#ResistTrump: We Must Bet it All
It is frightening how so many commentators, pundits, and politicians still do not understand the urgency of this moment. Millions of people are focused on Russia’s role in hacking DNC e-mails, ‘fake news’ on social media, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and countless other scapegoats, while failing to see the threat that is standing right in front of us.
It seems that people are still hoping that the Hamilton electors will save us, or that Trump will ‘move back to the center’, revealing that his campaign promises was empty rhetoric to attract white supremacists, Nazis, and nationalists to his campaign.
Now is the time to wake up. Donald Trump’s advisers and cabinet nominations are a clear indication that we are not living in a normal political situation. This threat is REAL:
Chief Strategist: Steve Bannon is the former executive chair of Breitbart News, transforming the right-wing media outlet into a platform for white supremacists and fascists. He proudly proclaimed that he is a nationalist, and has promised to build a new movement that will be “as exciting as the 1930s.” In the past, he has stated that he would prefer that voting be limited to property owners. Bannon is the clearest indication that Trump’s was serious about many of his more extreme policies.
Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson is the CEO of ExxonMobil with no foreign policy experience beyond spreading fracking and dirty oil to markets around the globe, including securing deals with repressive governments. He has also clashed with Obama’s climate policies, stating that Americans should secure affordable access to energy no matter where it comes from.
Secretary of Energy: Rick Perry is the former Governor of Texas, who in 2012, suggested eliminating the Department of Energy while running for the Republican nomination. He is an anti-science climate change denier who has substantial ties to the fossil fuel industry. He is also on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, the major company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Head of the EPA: Scott Pruitt is the Attorney General of Oklahoma and one of the biggest opponents of the EPA, having sued the agency many times in an effort to oppose legislation such as the Clean Power Plan. He is a strong climate change denier who wants to dismantle the EPA. Pruitt, Tillerson, and the rest of Trump’s transition team of climate skeptics will very likely try to disavow the Paris Agreement, and undo all of Obama’s progress on climate issues, which already wasn’t strong enough in a world with unprecedented arctic melting, record high temperatures, pipelines spillswhich destroy ecosystems, stronger storms & coastal flooding.
National Security Advisor: Michael Flynn is an ex-general who is vehemently anti-Muslim & an avid supporter of conspiracy theories. He claims that we are in a world war with Islamic militants, accuses Democrats of helping to spread sharia law, & on Twitter he regularly promotes anti-semetic, Islamophobic, white supremacist content. With Flynn as the direct advisor to Trump, these views will guide both his foreign and domestic policy.
Secretary of Defense: Jeff Mattis is a retired Marine General who is vehemently in favor of war, once stating that “it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot some people”. He also opposes the Iran deal and is a proponent of continued endless war in the Middle East.
Secretary of Labor: Andrew Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl Jrs and Hardees, fast food establishments with a long record of workplace violations. He is a vocal opponent of increasing the minimum wage, enacting paid sick leave, expanding overtime pay, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He has pledged to rollback all of Obama’s regulations and will also have the power to completely transform how the Department of Labor oversees the economy. With continued wage stagnation and income inequality at its highest level since the Great Depression, we can’t afford to move backward.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon who ran for the Republican nomination against Trump and has no experience in public housing policy, other than growing up in a poor community. He is a major critic of public housing projects and has called fair housing “communist”. Affordable housing in the wake of gentrification is a major issue in many U.S. cities, and with Carson opposing fair housing & other programs which promote racial equality, many Americans will be at an even greater risk of being pushed into homelessness.
Health and Human Services: Georgia Congressman Tom Price has been one of the most vocal opponents of the Affordable Care Act ever since the legislation passed in 2010. He will almost certainly try to overturn the ACA which will strip millions of the most vulnerable Americans of their health coverage. He also opposes same-sex marriages and abortion.
Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos is a former Michigan Republican party chairwoman who is a major advocate of the Charter Schools movement. She is the chair of the American Federation of Children and the funder of the Great Lakes Education Project. As a strong opponent of public schools in Michigan, she has worked for decades to create programs which divert public funding to private charter schools, where administrators have six-figure salaries despite failing test grades. There is no doubt that she will further the privatization of education, oppose Teacher’s unions, and limit the opportunities for underprivileged students.
Secretary of Treasury: Steven Mnunchin is a hedge fund banker and former Goldman Sachs executive with absolutely no public policy experience. In 2004 he formed Dune Capital, which bought IndyMac, one of the largest home lenders in the country. When the financial crisis occurred in 2008, the company re-branded as OneWest Bank with Mnuchin as the chair, and they became known as a foreclosure machine, displacing thousands of Americans, primarily senior citizens and people of color.
National Economic Council Director: Gary Cohn is the Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs and was a key architect of the 2008 financial crisis. He is a supporter of trickle-down economics and is firmly against bank regulations such as Dodd-Frank, which itself isn’t enough to prevent a future crisis.
Attorney General: Jeff Sessions is a congressman from Oklahoma who was rejected as a federal judge in 1986 due to a variety of racist remarks, including athesuggestion that a white lawyer working with black clients was a race traitor. He has also referred to civil rights groups as un-American, and prosecuted black activists in Alabama for “voter fraud” in an attempt to stop them from registering Black voters. We live in a system where there is already no justice for people of color with increasing voter suppression in many states, and Sessions will only continue these trends.
This urgency isn’t only because of Donald Trump and his cabinet picks but the movements he has emboldened. Hate crimes have been increasing in cities and towns throughout the US as white nationalist groups continue to expand on the positive reinforcement of Trump’s victory. Meanwhile, a Republican-led House and Senate gives lawmakers further confidence to promote anti-abortion bills such as Ohio’s six-week abortion ban. Even though the Dakota Access Pipeline has been halted for now, Corporations like Energy Transfer Partners are defiant with the knowledge that they will be given the green light once Trump is in office.
This is not a time for negotiation. We must see these picks, as well as Donald Trump’s rhetoric for what it truly is: A Declaration of War.
If you understand this premise, then you must see how signing petitions and buying T-shirts that say ‘Resist.’ will not be enough to neutralize this threat. We must be disruptive like never before.
Here is the message we must send: if the government won’t protect black and brown people, our environment, healthcare, education, reproductive rights, or the economic rights of all Americans, then we have no reason to follow the rules and laws put in place by that government.
Fighting back doesn’t mean neoliberalism or capitalism. The policies supported by members of both corporate owned parties for the past three decades have brought our society to this pivotal breaking point where there are no options left. We are on the verge of full-blown fascism and cannot be saved by a system which ALSO cannot protect people of color, immigrants, the climate, or our socio-economic freedoms. It’s simply too late.
Now is not the time for feeling safe and comfortable in your bedroom, hoping to stop the regime of Donald Trump with only Facebook likes and re-tweets. It’s also not time to follow the lead of corporate Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, who has gone on record with the ridiculous premise that ‘people don’t want a new direction’.
There is no doubt that these are scary times but we must find power in our pain and a hopeful energy in our anger. The time has come for a mass movement against BOTH fascism and neoliberalism.
This is call to action for ALL Americans to #ResistTrump. Use your voices. Use your bodies. Go on strike. Divest. Shut down the inauguration. Once Trump is sworn in, continue to shut down Washington DC while rising up throughout the United States.
Organize in your communities to build networks of solidarity. Protect your neighbors, friends, and coworkers while ensuring that misogyny, bigotry, and white supremacy will not be allowed a safe space. Oppose Trump’s incoming administration and all those that his policies empower.
The hard truth is, this could be the final chapter. There might not be a tomorrow.
We must bet it all.
