2/10/25

LIVING WITH DONALD TRUMP: LESSON 2
LIKE ANY OTHER BULLY,
TRUMP CAN BE STOPPED.
BUT THE COST IS REAL 

IT’S A QUESTION HALF THE COUNTRY has been asking since Trump became president last month: How do you stop a bully?
     The answer is simple:
     When enough of us stand up to a bully, he or she stops.
     That’s goes for any bully, whether he's lurking in the school yard or the White House.
      But there’s a catch: the bully will hurt us.
     The school yard bully will break your nose, punch you in the gut, twist your arm, knock you down, get his pals to kick and taunt you, then send you away, bleeding, bruised and broken.
     The Oval Office mutation will do much worse.
     He will insult and libel you on social media; bring phony criminal and civil lawsuits against you, to exhaust your savings; get you fired or at demoted; tell armed militias where  you live and what your phone numbers are;  cancel your research grants; cripple your small business; run a primary campaign against you; track where you drive, what you read and whom you text; audit your taxes; bankrupt your daycare center; and ship you to Guantanamo (and you thought that was just for immigrant detainees).
     This explains, in part, why there’s been little effective push-back to Trump: It’s scary and difficult to go after a bully.
     It’s comfortable to belittle the people – particularly Republicans -  who worshipfully cheer him on; or who hint at opposing him, then back down; or those office holders, the worst villains of all, because they say and do nothing.
     The press has been particularly complicit, largely ignoring this army of Republican snivelers that's empowered Trump to become the world’s master bully, as if the subject is old news and unworthy of repeating.
     Meanwhile, there’s entire wing of the media devoted to mocking Democrats for failing to counter Trump as too divided, too old, too progressive, too tongue-tied, too boring, too slow and too alienated from the Working Class.
     I swear that the New York Times has created a special  Demoralize the Democrats Desk by churning out headlines like:

• Are the Democrats in Even More Trouble Than They Think? (Jan. 20)
• ‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump (Feb. 2)
• Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities  (Feb. 2)
• Where Are the Democrats?  (Feb 6)
• As Ground Shifts, ‘Flailing’ Democrats Struggle to Find Footing in Diversity Fight (Feb. 8)

 
A NATION OF COWARDS?
      What's remarkable is how an entire nation, from coast to coast, border to  border, seems cowed by the bully-in-chief .
      Among most despicable quislings are individuals and institutions that  have the most power and financial wherewithal to stand up to Trump and therefore to encourage the rest of us to push back.
     Where to start? Jeff Bezos, the billionaire genius behind of Amazon, whose embrace of Trump is astonishing,  donating to Trump, winning a choice seat at the inauguration. Doesn’t the man read his own newspaper, the Washington Post, to understand the damage Trump is causing?
     Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, with years left in his term, could have shown a touch of stewardship by forcing Trump to fire him, rather than slinking away the minute Trump took office.
     It’s perhaps too easy to point  at  Sen. Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican, who, if she had done the “right” thing, might have encouraged fellow GOPers to question one of Trump’s most clownish, but dangerous cabinet nominee.
     Ernst had doubts about Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of defense. A combat veteran, who had been sexually assaulted in college, Ernst had credible cause to question Hegseth's fitness, given his opposition to women in combat, while facing accusations of sexual misbehavior.
      But Ernst, receiving threats of a primary challenge,  eventually supported Hegseth, who got the job when Vice President JD Vance broke a Senate tie after  three other Republicans joined Democrats in voting no.
     The Dishonor Roll is vast and growing.
     The Boston Globe last week reported that top medical organizations chickened out of criticizing Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, even though individual doctors have condemned his skepticism of vaccines.
     Paul Offit, a pediatrician and expert on vaccines at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as calling the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association,  “cowardly” for their silence.
      “I think it’s shameful that the AAP or AMA or the other major groups don’t step forward clearly and definitively with statements about how dangerous this man could be,” Offit said.

IN DESCRIBING THIS NATION OF COWARDS, I don’t want to suggest that I’m any kind of role model for leading the resistance, the rebellion or whatever you call it.
     I’m a fearful, timid man, a lifelong milquetoast, who still cringes at the memory of the scary parts of the “Wizard of Oz,” identifying only with the appearances of the Cowardly Lion.
     When I was a reporter, I was a member of the labor union at my newspaper.
     Absurdly, I was chair of the grievance committee, charged with defending workers who had been disciplined or fired by management:  (“The Cowardly Lion has your back”).
     The union won most of its cases. But workers who ran afoul of management suffered immensely. They lived under the shadow of being labeled “bad employees,” with some  demoted or suspended during the months, even years it took their cases to go through arbitrations and regulatory and court hearings.
      After individuals “won,” clearing their records and sometimes being compensated financially, most chose to leave the company. And in the rare cases where someone was returned to his or her job, the personal and professional scars were permanent.
    The lesson:  Yes, you can fight City Hall; and, yes, you can win. But there's always a price.

TAKING ON TRUMP,  therefore, means both being willing to act, while acknowledging the personal danger.
     From the outset, any of us who challenge Trump should  recognize the consequences, which will be far worse than those suffered by the people I’ve described, who were involved in old-fashioned, vanilla labor disputes.
      Each one of us has to decide not only what we can do, but if we are able.
     Just as important is to recognize that if we remain a fearful, cowardly nation, our lives and our country will be ruined.
     Donald Trump is ripping our country apart, aided by Elon Musk and his team of techno-two-year-olds, who are out to destroy entire federal departments and agency, invade citizens’ personal information, fire professionals and halt medical care and research.
      Trump-Musk are moving to re-segregate America, accelerate climate destruction, degrade the economy, grab land from other countries and lie about their reasons and motives for doing all of that.
     It’s also clear that we are not helpless.
     I believe that success is not only possible, but certain - certain if millions of us do something. Our own roles will vary as to who we are, what we can do and when we can act.
        I wish I could say I will be brave enough – knowing I’ve always have been a person of uncertain courage, and, that over a long life, I have witnessed the real the cost of protest.
     So, I can’t promise you that I’ll be up to the challenge.
     Only that I want to be.