Not since the protests against the Vietnam War have we seen this kind of all-out activism in the U.S. and around the world.
And before anyone starts talking about ‘sore losers’, chew on this: Donald Trump won the presidency (actually Steve Bannon did) but he did not win the majority of American support. We all know by now that Trump didn’t win the popular vote but he did win the Electoral College vote and that’s what counts.
But there is more to it than that. There are 230,000,000 eligible voters in the U.S. This means that 90,000,000 Americans didn’t vote. So if 90,000,000 didn’t vote and 66,000,000 voted for Hillary that means over 150,000,000 Americans (a majority) of the eligible 230,000,000 have a president they didn’t vote for. Which somewhat explains his unprecedented unpopularity. And I hope those non-voters are bloody ashamed of what their indifference has wrought.
As Charles M. Blow said in the New York Times, “Trump’s America is brutal, perverse, regressive, insular and afraid. There is no hope in it; there is no light in it. It is a vast expanse of darkness and desolation. And that is a vision of America that most of the people in this country cannot and will not abide. That is a vision of America that has galvanized ordinary American citizens in opposition in a way that is almost without precedent. We are inching toward anarchy as both the people and the president refuse to back down.”
And this is where ugly turns beautiful. It is the millions of individuals who are gathering in women’s marches and at airports and as private citizens with organizational ties who are emerging as the real heroes. The most concrete action to follow Trump’s presidential win is that organizations that champion civil liberties, women’s health, immigration rights and anti-discrimination initiatives have seen record-breaking financial contributions and volunteer applications.
Some of them asked for help and got it but for others the outpouring was spontaneous.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a non-profit organization protecting rights and liberties as guaranteed in the Constitution. In the three days following the Trump immigration ban it raised 24 million dollars; a normal annual take is about four million.
Planned Parenthood saw a similar rush of support. Social media spread the idea to send donations in Pence’s name to the women’s reproductive rights group as a bit of a poke in the eye to the ultra-right conservative. Of the 260,000 donations since the election, 72,000 have been in Pence’s name.
The Sierra Club and the International Refugee Assistance Project and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have seen huge spikes in unsolicited donations. Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman, called it “a very good sign. Making a donation is the ultimate sign of solidarity. Actions speak louder than words.”
Two Republican senators, Arizona’s John McCain and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham are leading a small band of Republicans in saying that Mr. Trump’s order was not properly vetted and that it could be seen as the United States turning its back on Muslims who had risked their lives to serve as interpreters for the country’s military and diplomats.
Many Republicans are staying silent despite the fact that they squealed like big tires on hot asphalt when President Obama signed executive orders on matters of far less importance. Then again, they also said nothing when Trump’s campaign promised to advance a “white nationalist agenda and demonized blacks in the ‘inner city’, Mexicans at the border or Muslims from the Middle East.”
The people are ticked off at the gutlessness of Republicans and Democrats alike in speaking out against Trump’s insanity. There was a move toward bipartisanship due to Republicans blocking Barack Obama’s every move, but that ideal has been set aside given Trump’s erratic, hard-right conduct. The protesters want the Democratic opposition to oppose rather than co-operate.
The day after his inauguration, President Trump placed a call to the acting head of the National Park Service, Michael Reynolds, reportedly to complain about the agency posting side-by-side photos that unfavorably compared the crowd sizes at his and former President Obama’s inaugurations.
To punish them they were forced into a media blackout, hiring freeze, policy changes, and possible reduction in funding. But as a spokesperson said, “We are here to stand up and speak out against the current administration. We all refuse to be silenced while we watch everything we love crumble.”
The Muslim ban has cast a pall of uncertainty over education and business; tech companies with professionals and customers who could be affected by the ban swiftly denounced the policy, including Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yelp, Tesla and airbnb. Many large corporations are pussy-footing while those with significant operations – such as oil giants – in the Middle East had nothing to say.
Melissa Arnoff, chair of corporate communication at Levick Strategic Communications said, “If you look at a lot of the statements, people are criticizing the policy without criticizing the president. It’s a fine line, but they’re trying to not blatantly say he’s a horrible person.”
Others see the need for companies to speak up and speak out. “It’s one thing for our president to be tone deaf, but our corporate leaders can’t do the same,” said Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Kwittken, a New York-based corporate brand reputation agency. “I don’t think companies can stay silent. I think you’re actually going to see true leaders and leadership emerge from corporate America, because their mettle is being tested like never before,” he said. And the the ban could undermine American innovation/business because a full 25 per cent of science and engineering companies have at least one immigrant founder.
