That clenching feeling in your stomach? That restlessness? That mind jumping around checking the news anxiously? That’s a normal response to an abnormal situation.
We strongly suggest some deep breathing, sharing with friends how you truly are, and digging into your spiritual and physical practices. We definitely recommend these 7 practices at Finding Steady Ground:
- I will make a conscious decision about when and where I’ll get news — and what I’ll do afterwards.
- I will make human-to-human connection with another person and make sure we stay in motion.
- I will pray, meditate, or reflect on those I know who are being impacted by oppressive policies, and extend that love to all who may be suffering.
- I will read, listen to, or share a story about how others have resisted injustice.
- I will be aware of myself as one who creates.
- I will take a conscious break from social media.
- I will commit to sharing with others what’s helping me.
(Read more at Finding Steady Ground.)
Over the coming weeks, we’re not going to do a blow-by-blow of this new administration, but we did think it worthwhile to share our “hot take” on what’s we’re seeing. We look forward to others with more expertise on specific issues to weigh in, but for now we hope it paints a slightly more complete picture than we see being reported in the news.
Yes, Trump promised he’d move fast — with dozens of executive orders. Trump loves executive orders. They don’t require buy-in or politics — they allow him to move fast and don’t test his negotiation skills with Congress. He’s a showman and he wants to show his base that he’s getting a lot done and that he’s undoing the Biden administration’s policies. (Others in his cohort, like Stephen Miller, are more savvy and aware they also want to demoralize the opposition.)
On the one hand, the bulk of things were not new ideas — a lot of these orders are off-the-shelf from last time. We haven’t (at least yet) seen many actions that are the most extreme takeovers of government. Many of the orders on Monday don’t go further than he went last time: declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, pulling out of the World Health Organization, restoring 2017 deportation criteria (with more swipes at sanctuary cities and options to deputize local police).
The few actions that departed from the past were significant, but largely not earth-shaking: pardoning around 1,500 January 6th insurrectionists who stormed the capital, keeping TikTok operating for 90 days, and a series of actions freezing Biden’s executive orders (the Catholic church had been facilitating freedom for Cuba’s July 2021 protestors — Trump will now close this window). And of course he continues his pattern of click-baiting the country (trying to rename Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali).
But he’s clearly gearing up, with more care than last time, for significant future fights. He’s definitely setting up major moves on immigration. His orders to “study” what the previous administration did wrong are preludes to reprisals on Biden officials. And he also ordered a freeze on hiring and federal employees back to work 5 days a week, apparently in direct violation of agreements made government unions. This is part of efforts to purge government workers and replace them with loyalists. It’s the adapted version of Schedule F, the plan to remove 50,000 (or more) government workers. The key language: Failure to “faithfully implement administration policies… is grounds for dismissal.”
Still, there’s a lot more chaos inside than is being well-reported. Some press outlets have talked up the “firings” of officials — but that’s not what we mean. Broadly, what we have seen appears typical for presidential transitions. Yet gone largely unnoticed, apparently for nearly an hour there was no acting Secretary of Defense and the typical change-overs in administrations have left gaps in leadership (e.g. immigration court officials). Even the just created DOGE is under regime change (with Ramaswamy kicked out before it even got up and running). The chaos inside the administration is just beginning. We’ll see more of that from our chaos president.
Many of these policies are going straight to court. Trump’s attempt to rollback a constitutional right of birthright citizenship — very unlikely to stand. Challenges will take place to Title IX order and his attempts to purge the federal government of DEI and any gender designation that’s not male or female. There will be less certain challenges on his border closings. You may have already heard that his non-official “department” to reduce government waste (DOGE), led ignominiously by Elon Musk, was challenged in courts minutes after Trump took power (including by our friends at Democracy Forward).
And through it all a lot of suffering. Trump stranded 1,600 Afghan refugees, crashing their dreams of a new life. By pulling the CBP One app, Trump has added to chaos and uncertainty for tens of thousands on the border — instead of supporting orderly applications, he’s feeding the chaos.
Perhaps most significantly to all human life on the planet, minutes after taking office he withdrew from the Paris climate agreements and ordered an “energy emergency” so his friends at Big Oil can keep polluting, causing cascading changes to our weather.
So what do we make of all of this? It’s not the full-throated seizure of government some of us most feared. It’s not not that yet, either. But scratch the surface and there are cracks in his plans.
Key is to notice how much this is fueled by (and fueling) racist policy — not economic issues. Nothing about economic distress or the anxiety felt by working people. Instead it’s scape-goating policies against immigrants and removing DEI.
That shouldn’t be a surprise given his inauguration was surrounded by and literally funded by the billionaire class. He’s running an elite government, focused on grievances and distraction so the billionaire class can continue the old methods of exploitation (like oil and gas) and new methods of exploitation (like AI).
It’s not over. It’s not the worst. It’s bad. It’s going to get worse.
If you need some alternative inspiration, we recommend watching the livestream of MLK Day with The Way We Get Through This is Together: Celebrating Community with Rebecca Solnit, Charlie Jane Anders, Anand Giridharadas, Bill McKibben, Liz Ogbu, and Akaya Windwood.
We continue to have resources on our website to run trainings, scenario planning sessions, and articles to help adjust to what we’re going to face.
Keep loving the people close to you.
Warmly,
– Choose Democracy