Perhaps all of this panic is for not. Perhaps the massive dismantling of institutions relied upon at some degree by most of us will actually work out. Perhaps folding the Department of Education along with the mass closing of public schools will somehow improve education in America. Perhaps cutting billions from Medicaid will actually fix our broken healthcare system. Perhaps the mass firing of career bureaucrats doing necessary work will streamline the government and save us commoners a few bucks on our taxes.
Those are all wonderfully dense ‘perhapses’. The reality is that we have spent the past decade alienating our friends and allies. If this regime and their oligarch friends decide to gamble with the system and lose then we will not have any friends to come to our aid. No one will say, ‘oh those poor Americans, let’s treat them with empathy and compassion.’ That will not occur. All of us, even those that do not support any of what is happening, will not have many friends beyond our borders.
We have spent the last 75ish years preaching our unflappable values and referring to ourselves as the shining city on the hill. If this all ends with mass hysteria and widespread chaos I feel that most of the rest of the world will either laugh at us or simply turn their backs. It will be the epic fall from grace that so many of our adversaries have been waiting decades to see.
The wealthy oligarchs that are taking us down this road however, have absolutely nothing of real substance to lose. Indeed some of them may lose a bit of wealth, but none of the men, or few women, leading this charge will be immensely impacted. These folks live on metaphorical islands anyway.
Should this all get to a point of complete collapse, do you think they’ll stick around to try to fix it? Of course not. They’ll be on their private jets to their actual islands where they are protected by private militaries. They are not going to worry about having to live in dangerous neighborhoods; or whether food supplies will run out; or if they’ll be able to find and afford healthcare.
This is not a real gamble for them. It is, however, a gamble for the rest of us. And when I say us, I mean all the rest of us. Not just us trans-loving, baby-killing, snowflake, libtards, but also the very people that voted this administration into power. The people that turned a blind eye to the actions of a strongman that is the antithesis of the messiah on which the Religious Right claim to center their core ideals and values.
Those that helped vote all this into existence may ultimately get what they want..and then some. But what if they don’t? The Trump cohort owe them nothing now. They got their vote and that’s all they really cared about.
If the agenda of the Religious Right gets blocked somehow, does anyone think that the abortion or trans-rights issue is the hill these wealthy oligarchs are willing to go die on? Hell no. They got into this thing to enrich themselves, give tax breaks to themselves, deregulate their industries, sew-up some government contracts, and one of them really wants to fly to Mars.
The faction of the Trump coalition that based their vote on the issues of limiting abortion and transgender rights has little bargaining power left. The administration likely has no issue with attempting to limit the rights of transpeople or women seeking an abortion, but if it fails then I doubt they care much. If nothing else, the attempt will appease those in the coalition that hold racist, homophobic, and misogynistic viewpoints.
My point of this piece is that it is ok to express trepidation if you voted for this administration. Also, if you didn’t vote for this administration then you should hold some space for the people that did but are feeling some tinges of regret, guilt, and embarrassment. If you are feeling as though this isn’t exactly what you voted for then either hold your people accountable – top to bottom – or come and rejoin a dialogue of sanity and let’s find a way forward together.
I am aware that this will mostly fall on deaf ears. It is unfortunate that some folks are unreachable or too embarrassed to admit they’d misplaced their vote. I’ll even admit that I didn’t take many of those crazy promises serious before the election or even between election and inauguration. I thought, ‘that’s just Trump being Trump.’ He’s a liar devoid of virtue. He’ll say anything to get the power of the presidency back.
However, now the richest man in the world is cutting funding for the most vulnerable of our society and bragging about it on X. Federal agencies are being run by the authors of the 2025 Project. The basic human rights of people are in jeopardy. We are turning our back on our European allies. We are straining relations with our closest trading partners. And its been like 6 weeks.
Vladimir Lenin said, ‘There are decades where nothing happens and weeks where decades happen.’ These are those weeks. Are you someone that is so fully captured by conspiracy theories or religious rigidity that you can’t even take issue with some of this? We are all kinda being force-fed a shit sandwich. Some people seem to be eating it with a smile on their face because they are either too brainwashed or too ashamed to admit they may have made a mistake.
If you made a mistake then lets start talking. The Democrats are offering little in the way of a vision so a lane exists to start a new sensible path into the future together. This binary, zero-sum style of politics and culture cannot stand. There is too much stress on the structure and it will soon buckle. There is a path forward that starts with humans recognizing humans through compassion, love, humility, forgiveness, and empathy…you know, like Jesus ‘actually’ believed.
Please be good to each other. I hope you’ve found value in this. I appreciate your attention and thanks for reading.
Billy's Briefs 