Not unless we fight like hell
Here’s a tweet I think most of us can relate to:
We need a Michelle Obama TV show — only needs to be 30 minutes each week — where she gives people hugs and tells us it's going to be ok.
— Daniel Bentley (@DJBentley) January 13, 2017
Sounds like it would be a great show. I’d DVR the hell out of it. But it would probably do more harm than good.
Things aren’t going to be okay. Trump is going to be president. Instead of being investigated for breaking the Constitution’s foreign bribery clause the day he takes office, House Republicans will likely investigate officials who dare call out his unethical behavior. Obamacare will march to partial repeal with no viable replacement in away that will lead to the collapse of insurance markets, the uninsuring of millions and general doubt and untold misery for the sick. Planned Parenthood will be defunded, leaving millions of poor people without basic care. The rich and their corporations and their kids will get massive tax breaks, even though wealth inequality is already killing the American Dream. Efforts to reverse climate change will become efforts to increase carbon pollution. Progress for the LGBTQ community will halt and reverse at the state, national and global level. The Voting Rights Act will only exist in name, if even that, and the right to vote will be attacked in ways we haven’t seen since the early 60s. And that’s just the beginning — unless we raise all unholy hell.
Republicans will hold all three branches of government. Their donors — flush with anticipation of billions from tax cuts — will blast ads supporting Trump’s agenda and funding media agencies that parrot the White House line. And dissenters will “suffer the consequences.”
It’s time to stop underestimating Donald Trump and his ability to demonize his opponents and con his supporters. He’s inheriting the best new economy any president has stepped into since 1988 and his shamelessness and willingness to embrace mind-altering tactics that would make most adults blanch will be supercharged by becoming the most powerful person on Earth, especially if he begins to rack up victories.
We don’t need a show where any Obama tells us it will be okay. We need a show that loops President Obama’s stark warning:
Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power. We, the people, give it meaning — with our participation, and with the choices that we make and the alliances that we forge.
Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law, that’s up to us. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.
Democrats need something better than a Tea Party because our donors aren’t going to build it for us and there isn’t Fox News or any cable channel to sell it to the nation.
There are some promising signs. Rallies being held around the nation on Sunday January 15 — including a huge one with Bernie Sanders, Debbie Stabenow, Gary Peters, Debbie Dingell and more in Macomb County. Then the Woman’s March on Washington.
And you’re probably already calling your Members of Congress and following the @IndivisibleTeam for actions and insights. But it’s not going to be okay, unless you make it okay. And even then, nothing is promised. But at least we weren’t accomplices to the undoing of 80 years of progress.
What are you doing to make it okay? Let us know in the comments.
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[Image by the Department of Transportation.]
