Attribution: Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
By Geoff Carter
No living American has seen anything like it. We’re being invaded. From within. Our government is being dismantled by a gang of billionaires, white supremacists, and radical Christian Nationalists. Veterans, park rangers, teachers, scientists, doctors, federal workers, and many other hard-working Americans are suffering. Because of thoughtless and arbitrary layoffs, some of our National Parks will close, the FAA will be hamstrung, and vital programs like Social Security will find it increasingly difficult to function effectively.
Short-sighted, vindictive—and senseless—tariffs against some of our oldest allies are causing prices to skyrocket and the stock market to tank. Our president is rejecting long-time NATO allies as well as the heroic people of the Ukraine while cozying up to the brutal Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. No. We’ve never seen the likes of this. It is an American nightmare.
We are—in effect—under attack by our own president, and our democracy is barely hanging on. This president, his cabinet, and the secretive—and probably illegal—Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE (Trump’s merry band of pimply-faced teen enforcers led by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk), is rampaging through the delicate machinations of our government departments like Godzilla strolling through the streets of Tokyo on a Saturday night.
Nothing seems sacred to these people. Draconian layoffs and job terminations have hit the VA, our National Parks, Social Security, the FAA, the USAID, the National Institute of Health, and who knows what else. Musk and DOGE’s audacity and ruthlessness are matched only by their thoughtlessness and cruelty.
The Republican majorities in Congress are twiddling their thumbs, nodding their heads, smiling, and standing in line to kiss the president’s ass, even though DOGE’s freezing and cutting off funding, as delineated in the Constitution, are illegal actions. “The power of the purse” belongs to Congress, not to the President (or any of his pubescent muskrats).
So far, the only bulwark pushing back against Trump and his court of billionaire jesters is the courts. Dozens of lawsuits disputing the constitutionality of DOGE’s arbitrary firings, layoffs, and funding have been filed. More than a few have ruled against the Trump administration, but questions remain about what the courts might do if Trump decides to defy their rulings. Who would enforce them? The courts have no police force. Congress is too frightened to do anything. Things do look bleak.
But there is some hope. Massive demonstrations protesting unfair firings, loss of Social Security services, veteran’s health programs, Musk’s attacks, tariffs against Canada and Mexico, have cropped up everywhere across the country.
You’d expect this sort of reaction in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, and state capitols like Madison, Lansing, Austin, and Atlanta, but protests have also been cropping up in smaller towns like Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Columbus, Ohio, and Potterville, Michigan.
There’s more. As reported by the AP , Senator Bernie Sanders recently launched his “Stop Oligarchy Tour”, which has been drawing tens of thousands of people at every stop. Before starting his tour, Sanders had waited for a Democrat to lead a national campaign against Trump’s draconian policies, but finally decided to go off his own. “For now, at least, Sanders stands alone as the only elected progressive willing to mount a national campaign to harness the fear and anger of the sprawling anti-Trump movement (AP News).”
Bernie is not alone. Resistance organizations have been springing up everywhere. The resistance group 50501 has been organizing and coordinating nationwide demonstrations. Another group, Indivisible, is coordinating localized resistance efforts coordinated in a nationwide effort to fight back. Well-coordinated economic boycotts of retailers and corporations like Target, Walmart, Nestles, and Amazon are being targeted for their acquiescence to Trump’s directive to discard all NEI policies. People are fighting back in a big way.
This is not the first time in our history that average Americans have had to fight rich and powerful interests attempting to steal the wealth and power of this country for themselves. In one of her recent essays, the brilliant Heather Cox Richardson described how oligarchs previously tried to take over the United States.
It first happened in pre-Civil War America, when wealthy slaveowners tried to preserve their wealth by forcing through the 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act (which arguably precipitated the Civil War) extending slavery into new states in the union. It happened again in the late 19th century, when the robber barons of The Gilded Age attempted to grind the working class into the ground.
If took a Civil War and hundreds of thousands of lives to defeat the Southern oligarchs and preserve our democracy the first time. The Progressive Movement, spearheaded by Teddy Roosevelt, managed to dismantle many of the vast business trusts’ wealth and power through legislation and strict regulation during the age of the robber barons. But the American people won both times.
Now they’re at it again. Donald Trump has gathered some of the richest men in the world—boldly including them in the front row at his inauguration—to (literally) share the in spoils of his victory. He plans to fleece the American people like a sheep at shearing time. The president handed Elon Musk the reins to DOGE, an organization devoted to (not efficiency) but dismantling. It is ripping our government apart. No so coincidentally, many of the departments Musk is targeting—like the FAA which had begun an investigation of his SpaceX program—are obstructing Musk’s business interests and were the first ones attacked.
The media is also in the oligarch’s crosshairs. Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, has muzzled his editorial staff, resulting in numerous resignations. ABC, CBS, and the Des Moines Register have been sued by Trump for defamation and misrepresentation. Unfortunately, ABC knuckled under and settled the suit, but the others are still fighting. President Trump also barred the AP and Reuters from the White House Press Pool for refusing to acknowledge his absurd renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, Fox News has been in bed with far right for years.
This attack of the oligarchs seems to be a cyclical occurrence, happening every hundred years or so—not unlike the twelve-year emergences of cicadas and other pests. Twice the people of the republic have beaten them back. This is our third challenge.
After the1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, huge marches and public demonstrations manifested public awareness of the dangers of the oligarchy. Abraham Lincoln was elected as a result. During the Gilded Age, governmental reform and news stories brought forth by muckrakers like Upton Sinclair broke the power of the trusts and robber barons.
Today, thanks to the free press, we are aware of what is happening to thousands of veterans, federal workers, and disadvantaged in our country. Because of proposed cuts to Medicaid and possibly Social Security, millions of our disabled and elderly will be at risk.
We’re not going to take it. We can’t take it. Protests are sprouting up everywhere. Resistance is being organized. Republican representatives are being berated and shouted down by their own constituents in town halls across the country. Bernie Sanders is rallying Americans at a national level. Resistance groups are organizing and collaborating—with each other.
We’ve generally been lucky. We haven’t really had to defend our own borders for a very long time, but now we are being attacked from within.
We deserve our fair share. It is time to stand tall and defend our freedoms for ourselves and for the generations to come.
Here are some resources to help fight the oligarchy: Fiftyfifty.one , Indivisible, and The Minocqua Brewing Company.
Comments