At the Pentagon, a portrait of a general who Donald Trump had found insufficiently deferential to him in his first term was removed from a wall; photographs of the empty spot circulated on social media. Trump was set to sign a bevvy of executive orders, pledging to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, to revoke policies promoting wind energy and electric cars, and to exert executive powers to speed up the construction of oil pipelines.
He was scheduled to revoke federal acknowledgement of transgender identity for the purposes of civil rights law, declaring in his inaugural address that “there are only two genders”. And Reproductiverights.gov, a federal web site aimed at helping women navigate abortion access, immediately went offline.
CBPOne, an app used by migrants to the US to manage their interactions with immigration officials, went dark when Trump was sworn in. An announcement posted on the programs website said that all existing appointments had been cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of people in the lurch. The press has reported that the new administration plans a series of high-profile raids in major cities this week, in search of immigrants to deport.
There’s no such thing as a national spirit. Don’t rely on things that don’t exist. Get out there and connect with like-minded people.
I wish I believed that.
When Trump was last in office, Americans found, at the end, that they did not like it. They will not like it now, either, and that dislike, however tardy, will have political consequences.
I still believe this. There will be backlash.
It’ll be too late if there is.
It’s never too late to overthrow a dictator.
Oh that’s true. I didn’t quite mean it that way. I mean to say that simple “backlash” isn’t enough to do anything.
It was in 2020. It can be again.
It was in 2020. It wasn’t in 2024, and that’s the paradigm we’re in now.
If there’s midterms in '26, we’ll see. For the next two years at least, it’s time to hunker down and be prepared.
Indefatigable incapable of being fatigued
an indefatigable worker
I overall sympathize with the message of this article. Defeatism is of course never an option and historically oligarch/plutocratic regimes tend to succumb under the weight of their own contradictions (I am talking in the long term).
However, the last paragraph doesn’t sit well with me:
The Trumpist movement that ascended to power on Monday is relying on a tired, defeated America, one too diminished to do anything but submit to their demands and schemes. But the American spirit is indefatigable: it loves freedom and equality, abhors tyranny, values minding your own business and hates, above all, to be told what to do. When Trump was last in office, Americans found, at the end, that they did not like it. They will not like it now, either, and that dislike, however tardy, will have political consequences.
People in other countries do enjoy being told what to do? In many, many countries people have fought (and continue to fight) against such overwhelming odds that are inconceivable to the average American. And is it wrong to say that perhaps at least some Americans do like being told what to do? As long as the correct marketing/polemical approach is used (e.g. oligarchs promoting their interests/corruption via PR strategies that leverage copytext with an emphasis on polemics around “freedom” and “individuality”). This is of course not unique to the US.
Either way, we are all in for some interesting times.
Yeah, the tone of the article just reeks of American exceptionalism
New word for me.
Indefatigable incapable of being fatigued : untiring
I feel this word choice was bad.
