THROWING THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER
Many voters wanted our government to work better for them. They felt that our government was too slow, had too many regulations, needed to root out corruption and was not responsive enough. They were right. They voted for change.
But the change they voted for is not what they are getting. This federal government is not going to work better or be more responsive to the needs of the people. Why? Because the purge that is being carried out is being done with a meat cleaver instead of a paring knife. It is being done by people who know nothing about good government or the agencies they are slashing and burning. Good government reductions would be done thoughtfully and carefully, giving consideration to the preservation of institutional knowledge and an assessment of the needs and safety of the American people.
U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement reported by NBC News on Tuesday it mistakenly fired “several” employees assigned to the federal response against the H5N1 bird flu virus, noting it will be “working to swiftly rectify” the firings of the frontline public safety positions monitoring the spreading illness.
In deep-red Georgia: Last night in Roswell, Georgia, an overflow crowd packed into a town hall forum for GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, barraging him with pointed questions and accusatory comments about DOGE’s cuts. His staff “seemed caught off guard by the massive crowd of hundreds that gathered,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein. (This is a district Trump carried by 22 points just three months ago.)
How it went: “Attendees set the tone early, with one accusing McCormick of ‘doing us a disservice’ for supporting the budget-slashing initiatives by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that have torn through all corners of federal government,” Bluestein reports. “‘You don’t think I’m going to stand up for you?’ asked McCormick, as the crowd responded with loud boos.” Video from the scene[Politico Playbook]
This scenario is playing out in other Republican districts (+22 Trump and +18 Trump districts) across America, as Americans wake up to the fact that they elected a man who is going too far.
Just wait. This is nothing yet. When Americans realize that this Republican House passed a bill to continue huge tax breaks to the most wealthy people in our country on the backs of the most vulnerable in our country- cutting back on Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare — our social safety net and our safety in general–the blowback will get worse for this administration. Trump may have said he will not touch the social safety net, but the DOGE boys are already opening the door to doing that and more that will hurt American farmers, American families, older Americans, Our veterans and more.
HOW AUTOCRACIES DESTROY THEMSELVES
Over time, leaders grow more repressive and cling to yes-men [Georgy Egorov] – a cycle that’s playing out in our country as well as in Russia.
Often in autocracies, decisions are made within a small, closed circle. Information flows are distorted by power. No one tells the top man what he doesn’t want to hear. The Russian intelligence failure about Ukraine has been astounding. Vladimir Putin understood nothing about what the Ukrainian people wanted, how they would fight or how his own army had been ruined by corruption and kleptocrats.
People want their biggest life. Human beings these days want to have full, rich lives and make the most of their potential. The liberal ideal is that people should be left as free as possible to construct their own ideal. Autocracies restrict freedom for the sake of order. So many of the best and brightest have fled Russia. The American ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, pointed out that Hong Kong has suffered a devastating brain drain. Bloomberg reports, “The effects of the brain drain in sectors such as education, health care and even finance will likely be felt by residents for years to come.” American institutions gained nearly as many top-tier A.I. researchers from China as from the United States. Given the chance, talented people will go where fulfillment lies.
Organization man turns into gangster man. People rise through autocracies by ruthlessly serving the organization, the bureaucracy. That ruthlessness makes them aware others may be more ruthless and manipulative, so they become paranoid and despotic. They often personalize power, so they are the state, and the state is them. Any dissent is taken as a personal affront. They may practice what scholars call negative selection. They don’t hire the smartest and best people. Such people might be threatening. They hire the dimmest and the most mediocre. You get a government of third-raters.
GOVERNMENT BY KOOKS AND DUMMIES
Too many Americans voted for Trump and Congressional Republicans who allowed conspiracy theorists like Patel and Gabbard, low lifes like Hegseth, morally bereft people like Steven Miller, and toadies like Pam Bondi to take positions of leadership in our country. How do House Republicans sleep at night? They know better. They were, apparently, afraid of Trump’s brownshirts, those January 6th insurrectionists that Trump let out of jail. But as members of Congress they could have asked for security details. So that excuse is kinda lame. The Republicans in the House voted Trump’s cabinet picks into power even though they knew these people will flush our country down the toilet.
Trump has chosen many unqualified people for his cabinet: Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel are all examples of “negative selection”: government by the dimmest, dumbest, most mediocre, most slavish loyalists. These people are the type of people that autocrats put in place so that they don’t have rivals in positions of power who are smarter than they are. These people will not tell Trump what he needs to hear. They will tell him what he wants to hear. Their lack of experience would have kept these people from being hired in any other administration seeking competent leaders for the government. But Trump wanted this level of incompetence. because these guys will listen to him, the mob boss, and not fight his vindictive urges. With Patel and Bondi in power, Trump will pursue his “enemies” even though in their confirmation hearings both of those people denied they would do it. Trump cannot let slights go without punishment. He is a malignant narcissist. That’s what happens when people elect such a psychologically damaged person into power.
