Newsletter

Only Four More Years…

Until a lot of people realize that this ride we’re on is more Final Destination than Cedar Point. Once fascists are in power they prefer to keep it, and they know if they don’t make a stockpile of it then bureaucracy will catch up with them. So they cut the red tape or walk right through it as quickly as they can, leaving so much destruction in their wake that it’s easier to let them keep doing it than rebuild.

This week AP, a news hub currently suing the Trump administration for keeping them out of the White House press pool, reported on an executive order that would change our elections drastically. Trump and his cronies have often claimed that elections have been tampered with or that they’re somehow being manipulated in someone’s favor, a claim that was missing after this past election even as rumors of Musk having a hand in its results circulated (we’re never short on hypocrisy with this crowd). Historically it’s been up to the states to decide how voters register and set their own rules, but this order would make it so states who didn’t comply would not receive funding.

The new order would make it so voters have to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote and it would require that all votes be in by Election Day. Obviously it is already a requirement in this country to be a citizen in order to vote in federal elections, and forcing people to bring their documentation in (because they would require this process be done in person) would only bar citizen voters who are unable to show up in person (because of disabilities or responsibilities or any number of other reasons) from their right to vote. This executive order comes ahead of the SAVE act, or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility act, which would bring similar ideas into law as well as make it so the identity of the citizen would have to match their birth certificate. This would make it difficult for anyone who changed their name, but would be a large hassle for married women who took their husband’s last name as well. That act is currently having a tough time making its way through Congress, for obvious reasons, so I’m not surprised they would try to enforce this through executive order first.

While Trump has not yet used any emergency powers to enforce his agenda (he largely hasn’t needed to as senate dems continue to roll over on his cabinet picks and executive orders), there are plenty of other incoming threats and, as we discussed in the last article, propaganda techniques that are making it hard to oppose them. The DOGE team is doing untold amounts of damage as they dissolve the Department of Education and the Social Security Administration, putting many citizens social security checks at risk. The IRS, after losing 7000 workers in February and facing further staff shortages in the midst of tax season, is estimating a 500 billion dollar loss in tax revenue because of the instability. RFK Jr. fired the entire staff at the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS, which will have disastrous consequences as measles continues to spread in the states.

We’ve talked before about how their smash and grab is half calculation and half overwhelm. They largely don’t care about the damage they’re doing, and often will smash and then reinstate all of the employees either because a judge orders it or they realize the terminated employees were necessary after all. Sometimes everything changes in a few hours, or a few days. The chaos is the point.

I know a lot of people are talking about a blue wave at the mid-terms, and that could very well happen assuming the mid -terms are allowed to happen at all. This administration, with the addition of social media, is doing everything they’re doing loud and proud and for the world to see, so I’m not sure if we’ll have obviously rigged elections (like the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin that Musk is bribing people for votes in) or simply no elections at all (suggested by pending legislation to lengthen Trump’s term indefinitely). That is one of many things we’re going to have to wait and see on, but both of those things mean that going forward electoral politics are going to be a farce more so than they ever have been in this country. Further, that means that any blue wave would probably matter more on a state level than federally. If ever there was a year to pay attention to local politics, this is it.

If you’re watching Walz (Minnesota Democratic Governor, previous VP candidate) or Pritzker (Illinois Democratic Governor), Crockett (Texas Democratic U.S. Representative), or even Sanders (Vermont Independent Senator) and Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez (New York Democratic U.S. Representative) and you’re wondering why your state or local leaders aren’t speaking up, look into them. If you don’t like what you find, get them out of there. Having elected leaders who are willing to say the hard things isn’t nothing, and it would be certainly more than what Schumer and Jeffries are up to.

It being not nothing doesn’t change the fact that it is very likely not going to only be four more years. I‘m sympathetic to using the idea to cope with the rampant news cycle, but I find it far more to be an excuse to continue to live life as normal and let whatever happens happen. There is no real opposition party in the United States and there hasn’t been for a long time. Rationality and common sense will not suddenly grip the country in time for an election four years from now. They’ve done untold damage to both our future and our history in three months. Letting that continue unchecked will not bring back the normalcy we are all craving. This country had issues long before Trump, and if you’re longing for that past then you are also longing for the people who have suffered under our government to go back to doing it quietly. The only way through this is forward.

Stay safe. Organize. Protect yourselves and each other. Take a Stop the Bleed course, read a history book, get coffee with a friend and talk about funny things and the things that aren’t so funny. Offer up skills you have for free to someone that needs them. Be the adult in the room even when it’s hard.

I’m going to post a few links below to some articles that pertain to what’s written above. As always, feel free to reach out to me by leaving a comment here or on Signal (oneofthefwords.77) or at oneofthefwords@proton.me, I’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much for reading.