Welcome to the Fight

I know we’re all feeling a little bit of this, so let’s just get it out there. What were they expecting? Trump did more than just signal his plans for 2.0, he was explicit. And where he wasn’t, Project 2025 was. Like with this:

The authors of Project 2025 wrote, months before the election: “The fourth pillar of Project 2025 is our 180-day Transition Playbook and includes a comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency. Only through the implementation of specific action plans at each agency will the next conservative presidential Administration be successful. Pillar IV will provide the next President a roadmap for doing just that.”

This so-called fourth pillar was not made public, but anyone who read the plans for each federal agency contained in Project 2025 knew where this was headed. It’s fair to say that people didn’t anticipate that it would be an all-fronts assault on day one of the new administration, but given the slow start Trump got the first time, the criticism of that, and the reporting that they were better prepared this time, it’s hard to say any of this is a surprise.

One of Trump’s day one executive orders was titled “Establishing and Implementing The President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency.’” It created a temporary DOGE agency, presumably the twenty-somethings now running amuck in federal payment systems, likely in an effort to avoid inconvenient details like government transparency rules and conflict of interest standards and disclosures for employees. The stated goal was modernization of the federal government’s computer systems, which any employee will tell you is a worthy goal.

But what has actually been happening with DOGE is well outside of that assigned mission. There is no suggestion that what the executive order directs DOGE to do is actually happening, and of course, the holdup to modernizing federal systems has always been funding, which would require congressional action and runs contrary to Elon Musk’s stated goal of cutting billions from the federal budget.

Nothing we’re seeing should come as a surprise. Shock and awful was always the plan. Revenge investigations underway at DOJ? It was a practical certainty even as Pam Bondi and Kash Patel testified under oath in confirmation hearings that it wasn’t.

But let’s set that aside and be pragmatic. There are people among us who are only waking up to how horrible this administration’s policies are when they are touched personally. Or who are only awakened to politics when they feel some of the pain. But for the moment, at least, they are paying attention, and we should use our civil discourse skills to keep them here with us.

Our goal between now and the midterm elections, because yes, they are coming, is to get ready to make a last-ditch stand for democracy. It’s going to be hard to break through disgust with the political process, but Trump’s deluge of activity may have done that.

We don’t have to agree with people on every issue to work together towards that worthy goal; that’s the lesson learned by mature and responsible people who believe in this country. We learned that the first time around with the Never Trumpers. It’s sad that people have to feel the pain personally before they begin to question what Trump is doing, but that is where we are, and every last voter and pocket of support will matter. We all have our personal lines, and I know that for many of us that means there are people it’s not possible to make common cause with. We can’t and shouldn’t abide by the racism, the Christian nationalism, the misogyny, the hatred of migrants, LGBTQ people, and other groups. But so many Americans have simply kept their heads in the sand up to this point. Almost 90 million of the 245 million Americans who were eligible to vote in 2024 didn’t.

So:

To the people who voted for cheaper eggs and got a coup.

To the people whose Medicare coverage is in jeopardy.

To the people who think Palestinians and Israelis deserve our support negotiating a settlement that lets that war torn region try to move forward with dignity, not as another real estate deal that benefits the Trump Organization.

To those who are worried that Elon Musk’s best interests aren’t the American people’s best interests.

To federal employees who voted for Trump and are now threatened with losing their jobs.

To people who think cutting USAID will make volatile regions of the world more dangerous and lead to human tragedies, and not coincidentally, more illegal immigration as people flee danger.

To the people who are shocked that funding to conservative religious groups that do good works at home and abroad is on the chopping block.

To people who believe in public education and public health and worry about a future where they are privatized for profit.

Welcome to the fight.

We’re in this together,

Joyce