Obligation has me writing this, even though I’ve been itching to write whatever comes out in these next few paragraphs. I have a lot to say, most of it bad, but please bear with me to the end.
I am a White and Chicano gay man. My skin is white and I present as a man. For me, I know that I will not be impacted by the worst this administration has to offer. Being the political friend - as in the friend that is generally plugged in to the political world - can be a heavy burden when the general public is flooded with apathy. Especially in the last week or so since Trump was re-elected.
By no means is there a pressure from anyone else to be this way. I’m fully aware it’s self-inflicted, and it’s the cross I bear. Politics generally makes sense to me, like in the way you can look at the pieces of a puzzle and see the bigger picture.
But I don’t think I can say that anymore. I can’t see the forest through the trees. Maybe I never could, and it was just another idea about myself that I convinced myself was true. Maybe I was just speaking out of self-reassurance because a Democrat had to win or I personally was at risk of political violence. Maybe I had to believe that we would elect a Democrat because I feared for my friends and family and communities, and what would happen under another Trump presidency here in Texas because we already live under one-party rule - where the governing class of right-wing politicians is completely bent on the subjugation of the state’s population in service of their wealthy donors.
Texas is already living under the right-wing cudgel, and now has the backing of a federal government once again poised to be weaponized against the people it’s supposed to represent.
We’re entering an incredibly dark and consequential time. People are going to tell you that “it won’t be that bad” and “there’s no way he could do that,” but the truth of the matter is that he can and he will. The truth is that, at any given moment, the worst you can imagine could happen. Right-wing politicians control every part of our federal government, and they have a manifesto with Project 2025 of how they will use every lever of power to accomplish their policy goals. The Supreme Court is on track to have a majority of its justices be extremist Trump appointees; the Senate and House are under right-wing control and run by spineless corporate moderates; and Trump is president. He’s already filling his Cabinet with extremists who are interested in nothing more than dismantling the power of the federal government and consolidating it into the greedy hands of the wealthy and Trump loyalists. And we all know that the Venn diagram of ‘the wealthy’ and ‘Trump loyalists’ is a circle.
Climate change will be unmitigated. National parks will be diminished and destroyed for oil and gas drilling. Social security is at risk. Mass deportations will be attempted. The Affordable Care Act could be dismantled. Political violence will be normalized. The courts at every level will be weaponized. Any right that is ‘law’ according to the Supreme Court could be overturned at any moment. Every attempt will be made to further reduce our right to privacy. Every part of our lives will be impacted by inflation and increased prices due to tariffs. Every aspect of society could be altered by these next few years.
And the worst part of it all: we don’t have substantial opposition to any of it. At the end of the day, corporations and the wealthy will benefit from these policies and we have to face the fact that those same people are in control of high-level Democratic operatives and elected officials. We’re already seeing the repercussions of this election playing out in the media where those same high-level operatives are spinning a narrative that will further take the Democratic Party towards the right-wing. And those same operatives will go right back to living their lives unfettered because at the end of the day they are wealthy, and shielded from the worst effects of political violence. Money is power. They’ll cash their checks from this election and continue to spew bullshit from the pulpit until they’re inevitably hired by another campaign to make the same mistakes, complain about identity politics once again, and move even farther to the right because their benefactors are corporations and businesses that benefit from right-wing policies.
And the grifters on social media that call themselves influencers will continue to spew their own flavor of bullshit for likes and retweets because they will get ad money from engagement. This article provides a great criticism in this regard of specifically Colin Allred’s campaign here in Texas, but it holds a truth about recent Democratic campaigns.
Our anger and frustration with the status quo will continue being farmed for money until we finally say enough is enough. You do not have to engage with that content! Those people are counting on us to engage with rage bait so they can profit. Elected officials will continue to send out fundraising emails when horrible things happen asking for a donation that will have no impact other than lining their pockets and funding a campaign office that will do nothing but stifle staffers that actually want change. Grifter social media accounts will pop up like weeds, as they did in the first Trump presidency, asking for shares and engagement, getting paid for it, and do nothing of worth with that money.
