I have to admit, when Trump won my first inclination was to say, “I’m out.” But then I realized that it made me like all the other fair-weather people who want to run when it doesn’t go their way. I mean, after all, how bad can it get? I realized days later it can get pretty bad. There was the nomination of Anti-vaccine pundit Robert F Kennedy to lead Health and Human Services. This is a man who thinks and advances the notion that vaccines cause autism. Furthermore, he isn’t quite sure that Herd Immunity is a real thing. So, we have a Health guy favoring feelings over science. We have a Attorney General nominee in Matt Gaetz who was recently under investigation for sex trafficking along with a host of other ethics violations. Then, he nominated a Fox News pundit with limited military experience (and then as part of the national guard) as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Fortunately, his power is limited to being able to “transmit communications to the commanders of the combatant commands from the President and Secretary of Defense but does not exercise military command over any combatant forces.”
I feel like every day is another step towards WTF. The plan remains to begin deporting 11 million plus illegal immigrants day one and follow that up by slashing 2 trillion from the government’s budget with the help of Elon Musk and co. It is as if the human cost of these actions isn’t even being considered–let alone the financial repercussions. Consider this: most of the so-called cuts are likely to be people. He plans to revive his 2020 Schedule F executive order on day one. The plan is to shrink the government by reducing jobs at near Roman decimation levels. This doesn’t sound workable to me. What happens if all those people–who have families and lives and shop and contribute to the economy–lose their jobs? Short term? They go on unemployment and overburden that broken system to the point where Elon’s Team DOGE decides to tear it down as well.
I haven’t even started in on the Project 2025 stuff.
Here’s the truth: I want to stay. I want to document. I want to avoid a long future of Americans being gaslit by the power of media such as Fox News. I don’t know if I can. Some of the fundamental freedom’s I enjoy are being put to question in a government that has no checks or balances. The GOP controls every phase of national governance. They are going to remake this country as they see fit. They won. It is their prerogative. It is mine to decide if I want to still be here.