With a Whimper

Author's Note: I am not a political scientist, the below statements are my opinion only.

I have been relatively quiet for the last few years. Things in my personal life have been turbulent, but I am now at a place where silence is no longer an option. Before the election, I knew it was a lost cause. With the systemic defunding of education, the American public lacks the critical thinking skills to act in their best interest. If misogyny lost the first election for Clinton, then racism and misogyny lost this one for Harris. When this same thing happened in 2016, I wrote a lot. I wrote about what this meant for the country, and what kind of portent this painted for our future. I got called a lot of things, but most prominently I was called a fear-monger, an extremist, and a feminist killjoy. Looking back at those articles, I was correct about nearly everything I said. I said, that with his winning, we would see the decline of respected science, leading to a largely preventable epidemic. I said that we would see non-white children in cages, separated from their families. I said that we would see a rise in gun violence in public places. I said we would see an attempted coup to retain power. I said a lot of other things, but I think those are the big points. In 2016, at the start of it all, no one ever thought any of those things would happen. And yet here we are.

When I heard that he was the republican candidate again this election, and with Biden stepping down so late in the race, I said, "he's going to win, it doesn't matter who they put up against him. The democratic party should have never chosen Biden, and he has soured the water for moderate voters." And I was right again. Since then, I have had a lot of thoughts about the future, but I have avoided writing them down for fear that putting pen to paper would somehow convert portent to prophecy. I realize now that whether I say it, write it, or keep it to myself, all of what I am about to say is likely to happen anyway. The least I can do is my best to get a warning out now.

He has been in office officially for two days now. He has put all our liberties both, real and imagined to the fire and is gleefully watching them melt away like a sadistic child burning ants with a magnifying glass. No one can say that we didn't know this would happen. A full year before the election there were warnings about Project 2025, and despite what he claimed, he is following their playbook. The steps he has taken so far have been horrifying. I think some of the more terrifying ones have flown largely under the radar, so I will take a moment to detail why they are so awful.

Removal of historically safe sanctuary spaces. Prior to yesterday, undocumented individuals had been safe inside schools and churches. ICE or other agencies have been unable to rain these spaces. No longer. If you are undocumented and have an undocumented child, they can now be apprehended and taken away while they are attempting to get an education.

Additionally, a lot of the dependence on worship spaces for communities of migrants documented and undocumented alike can not be minimized. Often this is the only place to connect with resources, community, and aid to navigate this place. Knowing that ethnic churches will be targeted first, raiding with impunity the documented and undocumented alike, traumatizing everyone they encounter is horrible. I am not a religious person, but I understand the significance that these places hold. I also think this is a clear crossing of the separation of church and state that we have watched get chipped away over the last 30 years into something nearly unrecognizable. While the line has become admittedly blurred, it has still existed in some ways, and this I think is the final tidal wave over the sand. For all the proclamations that the United States is a Christian Nation, this I believe is the last step towards Evangelical supremacy. It will start with nonchristian places of worship, then move to ethnic-centric places of Christian worship, and then to sects deemed less than desirable. I expect we will see the Evangelical rhetoric curve inward, and become state doctrine.

The abolishment of birthright citizenship is very concerning. The mere idea is horrifying even though it is currently only steps toward it. They are saying it is to prevent "anchor babies" but the reality is, if birthright citizenship is abolished, being born in the country, whether to American parents or not will not be a promise that you are an American. The danger lies in who gets to make that determination of who gets to be a citizen. I expect lineage and heritage will play a role. It will start with newborns, but I expect that it will all too soon shift to a retroactive measure. All those genetic tests that people have so gleefully spit into tubes for will determine if you are able to stay here. I also expect one's political leanings will be the reason, even if veiled. It's like getting fired for not restocking paper clips. That wasn't the reason, it was because your boss didn't like you, or was threatened by you.

Already the White House has issued threats against state and local government officials who would stand in the way of ICE. The military is being deployed to the Southern Borders, and construction on the border wall is being restarted.

