having unity even with the Supreme Court and they will not hesitate to try and reverse everything that had been accomplished not only in Obama’s tenure, but under every Democratic administration over the past century. This is a consequence of elections, and that’s not the specific issue here.
However, where governmental unity can become a liability is when it is incumbent upon one branch to hold the other accountable. President Trump issued many insane promises during the campaign – much of which I’ve discussed above -, and any normally functioning Congress would be ready to prevent the abuses that he pledged to carry out. Sadly, Congressional Republicans are largely unified behind their new president, and it is possible that they may be afraid of a populist backlash against them should they defy the mandate they claim to see emanating from at least their base supporters. Couple that with one of Trump’s early administration picks (I’ll focus on the second, more alarming pick in the next section), former RNC Chair Reince Priebus, and you have a recipe for Trump keeping his party in line and shielding himself from rejection or even removal.
Priebus has had an extensive history with Congressional Republicans. He is effective in keeping their minds set on a common goal in the interests of advancing the party’s pursuit of power. His appointment as Trump’s Chief of Staff ensures that the supposed anti-establishment president will have a direct line with the establishment of the party he now leads. If he is successful at reining in on Congress’s authority to check his power then this crucial balance established by the Founding Fathers to protect our liberty is in serious peril. This is especially the case after successive decades where Congress has reliably ceded its powers to the president on numerous fronts and has repeatedly failed to utilize its responsibility to impeach and remove when doing so has been absolutely warranted.
The Media
I am the first to admit that I have been far from a fan of the media in our country. For most of the past decade I have been relying less and less on network news, cable news, radio news, and American newspapers. Instead, I’ve sought a vast information filter consisting of the internet versions of our newspapers combined with a variety of foreign sources, public funded media, the wire services, and even some alternative media sources. I will continue to use this massive supply of sources instead of reverting to a single network’s coverage, but the distrust I have developed over time for the real bias which does exist is mirrored by the same suspicions exhibited among the greater population.
As you’re likely well aware, the freedom of the press is among the first guarantees made by our Framer’s in the initial amendments to the Constitution. This was created to shield the media from government interference or even retaliation as it either criticized the government or acted to keep us informed. Much to our detriment, the notion of a “free press” has been abused by the corporate entities which own them as they have increasingly sought to grow profits via preferring entertainment over information-sharing. They now attempt to avoid issues which might reduce their customers, so they promote sensationalized, drama-filled nonsense instead of keeping us abreast as to everything that our government does in our name.
For a few years now I have been telling people that the media doesn’t have a liberal or conservative bias, it has a profit bias…plain and simple. Each outlet has amassed a constituency of base costumers with their own biases, and our capitalist culture commands that the for-profit media pander to those biases so as to continue conducting business. With the advent of 24 hour cable news stations and the emergence of Fox News with their proclamation that they and only they report the facts (as told from the conservative point of view) this race to the bottom jumped into hyper-drive. Rupert Murdoch saw that there was a market for disaffected conservatives to have their own “news”, so he happily obliged. He didn’t care that it was a conservative network, because all he – as an Australian – cared about was the profits it would rake in for him, and if he could have profited from a liberal Fox News he would have pursued that as well.
Two decades later and here we are. The American People have less trust in our media than ever before. They see bias everywhere and largely hold contempt for the media on par with their disdain for all of our other institutions. In other words, the atmosphere is ripe for the sort of anti-media assault that we already see in the works by Donald Trump.
Throughout the campaign, shortly after it, and even in the first few days of his new presidency, Trump has made the media one of his primary targets. He singled out reporters at his rallies, called them out at his convention, ousted themfrom press conferences, refused to let them tag along during the transition, and initially threatened to oust them from the White House. Now we learn that the President is considering filtering which news outlets will get access to him at the White House.
Never before has our nation seen a president attack the media so consistently and viciously. Trump has portrayed the media as being some foreign enemy that is somehow attacking him and his supporters. He claims that they are spreading “fake news” while he has appointed someone like Steve Bannon – who ran the hate-filled, rightwing propaganda machine known as “Breitbart News” – as his chief strategic advisor. Trump’s propaganda master - Bannon – is meant to keep his base happy and in line as he maniacally rants and raves on social media.
Lord Trump doesn’t tweet because he doesn’t know any better. He tweets because he intends on using Twitter, Facebook, and the like to circumvent the media altogether and speak directly to his supporters. The constant barrage of lies in combination with the persistent attack on our media is meant to please his supporters, exhaust his detractors, and for the majority of the public to give up on pursuing the truth. Once we give up on seeking out the truth through his fog of lies, Trump – like all fascists – wants us to conclude that the only light we see permeating is his own. The goal is to eradicate all means of keeping tabs on him except through the rose-tinted glasses he offers up in his direct musings.
