The five keys to defeating Donald Trump
If you think of the earth as a medical patient, then its diagnosis, according to the UK Met Office’s Professor Stephen Belcher, would be “profoundly ill.” “Many of the [earth’s] vital signs are sounding alarms,” the professor explained.
The expectation is no better. New evidence indicates that the Earth’s climate is changing rapidly, in some places so rapidly as to shock scientists, and the outcome for the near future could be grim indeed.
If you think of the United States of America as a medical patient, the diagnosis would also be “profoundly ill.” The outcome for the near future is also grim indeed.
That both the earth and the United States are deeply sick patients at the same time is a cocktail for disaster. The earth needs the United States in order to recover. It’s as though America was the world’s greatest surgeon but is too sick to operate. The prognosis for both patients, I’m sorry to say, is death.
This prognosis is unacceptable. There can be only one solution. That solution is you and me. We are it. We are the poor ragged army sent out to defeat the twin monolithic overlords of certain destruction: ignorance and tyranny.
Donald Trump wants to silence us. For the time being he can’t. We must never permit him to find a way. We must employ all the tools available to us as individuals to fight the forces of destruction. We still have our voices and our volition. Let’s use them to do everything in our power to resist, obstruct and defeat Trump. Individually we are puny, but together we can form a mighty army of opposition.
I’m not saying the road ahead is going to be easy. It won’t be. We are fighting the greatest evil on American soil we have ever known while standing on a dying planet.
We will need practical tools. So here they are. The first is, use your voice. Write and speak whenever you can. The second is protest in marches and through boycotts. Millions of angry people have brought Tesla to its knees in a few short weeks. Dealerships are closing all over the world and Tesla stock is plummeting. As a company Tesla will soon be dead. We did that.
A third tool is financial. Send your support, if you can, to candidates who are fighting Trump. A good place to start is with the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Democratic Judge Susan Crawford is taking on the corrupt Musk-backed asshole Brad Schimel. Crawford believes in democracy and the rule of law. Schimel believes in gerrymandering, a total ban on abortion for all reasons (including rape, incest and the health of the mother) with a six year prison term for any violation, and Trump. Crawford must win. Please back her.
A fourth tool is resistance. We must all actively resist Trump in his policies and unlawful decrees. This could include lawsuits. Any American can bring a lawsuit against the government. You may not be able to mount a lawsuit on your own, but you can actively support those who do. A good place to start is with Marc Elias, a lawyer who is constantly fighting Trump — and winning — in court. You can support him by going to his website democracydocket.com, subscribing to his YouTube channel and spreading the word of his good work.
The fifth tool you can use is to support progressive social media. We are outnumbered 2 to 1 by fascistic online social media. So sign up to Meidas Touch, David Pakman, Brian Tyler Cohen and all the others online who believe in democracy and climate action and oppose Trump. Support them financially when you can, but also with your likes and subscribes.
In a little over two years we could get rid of Trump and Vance and be on the road to healing democracy and the planet if we can secure a supermajority in the Senate. Two months ago that seemed impossible. Today Trump has made it possible with his ridiculous and destructive actions. Let’s exploit Trump’s stupidity, come back and win. We have a democracy and a planet to save. Failure is not an option.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.