Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Future
Whenever I work with organizations outside of democratic countries, I’m reminded that once rights are gone, they’re incredibly difficult to regain.
Most of my clients are America-based organizations, but occasionally, I’ve trained or done work with an organization operating in a country (or countries) with authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. For American organizations, there’s always a process of spelling out how law enforcement and/or various government entities can cause harm, but in non-democratic contexts, law enforcement, government, and the military are the opposition. Authoritarian governments hold all the power and have limitless resources to target the opposition. Most of the time, there’s little to no hope that a Democratic movement that would topple the regime will emerge. Americans are losing our rights and freedoms gradually, and every time I work with organizations outside of democratic countries, I’m reminded that once rights and freedoms are gone, they’re incredibly difficult to regain.
This has been top of mind all week as I’ve watched University and College Administrations call on police to break up protest encampments. The right to protest is under threat around the world, and the US is no exception. For all the talk about violent protests on campuses, the act of protest has become exponentially more dangerous in America. (I assume the more Americans learn about how university administrations dealt with these protests, the more their anger will turn to colleges and universities, but I digress.)
Then there’s the Time Magazine interview with Donald Trump, where Trump makes clear his intention of turning America into a fascist hell-scape once he wins the election, which he assures the reporter repeatedly is a given, come November. I’m not going to analyze the Interview, mostly because so many people have done this already, but there’s no denying Trump’s vision for America’s future. An America where Trump has free reign to punish his enemies however he sees fit and where everyone’s rights and freedoms are taken away permanently.
It’s going to be interesting to watch Trump attempt to exploit the protests the way he did with protests of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders four years ago. For years Trump proudly claimed to be the “law and order” president, claiming that America was a hellhole and only he could get things back under control. The strategy obviously didn’t work in 2020, but now the phrase “law and order” would only remind voters of the many criminal charges Trump is currently under indictment for. So far, Trump has praised law enforcement for breaking up the protests and hyped up the right-wing false conspiracy theory that the protests are a false flag to distract from the border.
People I talk to are often frustrated, feeling like most Americans don’t realize what Trump’s agenda actually is. But I think the problem is that MAGA knows exactly what Trump plans to do, and that’s what motivates them. Trump is a perfect avatar for the MAGA movement, but the push for Authoritarianism didn’t start with him and will outlive Trump’s political usefulness, as Mike Podhorzer breaks down succinctly in his own newsletter. Trump keeps saying the quiet part out loud because he wants his base to stay engaged and they’re hungry for it. Trump needs MAGA to vote for him in November, and crucially he needs them to be up for another coup attempt and insurrection should the votes not go his way. Our task is to once again galvanize the pro-democracy majority to turn out to the polls and hold our ground to protect the integrity of the election.
ICYMI
There Is One Major Element Missing From the Debate on Kids and Social Media (Newsweek)
My friend and Obama Leaders cohort fellow, Desmond Patton takes on what’s missing in the Anxious Generation discourse: gun violence.
Down-ballot Democrats Dramatically Outspend Republicans Online (FWIW)
This one truly surprised me but also came as a great relief.
The Shape-Shifting Threat of Election Interference (Voting Rights Lab)
A comprehensive overview of voter suppression and expansion legislation in the states and what the impact might be.
‘Beetlejuice!’: George Washington University Protestors Mock Lauren Boebert for Her Inappropriate Conduct at Musical (The Daily Dot)
We all deserve this, as a treat.
Blatant Self-Promotion
Ctrl Alt-Right Delete is nominated for a Powerful IDEA Award in the political newsletter category. Voting is open to the public until May 31, and I’d appreciate your support! The site requires registering but the process takes less than a minute. Please vote for CARD!
Congratulations to FWIW, a fellow Courier publication written by Kyle Tharp and one of my personal favorite newsletters, for also being nominated in the newsletter category.
I spoke to The 19th about the lengths anyone working in the Reproductive Freedom Movement has to go through in order to protect themselves. This is one of the best articles I’ve seen about the reality for folks currently working or volunteering in reproductive rights. I’d promote it even if I wasn’t quoted as an expert.
That’s all for now! We’ll be back next week, same bat time, same bat channel.
I'm both bewildered and angered by the politically savvy people my age (I'm almost 73) who support the crackdown on college students and others who are demonstrating for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support for Israel's military machine. They claim that the young people have no stake in the conflict, that it has nothing to do with them, therefore there must be "outside agitators" involved. I remember the same charges being leveled against those of us organizing against U.S. involvement in Indochina in the late '60s and into the '70s. (I do remember being asked more than once why I cared about the war, since as a woman I couldn't be drafted.)
Several of these people (whom I follow on Substack and elsewhere) seem to be traumatized by 1968, specifically by the debacle of the Democratic convention in Chicago, which they believe threw the 1968 election to Richard Nixon. I share their concerns about a repeat in 2024, but I point out that other things were going on in 1968: Nixon's undermining of the peace negotiations, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (and the riots that followed), and the assassination of RFK. Their inability and/or unwillingness to see that today's student protesters are our direct descendants -- and I for one am proud of them.
Any advice for someone who has to work with MAGA people? It's hard for me to be mean, but I feel such contempt for them. It's constant cognitive dissonance.