People, this is a national emergency. We MUST defend this imperfect media of ours from being destroyed lest we succumb to the winds of fascism!
Education
Our educational system leaves much to be desired, I know. I’m far from impressed with Common Core, and would much prefer a system like what we see in Europe. America’s children are over-tested (for which you can thank a for-profit textbook-printing system, but I digress), sent home with unnecessary homework, go to school too early, spend too much time on an outdated summer break, are educated with different standards and levels of funding from one district to another, and it is far too burdensome to attain advanced education beyond high school. Additionally, teachers have long been under attack by anti-union forces looking for an easy target. We just aren’t doing enough to support this crucial aspect of our society.
Look, we’ve come a long way. A hundred years ago there wasn’t a guarantee of an education at any level. It took decades of fighting for 1-12 education, then for Kindergarten, and ever since we’ve been struggling for universal Pre-K and for expanded access to adult education. Still, we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back too much, because while we’ve been debating how little we should do to educate ourselves the rest of the world – even the Third World – has surpassed us. Why? Because only we Americans seem to think something is an unworthy investment if we can’t blow something up or turn a profit from it.
Then, Donald Trump comes along – a man who once scammed countless victims to help him enrich himself further with Trump University -, wins the presidency, and picks someone named Betsy DeVos to head the Education Department. With her track record in K12, an online charter school, DeVos is no friend of public education. Promoting the false notion of “school choice”, which compels students and taxpayers to abandon our public school system in favor of a for-profit alternative subsidized by us, DeVos and her allies have long sought to dismantle the system to which we all have an equal right so that they may simultaneously obliterate the teacher’s unions and turn our children into cash cows.
Charter schools are harder to hold accountable since they are private entities. The access to quality education is weakened significantly since charter schools aren’t held to the same standards as their public peers. Ultimately, this leads to a question of whether we are training a generation of Americans who are adequately educated not only as working people but as participants in our democracy. If an assault on our educational system erupts – a near-certainty if DeVos or someone like her is confirmed - and the system degrades further, our children will pay the price…whether they know it or not.
Our Democracy
Having lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, Donald Trump isn’t acting like a fan of democracy at the moment. If it weren’t for our ludicrous and long-outdated Electoral College system we would not have this authoritarian in the White House today. I’ve talked before about how democracy has been under attack here in this country for quite some time. Now, with Trump, the attack has just met its greatest ally.
Throughout our history the American people have debated suffrage. Nowadays the debate is largely backtracking to exclusionary tactics such as voter ID laws. The Republican Party has unfortunately tried to make it harder to vote ever since their wave in 2010. In my home state of Ohio they reduced the number of early voting days and eliminated a large number of voting locations. In states like North Carolina, after the Voting Rights Act was thrown out by the Supreme Court, numerous laws were passed which made it more difficult for minorities to vote. Not to mention the consequences of Citizens United and how it paved the way for billionaires to effectively buy our elections. So, the war on democracy is nothing new, but it is about to get worse.
President Trump wants us to believe that he actually won our popular vote, but that Hillary won millions of illegal votes. He would rather you seriously distrust our political process, because he knows that his days are numbered otherwise. If he can get you to throw your hands up in the air and say “I give up, I’m never voting again” then he can rest a little more easily knowing that you are less likely to vote for his next opponent or that you will get active, stay active, and turn out to elect a Congress in 2018 which will hold him accountable. There is a method to his supposed madness, and that method is to consolidate power by usurping it from Congress, the Supreme Court, our media…and then from us.
Consider every attack on democracy that we’ve seen up until now as a series of trial balloons for what is coming up next. Trump hates that we’re watching him. He hates that he LOST the popular vote. He hates that millions have been demonstrating against him. He hates that most of us don’t trust him. He hates our democracy.
Now is not the time to dismiss him as some incompetent blowhard. Now is not the time to be depressed that he is the president. Now is not the time to cower in fear. NO! Now is the time to stand up and resist!
Keep demonstrating! Keep watching him! Keep voting!
The revolution is ours and we must NOT let him take that away from us!
Tonight’s Conclusion
The curtain has yet to fall. I hope that I am wrong about EVERYTHING (and I didn’t even get a chance to cover every issue, as there were quite a few that I missed), but my knowledge of politics and history warns me otherwise and leads me to – in the interest of my children – take actions now so that we may not be caught off guard later. Let’s get out there and get to work.
#NotMeUs #OurRevolution #TheResistance
Until next time…
TAKE CARE
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