We Hold America's Fate in Our Hands

Are we willing to make the sacrifices required to stop the crisis that is now unfolding?

Shortly before the inauguration of Donald Trump this past January, I sat with a friend at a restaurant in Washington. The room was full of applicants and supplicants to the new administration. The crowd looked different than it had just weeks earlier. Whiter. Older. More male. More grey suits and paunches.

The clatter of knives and forks as patrons dug into their breakfasts served as a kind of counterpoint to their muted conversations. Only the mention of the incoming president’s name or of the White House would somehow be spoken more loudly, floating above the din, sending a message to all in earshot.

With every new administration, similar scenes unfold. They represent a kind of changing of the guard. You could see it everywhere around town. Look carefully and you could spot the newcomers and you could also see the somewhat glazed expressions of those on their way out or those who would remain in Washington but who did not expect the outcome of last November’s elections.

While apprehension was palpable so too was the sense of interested fascination with new players, a new order.

My breakfast partner, a very thoughtful observer of the DC scene for many years, and I discussed where we might collectively be headed. We both agreed that while we had long been deeply wary of Trump that his second term was likely to encounter the same limitations as the first and that while he would make news with his bluster, he would achieve precious little.

In our view, at that moment, despite having both spent most of the preceding eight years warning of the dangers of Trump and MAGA, there was some reason for hope. Not optimism. No, we were certainly trepidatious. But the hysteria of some that we would see the sudden onset of fascism in America seemed overwrought to us. Trump wouldn’t have the votes in the House of Representatives to do anything too controversial. His opponents knew his moves and could anticipate and offset them. It was no time to drop our guard…but the right approach seemed to be wait and see.

We are now approach the conclusion of the first month of Trump’s second term in office. We waited. We saw.

Our guarded outlook, measured and sensible, no matter how mature it might have appeared to outsiders at the time…no matter how cool and sensible it made both of us feel…was wrong.

By any measure, the first few weeks of this new administration has been far more harrowing and destructive than we could possibly have imagined. Trump and his team, led by his virtual Prime Minister Elon Musk, has taken shape in ways that have put the country and the world prior generations have fought to make in grave jeopardy.

Musk has sought the wholesale destruction of the government, gutting agencies providing vital services and forcing out patriotic civil servants who are essential to the preserving and advancing the interests of the American people. Court orders blocking his progress have been all but ignored. The president and those around him have condemned efforts to uphold the rule of law and Trump has arrogated onto himself nothing less than the powers of a despot.

The White House has effectively pushed aside the Constitutionally-mandated powers of the Congress, as well. Agencies and budgets created by law, manifesting the will of the people, are being erased by edict and without any regard for consequences. Cancer research? Undone as is almost all medical research. Aid to the needy at home and abroad? Shut off thus reducing America’s influence and standing and putting us at risk. Trade agreements tossed into the shredder. Alliances discarded. Enemies elevated.

Naziism has been promoted. The interests of our rivals worldwide, notably those of Russia and China, have been advanced by this administration with avidity and comprehensiveness. We have in weeks grown weaker, our institutions have been rocked and their foundations shattered. The sources of our strength have been sapped.

Eliminating programs that promoted racial justice has been a priority. So too has been shutting down all efforts to contain corruption, graft and kleptocracy. Those placing loyalty to the country above commitment to Trump, Musk and their movement are being forced from their jobs—laws protecting them be damned. Our personal data has been Hoovered up by the unelected Musk and the worker bees within his fabricated “department.” Some classified information has been posted on the web.

Blunders have been made—like firing the people in charge of our nuclear weapons stockpiles or the air traffic controllers who might help undo the current crisis in our skies. Insane trade policies have been introduced that will both alienate the world and drive up inflation.

You know the litany. But it is all happening so fast it is hard to synthesize. What does it mean? What lasting damage is being done? Where do we go from here?

Those are fair questions. But what is beyond questioning is whether democracy is at risk in America, whether our global standing is plummeting, whether the international order we sought to establish is being disassembled, whether our enemies are celebrating the actions of an administration that is doing more to advance Russian interests than Putin has done in two decades, whether the rule of law is at risk, whether we are cheering on neo-Nazis and our president is embracing the model of current and past autocrats, whether women or people of color or opponents of the administration or scientists or journalists or simply those who value the truth are targets of the onslaught afoot in Washington today.

When I go into restaurants in Washington, DC now, what I see is more chilling than what I saw in January. What I see is business as usual. What I see are people accepting and enabling what I described above. What I see are former colleagues, Democrats, members of the opposition and journalists who are shaking their heads but doing precious little to effectively stop what is going on.

But even more disturbing to me is that when I look out at the crowds in these rooms I wonder to myself how many of the comfortable members of the Washington elite (and I use the term ever more reluctantly) would be willing to put their comfortable lives at risk to put at a halt to the damage currently being done or that which the administration is clearly preparing for.

Would they give up their jobs, their access, their wealth, their position in society, their standing as insiders or even their freedom to protect our democracy? So many institutions are already complying with Trump—not in advance any longer but in real time—that critical bulwarks of our democracy have been reduced to rubble. So many members of the opposition are still treating what is happening like it is business as usual. So many people in Washington want to still believe this will all just blow over because that is the most convenient outlook for them to embrace.

We have even watched as media organizations get kicked out of the Pentagon or blocked from access at the White House because their views do not conform with the propaganda of Trump and the right…and few have protested. We have watched lies be promoted and few dare call them out. We have watched as corruption is taking place before our eyes and few are responding to it with anything other than a shrug.

That is not to say there are none who are starting to rise up, to protest, to resist. But thus far we have not seen US demonstrations equivalent to those we’ve seen in Israel or Georgia or Germany. We have not seen Democrats effectively block GOP initiatives. We have not seen moderate Republicans—if any remain—stand up to block senior level administration appointments that pose a profound risk to us all regardless of political party.

Not only is this frustrating and indeed, dangerous, it also raises the question about what happens when Trump and Musk use confidential data to turn the IRS on their opponents, to stop cities and groups of people from getting aid and programmatic dollars to which they are entitled? Will anyone stand up to block immigration thugs from rounding up the innocent? (They are already threatening “legal action” that would clearly be illegal against political leaders who simply rise up to speak the truth like AOC.)

Would you be willing to make less to devote more time to fighting for democracy? Would you be willing to put your livelihood at risk in the go-along get-along world of government contracting to stand up and speak the truth, to criticize those in power, to call out their lies, to make clear the threat they represent?

Is the truth or your freedom worth your job or your family’s comfort?

Because those in power are counting on the belief that they are not. They are counting on Americans caring more about their comforts than they do the institutions or the system or the values that helped make those comforts or their life here possible.

We can talk all we want about those in power. But the answer to whether they will succeed on their destructive dangerous mission does not lie with them. It lies with us. It lies with people within our capitol city and within our government but also in cities and towns across America. It lies with you and with me.

For until Trump and Musk feel they will be meaningfully challenged at every level they assault our system, they will proceed. They are bullies and are relying on their power to intimidate. And so far their calculus has proven correct.

And so I sit here, as we enter month two of this presidency, going off to my meetings here in DC, meeting with my friends, watching the world progress as it always has…and I wonder, when Americans and our allies will come to realize that something extraordinary, unprecedented and profoundly treacherous has begun to happen here and the test of whether it will succeed or not lies in the hearts and minds of millions who have never before been asked to make the kind of sacrifices, to accept the kinds of risks that will be necessary if we are to preserve what was great about the United States and begin to restore what the enemies among us are actively seeking to destroy each and every day now.