That’s the Way the Country Crumbles
I’m not the only one who feels like they’re just a side character in the next great dystopian novel. Every day we wake up with this cloud of dread hanging over our heads, as if the sky is about to fall at any moment. The Trump presidency, after just one week, has been playing out even beyond our worst fears, and those we hoped we could count on are nowhere to be found. Some of our friends and family members tell us to keep disregarding the worst of what we see, as if our eyes and ears are lying to us as brazenly as the current administration. But as every day goes by, as every chyron flashes a new catastrophe, as every tweet spells the doom we very much fear one thing is clear: we’re not crazy. The sky is falling.
At the very moment I type this there are teams of lawyers mixed with oceans of protestors at airports around the country (including my local Dulles International Airport) demanding to speak to detainees. These detainees, who possess legal documentation that should allow them into our country safely, include children and the elderly. They were almost deported until a federal judge stepped in and halted the order. This is all because of an executive order supposedly intended to keep terrorist out that literally zero counterterrorist experts asked for or even helped with. Trump et al may say this is not the famed “Muslim Ban” that was touted throughout the entire election last year, but Rudy Giuliani would say differently. These are not normal times.
If it feels like everything's falling apart, you’re probably mainlining Twitter like I am. Every post I read right now contains new details and opinions regarding the constitutional crisis emerging with every passing pen signature. It is clear that, despite the White House’s best efforts, we are not backing down from this fight any time soon. These are the darkest times I can remember in my lifetime, and I vividly remember 9/11. At least then the enemy seeking to destroy the America we all love was outside our borders and on the run from our military. Now the enemy sits behind the desk that used to enjoy the company of Barry the Great. It’s unsettling, to say the least. The problem is simple — every single action taken by Trump and his handlers is unequivocally unconstitutional and destroys the principles of what America was founded on.
Banning and deporting anybody on the basis of religion is categorically evil. There is not a single nation that has done this throughout human history that is looked at favorably. Requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to have the White House review all scientific reports before publishing is dangerous and ludicrous. We just had the hottest year in recorded history and now we have a stonewall between us and the truth. The groundwork is now laid to allow states to remove the healthcare of millions of Americans. People will actually die because of this. Today we saw, in one fell swoop, noted white supremacist Steve Bannon appointed to the National Security council while the Joint Chiefs of Staff were removed from any meeting deemed “inessential” by the president. That this sentence is the truth scares the living shit out of me.
I said on election night that I felt like I didn’t know my country anymore. Now I’m sure of it. In one week, we have gone from a strong, caring nation that strived to be the protectors and supporters of all people to a scared, craven, and cowardly one that is working hard to push out all undesirable opinions. In the America I know the only undesirable opinion is that people shouldn’t be allowed to live the way they want as long as they themselves do not harm others. That dream is dead.
This isn’t the first time we’ve turned away desperate refugees that needed a home and needed hope. Back in 1937, a ship known as the St. Louis carried 937 Jews from Europe looking to escape the Nazi regime. Due to unfounded fears of communist invasion (or more accurately general anti semitism), 630 were sent back to Europe. Of that group, 254 perished in the Holocaust. Their lives are on our heads, as are those we turn away during the Syrian Civil War and our struggle with ISIS. These are children looking for a safe place to live. Families escaping the horrors of war. Men and women who assisted our US soldiers during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actual live human beings that only ask that they be allowed just a sliver of dignity and security while their homeland is ravaged by death and destruction. These people have been waiting, some for years, to be vetted thoroughly enough to cross our borders. To deny them the safety we promised them is unforgivable, and it is a black spot on our record that we will never, ever live down.
These essays, essentially, are my way of venting during this insanity. I can only maintain a high level of outrage for so long before I explode. But the last two posts felt substantive while, to me, this one doesn’t. I’m honestly at a loss. Every day brings something new and dreadful. I don’t have the energy to write about it all. All I know is that I’m scared that, if we are lucky enough to even be alive, we will not recover from this hell. We are cultivating a world in which people are excluded by their religion, their race, and their opinions. We had that world once and we fought like hell to get rid of it. Now those who couldn’t let go of their privilege are making us pay for wanting a freer and more accepting world just because they wouldn’t get to rule it.
I’m angry. So are you. We’re watching, mouth agape and eyes wide in horror, as a real-world monster dismantles the fabric of America thread by thread. We wait for someone, anyone with the power to stop this to step up. That Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have remained either silent or complicit in these horrors is shameful. They do not deserve the posts they hold. They are letting the country they claim to love rot, either because they are truly prejudiced or are willing to sell their soul to get marginal tax rates lowered for their billionaire friends. Either way it is despicable, and we must take them to task every chance we get.
The United States of America is supposed to be a beacon of light to all around the world, a shining example of freedom and prosperity. We are failing on both counts. Trump may have been elected, but we know for a fact that at least 3 million more people didn’t choose him than did. His approval rating is in the mid 30s with the floor falling out underneath it with every news story. There are unlikely but credible threats for California, our nation’s most prosperous state, to leave the union. We have protests in the streets every day fighting for the rights of all Americans to have the same rights and freedoms they rightfully deserve, and yet those in charge do nothing. We need the Democrats in congress to fight tooth and nail to maintain as much of this great nation as they can, so that we have a future to keep dreaming of.
Instead what we have now is a man-shaped sledge hammer giving blow after blow to what we cherish. This is the way America ends — not with a bang but an executive order.
(ADDENDUM: After I finished writing this the ACLU continued to fight in court. As a result, another court order was apparently filed that forces the CBP to release those detained under the executive order as well as to notify the airlines to not deport anyone. More importantly, they seem to be complying. This is an ongoing story and we will learn more every minute. In the meantime, there has never been a better moment to donate to the ACLU.)
