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This is War, and We are Losing [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-17

Every day, every hour, every minute that Trump attacks America, he weakens the country. It is death by a thousand cuts. Many people, despite political persuasion, don’t feel it yet, but they are already bleeding. Trump has only been in office for eight weeks, but we are already overwhelmed, numbed, and fearful by what he has done. This is just the beginning, and he is not done—far from it.

Why is Trump firing so many people, eliminating contracts, closing departments and agencies, defunding research universities, bringing lawsuits against the media and law firms, imposing tariffs, ignoring First Amendment rights, pressuring judges with impeachment, restricting legal immigration, pardoning J6 convicts, deporting immigrants and American citizens, attacking whistleblowers, cutting social programs, harming veterans, rolling back environmental regulations, eliminating America’s soft power, dismissing watchdogs like Inspectors General, weaponizing the Department of Justice, ignoring a growing measles epidemic, threatening trade partners, undermining international alliances, continuing to challenge the 2020 election results, bypassing congressional oversight, threatening privatization of services, expanding executive power, questioning the legitimacy of courts, opposing net neutrality, targeting political opponents, reducing corporate taxes, weakening labor protections, revoking climate agreements, promoting deregulation, dismantling fair housing policies, establishing a U.S. Crypto Strategic Reserve for self-enrichment, encouraging police militarization, weakening food safety regulations, cutting disaster relief funding, ignoring climate change science in policy decisions, encouraging gerrymandering to maintain political control, undermining public broadcasting and journalism, politicizing the pandemic response, blocking or weakening anti-corruption measures, encouraging political extremism, increasing the national debt through tax cuts for the wealthy, discrediting or undermining election security efforts, undermining public education, politicizing the military, pursuing the acquisition of Greenland, encouraging voter suppression, ignoring checks and balances, weakening consumer protections, cutting funding for public health initiatives and medical research, undermining the independence of the Federal Reserve, planning for a military incursion of the Panama Canal, encouraging conspiracy theories and disinformation, weakening protections for marginalized communities, threatening higher education, attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion, spreading distrust in democratic institutions, threatening to withdraw from NATO, inviting Russia back to the G7, trying to annex Canada, encouraging political violence through rhetoric, weakening Ukraine’s ability to negotiate a fair peace, overturning the rule of law, weakening protections for national parks and public lands, threatening journalists with legal action, undermining faith in scientific research and agencies, ordering attacks on those he calls his enemies, favoring corporations over worker rights in policy decisions, pushing for Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare cuts, blocking pandemic response funding, politicizing the intelligence community, encouraging cronyism in federal contracts, undermining the independence of the judiciary, attempting to repeal healthcare protections, and blocking refugee resettlement programs?

Hello! HellO! HeLLO! HeLLO! HELLO! HELL! This is the firehose, tsunami, earthquake, hurricane—pick your metaphor for what Trump is doing to America.

This is not what a President does who is—a patriot, a person who loves their country, a person who respects his supporters, a strong leader, a person who upholds the Constitution, values democracy, defends the rule of law, unites rather than divides, tells the truth, respects institutions, puts country over self, takes responsibility, leads with integrity, honors military service, protects national security, listens to experts, champions justice, promotes stability, safeguards freedoms, strengthens alliances, and works for all Americans.

Trump, who was elected because he was going to bring prices down on Day One, has done anything but. Trump is a clear and present danger. He is turning America into a third-world country—weak, isolated, divided, economically unstable, diplomatically estranged, institutionally undermined, and globally marginalized. He is doing this because he is not strong enough to be a dictator of a first-world country.

Our justification to revolt was articulated in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The America we know and love is under siege. The war we face is not just political but existential. It is a battle to preserve the very soul of our nation. Our acts of civil disobedience must rise to a level that the world has never seen before. Key to this are mass civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, work slowdowns and stoppages, and more. Millions need to go into public spaces and protest. Since Trump is focused on crippling America, we must cripple the economy because money and power are the only things he cares about. K-12 students should walk out of schools weekly to protest Trump’s attack on the Department of Education. Lawyers should protest by surrounding the Main Justice building. Veterans should protest in front of military bases and installations. Use flash mobs to interrupt retail operations. Initiate rolling economic boycotts on companies—no Amazon purchases for a week. Organize digital holidays like no Facebook Fridays. Cut your spending by 10% to 20% to disrupt the economy while saving that money. Join boycotts against major brands in the supermarket, clothing in department stores, etc. Perhaps we should boycott Levi’s jeans, the all-American brand that price-gouged their customers and relished in their increase in profit margins on their quarterly earnings call for the entire time that inflation rose, which began in January 2021. Take your vacation in Canada.

If we hesitate, Trump and his enablers will further erode the institutions that once held our country together. This fight will not be won in a single day nor through a single protest—it will require relentless, strategic resistance on every front: in the streets, in the courts, in workplaces, in classrooms, and at the ballot box.

Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,404 days

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