They do not need your money. Save your money. They are already funded by wealthy donors, and it is a waste of your hard earned dollars. Whatever sense of “Wow, I did something to help” is not worth it. Your money is better spent on you and your family’s own well-being and investing in your community.
People are tired of the way this country is run, and that’s a big reason why Trump won. His agenda is evil and destructive, but it was the only vision that had meaning to people and had concrete actions. At the end of the day, Kamala did not have a similar vision. Campaigning with conservatives after saying the Republican Party is an existential threat to democracy is bullshit. Cherry-picking data points to paint a picture of a good economy feels like a lie when the average person is living paycheck to paycheck. Saying you fight for equality but don’t use your power in the fight for equal rights makes you a liar. Investing in the American people doesn’t hold up when you let those investments die in policy expirations. People could not give a fuck if a Democratic staffer had the time of their life working on a losing campaign when their friend is dying of sepsis from an ectopic pregnancy or their parents are being deported. People do not care how hard you tried if you cannot deliver a win for them, because they will suffer from that loss. The average voter may be an idiot, but they can smell shit when it’s served to them. “We cannot go back” rings hollow from a status-quo candidate.
People want radical change. This country is not working for anyone but the wealthy, and until the Democratic Party figures this out we are fucked. We’ll have a reactionary few years and hopefully regain ground in the midterms, but their strategy is a losing strategy in the long run.
Call me a doomsayer. Call me a pessimist. Call me whatever you like, but I think we can all see what’s going on in America.
Ethel Cain wrote this about the American people and the state of the country after Trump won, and I find it to be so true:
The problem is that America has beaten down its people for decades and gotten them weak and desperate and now promises a way out, a way to transcend and rise above, through selling out their fellow man. They encourage contempt and hatred as one way ticket to not being included with the masses being death marched to poverty or imprisonment or whatever other bitter end surely awaits the people they’re told are beneath them. An embarrassingly large chunk of white men are just straight up nazis these days as a way to dissociate from the rest of the carnage around them, even if they’re broke and uneducated and from an impoverished background themselves. They’ll vote for and align themselves with anything for a taste of power and control that makes them feel a little less helpless. The same goes for minorities. They’ll punch down if they think it’ll get them somewhere, even if in reality they’re punching sideways. I don’t know what else to say, really. Everybody is so incredibly hateful. We are a loveless, disrespectful nation. We are so spread thin by our government that we would sell each other out in a heartbeat for an ounce of relief. This is what we’ve come to.
It’s not even about Trump at this point. He’s gonna get in office and do whatever he does and it’s gonna be a mess but whatever. This is indicative of deeper problem. This is just the ugly consequence of the already present reality in this country that we all just despise each other. There is no solidarity and there is no love. Trump being in office or not doesn’t change the fact that America is a breeding ground for violent hatred. Trump has given people a shining example of how to give in to the worst parts of your human nature and make it the problem of everyone around them. I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do about that. I don’t know if that’s something we can come back from. And if anything COULD be done about it, Trump certainly wouldn’t do it. Honestly, Kamala probably wouldn’t have either. We are so deeply fucked.
We are at a time where we cannot rely on anyone other than ourselves and our communities to protect us. We have to rely on each other to get through whatever comes next. Invest in local organizations and your communities, because those will be the people that will be there for you when you need it.
Do not just share things on social media. Awareness is not action, and at this point most people will ignore whatever you share. People will say whatever, but it’s what you do that counts.
All this shit is dark, but trust me when I say this: it is not hopeless, by any means, because we have each other. It will not be easy, but I promise it will be worth it. We have to believe that it will get better, because it has to. And it will, because people that are actually good and will stand up for what they believe in will step forward. Change does not happen unless we make it happen, and I hope that you’ll be there to see it too.Subscribe