What We Can Do

As the dust settles from the election, it’s beginning to appear that our future might not be as scary as it originally seemed – if we act. We are only helpless if we give up and do nothing, so I want to discuss what we as individuals can do to make a difference. But first let’s look at some numbers that reveal Trump’s weaknesses.

Trump contends he won by a landslide because he won the Electoral College by a margin of 312-226, and he claims that’s a “landslide” that gives him a mandate to put all his promises into action. He is so pathetically wrong.

The truth is that Trump got less than 50 percent of the votes cast. He got 76.8 million votes, which is 4 million votes fewer than Joe Biden got in 2020, and his vote total is further dwarfed by the 93 million qualified voters who stayed home. Kamala Harris got 74.3 million votes, and she would have won if she had garnered just 238,000 votes in three swing states, which isn’t much when you consider that more than 150 million people voted.

So Trump’s public support is not nearly as strong as he pretends. There’s a lot that can and almost certainly will go wrong for Trump when he takes office, and there are effective actions we can take to exploit them. Let’s look at the weaknesses first, then think about what we can do about them.

For starters, reports are coming out of Mar-a-Lago that relationships among Trump’s inner circle are showing signs of fraying. Reports are that meetings of the people handling Trump’s transition to the presidency often devolve into shouting matches, and members reportedly have even physically shoved each other in anger. That is not a good foundation for a successful presidency.

And once Trump is in office, putting his economic plans into effect would be political suicide. He has promised mass deportations of undocumented people and tariffs of 10-20 percent on all goods, 60 percent on those from China, and up to 100 percent on those from Mexico. Economists say that if he follows through on those promises it will clobber farmers and people who live in rural areas, the very people who formed the backbone of his election. Many of those voters are likely to turn on him when they realize he has betrayed them.

Related to that, a new study of President-elect Trump’s tax plan shows it would drain money from 95 percent of households and funnel it to the top 5 percent. People in the lower and middle economic classes would face annual tax increases ranging from $600 to $1,800, while the top 1 per cent of earners would enjoy an average tax cut of more than $36,300 each. When middle-class folks who are struggling to pay rent and buy groceries become aware that Trump is causing money to flow from their pockets into the pockets of billionaires, a significant number are bound to turn on him.

And then there is Project 2025, which calls for, among much, much more, the creation of an extraordinarily strong president who will impose Christian nationalism on the government, end immigration, and curtail the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and racial and ethnic minorities. Trump denied knowing anything about that plan until he realized how badly it frightened and disgusted voters of all stripes, then he called the plan “ridiculous and abysmal.” Now that he’s been elected, though, he says he will nominate at least six people associated with Project 2025 to his administration. A big chunk of those frightened and disgusted voters, like the farmers and rural folks and other middle-class people, will probably turn on him.

Further, Trump is refusing to sign an ethics agreement that would impose strict limits on his ability to raise funds from the public to help pay for expenses involved in preparing to take over the government. That means he can raise unlimited amounts of money from donors, including foreign donors, Putin perhaps, without allowing anyone to know who is giving, how much they are giving, and what they are getting in return for their giving. That ought to set off danger warnings in everyone, regardless of what they think of Trump.

Toss in Trump’s astonishingly unqualified nominees for Cabinet positions, which are raising eyebrows even among his Republican supporters, and his public support sinks even further.

Add all that together, and it is likely that a result of all of this will be desertions by farmers, people living in rural areas, other middle- and lower-class people everywhere across America, those people who are frightened and disgusted over Project 25 and Trump’s lies about it, and those people angered by his Cabinet appointments. That’s a lot of people who will be deserting Trump if he carries through on his promises.

None of those folks are likely to become Democrats, but they very well might become anti-MAGA voters, even Lincoln Republicans. Trump could quickly become the most hated president in American history, and at least one of the most hated persons ever. He already has the near-unanimous Democratic vote for those honors.

And therein lies our power. Although Republicans will control both the House and the Senate when Trump takes office, they will have only narrow majorities. All we need to do is convince a handful of senators and House members how Trump is already showing signs of sinking, and how politically suicidal it will be for them to stay with him, and they will thwart much of what he wants to do.

How we do that is simple. Refuse to give in, and use whatever talent we have to resist.

Musicians are especially needed. Music is always a major part of successful uprisings. It was critical to Black people’s breaking Jim Crow’s back. It inspired the protesters against the Vietnam war. So if you are a singer, sing songs of resistance wherever you can — in nightclubs, churches, karaoke gatherings, anywhere, everywhere. If you are a songwriter, write songs of resistance and get them to the singers.

If you are an organizer, organize, and a good place to begin is check out the Ayni Institute, which offers training courses for organizers. If you are a joiner, join; there are umpteen organizations that need you.

If you are a writer, write, and you don’t have to be a professional writer to make a difference. Members of Congress must know how we feel, and the only way they’ll know is if we tell them. That means we must write or call them and tell them.

And make no mistake about it: letters to our representatives matter. As political pundit Robert Hubbell pointed out a few days ago, it was letters from individuals to their Washington representatives that forced them to let Trump know they could not support his nomination of Matt Gaetz to become attorney general, thus killing the nomination. So let’s keep up the momentum.

Write your representatives. Make them understand how Trump is betraying the very people who elected him, how he’s benefiting the rich at the expense of the middle and lower classes. Remind them there is not one blue voter who will ever change his or her mind and vote for Trump, but when MAGA supporters realize what Trump has done to them, how he has betrayed them, a significant number will desert him.

When regular Americans realize that the government programs they depend on the most – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare – are wilting because of Donald Trump, and that their grocery store prices are increasing because of Donald Trump, and that inflation is rising because of Donald Trump, and that tariffs are really a sales tax that Donald Trump dumped on them, and that Donald Trump has betrayed them just to get elected, many are certain to become anti-MAGA voters. And whatever congresspersons are on Trump’s side when that happens will go down with him.

Please, do it today. Make a difference. We cannot wait. We will not quit.

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