Our government will fail us massively under Trump 2.0. This is just the beginning. It will get much worse. All of us will take a hit because he was elected president. Our country’s image, power, and attractiveness will be deeply and negatively affected by the dismantling of our government agencies: NIH, USAID, FAA, the social safety net. Trump is already changing our global alliances from being on the side of the good guys to being one of the bad guys of history.
Trump will try to install his own alternate universe reality through propaganda on social media and on Fox “news”. An early example of what is coming is this: Instead of calling Putin a dictator who started the war in Ukraine, Trump called Zelenskyy the dictator and claimed that Ukraine started the war. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brace yourself. This is just the start.
TRUMP IS PUTTING US ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY
Trump will try to change our international alliances from democracies to autocracies. Instead of having England, Canada, Mexico, France and other democratic governments as our close allies, Trump will align us with other autocracies. He will damage our hard earned global alliances such as NATO that have kept the world at peace for decades.
All of those alliances are being eroded right now by Trump and JD Vance and Marco Rubio acting on Trump’s orders.
Europeans governments were shocked by the tongue lashing they got from JD Vance about not being “democratic enough” to allow Nazis and fascists to have free speech. Our European allies are trying to regroup after Trump made it clear Ukraine would not even have a seat at the table for talks the US is having with Russia about Ukraine’s future. Trump’s demands of Ukraine are punitive. Trump demanded our country get the rights to Ukrainian rare minerals that would drain that country of an important resource they need to recover from this war- Zelenskyy said no. Maybe that’s why Trump is being so punitive towards Ukraine. He’s having a hissy fit about Zelenskyy saying no to him. Because it was after that that Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator.
HOW AUTOCRACIES DIE
Autocracies, some of them, eventually commit a kind of suicide.
It does not happen overnight. It can take a long time during which the people living in that country experience more and more limitations on their freedoms, safety and ability to succeed until they protest enough and empower pro-democracy voices and groups that express their outrage, forcing a change in government.
These days, autocracies are more subtle about how they control their populace. They claim to be democracies when they are not. They use spyware and track individuals who are threats to their power. They use propaganda on social media. They use voter suppression and voter purges to control who can vote at all. The People have to get smarter about what they read and who they believe.
If backlash to an autocracy (oligarchy/ dictatorship) comes faster and stronger the change could happen sooner.
If, for example, Republican voters in red districts shout at their representatives enough to force them to have a backbone and stand up to Trump, then the House could start doing its friggin job and act as a check on Trump and Musk, slowing them down along with the courts. The courts are responding with temporary restraining orders where they are called for. They will hold hearings to see if the temporary restraint should be extended. But will Trump follow the law? The immunity decision of the Supreme Court has emboldened him and Trump also created a picture of himself as a king featured on Time magazine and posted it on social media, which tells you how he thinks about the limits of his power.
People will be watching what happens in special elections across the country. If Democrats win by large margins in places where Trump trounced Harris, like Wisconsin on April 1st, where a crucial election for the Supreme Court that will make the difference in whether Wisconsin upholds fair maps and reproductive freedoms or loses those hard fought rights, that will help Republican representatives all across the country grow a pair.
The founding fathers were aware that someday our country might elect a tyrant like the crazy king of England our country’s forefathers fled. They set up a government that would check the tyrant’s powers with three branches of government. Congress and the courts were supposed to be that check on the excesses of the executive branch. But they didn’t foresee the cult of Trump and the collapse of a whole political party that used to have a spine.
It is up to us, We the People, to remind our lawmakers that we hired them and we pay them to do a job for us which includes protecting us from a president and his gang of anti-democratic thugs who are like a bunch of monkeys throwing poop around in Washington DC instead of doing what Americans need done to have better lives. Congressional Republicans are not doing their job. They are the last best chance to stop the damage from Trump and his lackies.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you know someone in a red state who is upset about what is happening, urge them to show up at their town halls and demand their representatives push back. They can also join Indivisible and get more active that way. They can show up at their representatives local office and express their outrage. They can call and email and text and write their representatives and give them a piece of their mind. This is EFFECTIVE! DO IT!!
If you live in a blue state you can call your representative and urge him or her to speak out even more. Thank them if they are already speaking out- it’s hard to be the voice of the opposing party.
Support Judge Susan Crawford in the Supreme Court election that will take place April 1st to send a message that all Republicans will hear.
Autocracies die only if and when ordinary people take action. Backlash is powerful. It’s up to us to get our representatives to buck up and stop the damage being done.