He has also proclaimed that we will leave the WHO (World Health Organization) This means that data from the United States will no longer be available for study and that the study being done by the rest of the world would not be accessible to us, and even if it is, it will be ignored. This means that the United States can act with impunity when it comes to how to handle the next pandemic. You can bet your bottom dollar that there will be more. We are already being surrounded by horrible illness, after horrible illness. The wave of anti-vaxxers is bringing back long-eradicated ailments, and as always, the poor and disabled will suffer the most. In a country where healthcare is prohibitively expensive, those who suffer will be targeted by demographic and there will be no place to hide.

The federal ban on trans bathroom rights is also horrifying in the extreme. They have labeled it as a defense of women in enforcing the gender binary. They have closed all gender-neutral bathrooms on federal property, and regardless of what it says on your documents if you were assigned a certain gender at birth, that is the bathroom you have to use. This removes the ability for anyone to be stealth in their workplace. There is no good choice, you will face violence either way. The safety of every trans and non-binary person is at risk, and we all know it.

The pardoning of all the people convicted for their actions on January 6th. That one is also incredibly concerning. He has essentially made it legal to make an attempt on the lives of his political opponents. He also now has a veritable militia of dedicated fervent believers, who owe him their freedom. They will fight, kill, and die for him. No one will be safe. They will grow their numbers, joining with Proud Boys and other hate groups to swarm opposition, gleefully bearing their arms against their neighbors.

There is so much more that has already happened, but I don't have the bandwidth to list out every single thing and explain why it is going to be awful. So instead, let's move on to what I fully expect to happen.

I believe, quite strongly that this election will be the last one we will ever participate in. If there is another vote, it will be following the Russian playbook, and will be a sham regardless. He will run again, and he will win. We will return to Dynastic rule, when he meets his end.

I expect public education to be abolished, going to a lottery system for those who can't afford private education. The curriculum will not be standardized, and charter/private schools will be able to teach whatever nonsense they want. Many of the safeties we seek while at school will be gone. No longer will lunch ever be free, with the removal of federal funding. No more guidance counselors. If you are lucky enough to send your kid to school, the diploma they receive will be useless outside of the country. Public Colleges will also be stripped of their funding, and the cost of private higher education will become so extreme only the children of the wealthiest will be able to afford it. No more federal student loans, so it's poverty due to the lack of jobs available without a degree, or poverty due to unrestricted interest rates.

There will be standards for who gets full citizenship, and who is just a resident, there will be no grandfather clause. The scapegoats will forever be the non-white, the disabled, and the poor. Pay for citizenship or starve. This will coincide with the dissolution of social safety nets. No more Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, welfare, SNAP, or EBT.

Environmental restrictions will be lifted, and we will see rapid climate change. Those who are affected by the changes, displaced, killed, unable to make a living because their feilds are barren, diseased, or flooded, will be left to starve, their citizenship stripped. No more FEMA, disaster efforts will be halted, except those who can give what they have to help. Helping will be discouraged under the guise of personal responsibility.

Multiple and often leapfrogging pandemics, but all safety measures will be discouraged. Masking will make you a martyr. Vaccines will be developed elsewhere, but turned away from distribution in the United States because "we have immune systems." The infant and maternal mortality rate will increase dramatically, due to the lack of abortion access, and health care in general, including vaccines. Unrestricted resurgences of polio, RSV, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Small Pox, COVID, Ebola, Avian Flu, and so many more, allowed to rip through populations without care or regard, so that there are fewer mouths to feed, and fewer people to fight against them.

While capital punishment has already been reinstated, I expect them to become public and televised. Allowing the public to watch their neighbors slaughtered on television, as a deterrent for stepping out of line. This will also be the end of "free press" Party-approved content only.

And yes, camps. It will start with the migrant and the queer, the vagrant and the disabled, but they will come for everyone who isn't them. I am most sure of this.

This is not 1930's Germany. This is much worse.

Be warned. Keep your people close. Protect each other. Make a plan. Live to fight another day, so that maybe there will be an end to look forward to.