We know about as much about beating Trump as Ted Cruz — a Canadian who made an alliance with a birther
Until the last drip of opium hits my bloodstream, I shall be eternally grateful to the organizers and participants of last Saturday’s Women’s March.
In the most direct but charming way it warned our new president that he will face massive opposition to his policies, especially any coordinated assault civil rights or liberties. Just forcing him — or whatever staffer wrote that tweet — to have to admit that the First Amendment still exists two days into his term is an important victory. And it’s a sign that the mass opposition that brought about what could be the largest protests in our history cannot be ignored.
The momentum only seems to be building with efforts like Knock Every Door and the Indivisible Groups that spent Tuesday visiting Members of Congress’ offices and documenting it online with the hashtag #StandIndivisible. This is a movement of makers and coders and Etsytrepreneurs and nasty badasses of all shades and creeds, many of whom just realized that they can ignore politics but politics won’t ignore them.
These efforts have had changed at least one debate. Trump had promised to sign an Obamacare repeal on his first day in office. Republicans are seem stuck debating each over of a replacement.
But this doesn’t mean the Trump Administration isn’t already “living up to the lowest of expectations,” as NARAL’s Illyse Hogue put it. He’s successfully building the machinery to execute the largest transfer of wealth to the richest in human history.
With just his signature, Trump is already doing damage to our health care system, our environment and to women around the world with the so-called “global gag rule” that “will only lead to increases in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal and newborn deaths,” as Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Rewire.
Two things I learned from 2016 were:
1. I suck at predictions.
2. Never underestimate Trump and his ability to summon the dark powers of resentment and revanchism.
Every day, remind myself that no one knows how to beat Donald Trump, yet. Hillary Clinton’s campaign knew how to beat him in the popular vote. But when it comes to actually stopping him from achieving his political goals, we know about as much as Ted Cruz — a man who was born in Canada and was still foolish enough to make an alliance with a birther.
I’m looking forward to working with and learning from anyone who thinks they know how to stop Trump, always with the humility that their ideas are, like mine, all hypotheses.
Let’s prove them together. If we don’t, we’ll all share the shame of watching the irreversible costs of our failures pile up on the most vulnerable.
[Photo by the great Anne Savage.]