Given that Canada is being lauded worldwide and in the U.S. for its inclusiveness as never before, our Prime Minister needs to take a definitive stance. Either we are the open, generous, compassionate people that others think we are…or we are not. At a minimum we need to take in the almost 2,800 innocent Syrian refugees that have been stuck in limbo due to Trump’s order.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU said, “It’s really clear that this is a different type of moment. People want to know what they can do. They want to be deployed as protagonists in this fight. This is not a spectator sport.”
Following a career in the hospitality sector and the acquisition of a law and justice degree in her 50s, Dale embarked on a writing career armed with the fanciful idea that a living could be made as a freelancer. To her own great surprise she was right. The proof lies in hundreds of published works on almost any topic but favourites include travel, humour & satire, feature writing, environment, politics and entrepreneurship. Having re-invented herself half a dozen times, Dale doesn’t rule anything out. Her time is divided equally between Muskoka and Tampa Bay with Jim, her husband of 8 years and partner of 32 years. Two grown ‘kids’ and their spouses receive double doses of love and attention when she’s at home.
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Rarely do I agree with you on very many things, Dale, but certainly no one can argue with a number of your points on Trump. The only issue I would take is with your points about how many people did NOT vote for Trump and therefore why he is not the President of all the people. It is amazing how this argument is used to justify so many divergent viewpoints. When Harper was PM it was because of a flawed system that split the left-leaning vote and gave him a majority with only 39% of the voters, meaning 61% voted AGAINST him. However when Trudeau became PM with about the same 39% this was okay, even though about 60% did not vote for him, because the “majority” voted against Harper! You can use a lot of arguments as to why Trump (or Trudeau or Harper or anyone else) “stole” an election due to a flawed system, but it happens to be the system we have. Unless the system in either country is changed (and how did that promise from Trudeau work out!) we have to live with the results no matter which party we support. Frankly it has worked for a long, long time and tends to even out in the long run.
As Edmund Burke said, and I’ve edited slightly, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” I’ve been following the situation closely — very closely, because something gobsmacking has happened pretty much every day — since the inauguration. I hit the point of absolutely not being able to do nothing any longer on Jan. 26.
What I do best is write, and I have amateur expertise on a very relevant topic. Americans and in fact people all over the world watch Trump’s behavior and are not only aghast, but baffled — “How can he? How is it possible for a grown-up human being to do [x]??” (and [x] could be any one of very, very many things) Most important — “how do we deal with it?” In short, the man is mentally ill, and the illness he has is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I am not a psychiatrist but I have studied it quite thoroughly, and he’s a textbook case; you just need to look at the diagnostic criteria. You can check off every box.
So on Jan 26, I wrote a blogpost on this, quite long and thorough, and posted it on the largest progressive-liberal blogsite in the USA. People saw I had a point right away, and it was something that needed to be said; it was rated up onto the list of leading stories, and stayed there for two days, garnering more than 700 comments (including some from psychiatrists and other types of therapists agreeing). What really blew me away was the number of Facebook shares, which continues to rise: right now it’s over 43,000. I am not sure how many people that represents, but I found one site that said it’s approximately 80 people per share, which multiplies to 3,440,000. I get kind of shaky looking at that number, but if it’s correct, it means there is that much more understanding of what we’re dealing with in the American public discourse.
Check it out: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1625715/-Here-s-what-s-psychologically-wrong-with-Donald-Trump .
My point here is that when it comes to political action, today’s information technology makes it much more possible to have an impact across borders. There’s a 21-year-old student in Halifax who, just as an experiment, created a Twitter account just for retweets of tweets by Americans expressing regret for voting for Trump; as I write it has 177,000 followers and is growing fast, I think mostly because people find reading them therapeutic. (I know I do.) Check it out — https://twitter.com/Trump_Regrets . There’s no reason why Canadians can’t get on our computers and phones to combat this fascistic administration, even if it’s just to sign petitions by Amnesty International, Avaaz, etc., or donate to any of the great organizations Dale mentions in her excellent column above.
In other words: #resist !!
Then again, look at what happened to Acting Attorney-General, Sally Yates, for not being “gutless”. She opposed the immigration ban and was summarily fired. Now her proposed replacement, Jeff Sessions (anti-immigration AND anti-civil rights), is fighting an uphill battle in the Senate. If he is confirmed, being a senior Puppet-Master to even Bannon; Trump’s right-wing agenda will continue uninterrupted from that quarter.