It just feels very useless right now to try and say anything. No amount of any words help. I'm terrified of where we're going, but I feel like I'm very limited in my ability to change it. I've tried to argue to reason and the only thing I've managed to do is become an outcast in my friends and family because I don't cater to their voting choices. Am I the crazy Aunt?
My 13 year old son walked by right when I opened this, and when he saw the picture he asked if I was reading about WWE wrestling. Seriously, WTF is even happening right now. 🤢
Thanks for writing and sharing. It's so disconcerting to be witnessing...**all this** meanwhile having family and neighbors that voted for him who are excited or happy or "Well, every president does illegal stuff. At least he's getting sh*t done."
And then getting on the internet (on my algorithms) and seeing posts and podcasts such as: "6 ways to resist Trump this week," "How to talk to your kids about the coup," "How to get enough sleep during a government takeover," etc.
Like...I wouldn't be surprised to see: "GRWM for standing up for democracy"
"Take this quiz to find out which government department you are (that Musk just defunded)"
It's...surreal. And almost feels satirical of our own (apparent) aims.
I think the BEST time to be less alarmist would've been in Trump's first term. Or during his first campaign.
It DOES seem the MOST warranted now. But...we've already worn out all of the scary words. Meanwhile, he's doing the scariest stuff yet.
Well, I suppose we can concede that doesn’t meet all the elements of the definition given. Therefore, sure, not a coup.
I am not here to encourage the use of the term coup in our rhetoric. But I have lived through two violent military coups. I have seen bombs being dropped over my city near my house by the insurrectionists inside the military. I was in Caracas, my hometown, and Hugo Chavez was the failed leader of those two. He went to jail, then pardoned by the next legitimate president, and finally ran a very successful political campaign and was elected president democratically in clean elections by a true landslide (we don’t have electoral college, it’s a direct democracy, popular vote rules).
Why does that matter? Because I feel like I am seeing a remake of that movie but now in English and with a few details changed. So this might not be called a coup. Neither was what took Chavez to the presidency, but this is what happened:
Hugo Chávez and Donald Trump, despite their ideological differences, shared key actions that undermined democratic institutions and concentrated power:
• Purging Government Institutions: Both fired public employees en masse, replacing them with loyalists.
• Politicizing the Judiciary: They appointed judges who favored their political agendas.
• Weakening Legislative Oversight: They pressured lawmakers to comply and dismissed institutional checks on power.
• Targeting Political Opponents: Both used legal and administrative measures to silence critics.
• Attacking the Press: They labeled independent media as enemies to discredit opposing voices.
• Undermining Law Enforcement: They cast intelligence and law enforcement agencies as threats to their rule.
• Challenging Elections: Both questioned unfavorable election results and pushed fraud claims.
• Promoting Nationalist Agendas: They embraced protectionism and blamed foreign actors for domestic issues.
• Encouraging a Cult of Personality: Both positioned themselves as the sole solution to their nation’s problems.
So, call it what you will. But I’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t have a happy ending. Of course, Venezuela was institutionally weaker. But what I remember well is what many, including me, used to say al the time as things happened. First, “Venezuela is not Cuba. That can’t happen here”. Second, “I don’t believe so, I am pretty sure it won’t happen that way.” Boy was I wrong.
The U.S supported classical liberal dictatorships in Romance America since the Banana Wars (beforehand Burkean dictatorships descended from the Latino Creoles who fought against the Peninsulares in the Romance American Wars of Independence) which is why the future dictator Hugo Chavez launched the putsches (I had forgotten he served in the military). Ironically, one of his minions went to the School of the Americas (which I am considering going to) and still serves Nicole Maduro.
Chavez himself was the victim of an attempted putsch in 2002, and whilst the progressivists want to bring down the dictator Nicole Maduro, the Burkeans and classical liberals want to co-opt the resistance to restore the situation that existed in or before the Banana Wars (no doubt the Burkeans and classical liberals will turn on each other once they have eliminated the socialist dictatorship and the progressivists). The good news is that the progressivists want freedom, NOT a dictatorship, and thus they will NOT kowtow to the U.S once they overthrow Maduro.
I realized in mid-2021 that one of Putin's and Maduro's tricks, and no doubt the trick of former dictator Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the late former dictators Hos'-ni Mu'-ba'-rak of al'-A'-ra'-bi Ja'-ma'-hir al'-Mi'-sr and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the National Party of South Africa, and all dictators who rig elections is that all people who could potentially vote for them go out and vote, and all non-potential voters stay at home: non-potential voters who DO go out and vote are forced to vote for the dictator and also fake rolls are created.
Local party branches offer benefits to those who vote for the dictator like what the Stupublicans did in early November: this is not illegal since they are doing what the dictator's electoral platform or the Trump 2024 platform said they were doing, but combined with the dirty tricks used by the Stupublicans since 1970 and the Dixiecrats since Andrew Jackson (with Whigs from the South doing this in the 1820s and early 1830s, and dirty tricks in elections existing since 1789 and in the U.K since the creation of the House of Commons under the Merciless Parliament) this gives an unfair advantage.
This means technically despite vote rigging, the elections were still technically fair since they would have won even without dirty tricks: this means that inverted totalitarianism is the sociopolitical structure of all dictatorships which are not one party systems: if any dictator was ever given a fair trial, they would only be in prison for five years since they would claim they technically did not rig the elections.
The dictators create a loophole just in case they are ever overthrown and also to prevent consternation among the people.
The United States has suffered bad voter turnout since the start of the Gilded Age in 1870 (if you count the suppression of "white" people who were descended from blacks and Natives, then I think bad turnout would go back to when they were assimilated, which I would think would have occurred in 1649, when tragic mulattoes or the children of indentured servants were first freed) and big business has dominated the United States since plantations were created in Providence Plantations. Lack of accountability for the rich has always existed even when the Articles of Confederation put all men under the rule of law, which means the United States has been an inverted totalitarian system for all that time: liberal popular government has NEVER existed outside of Rhenish capitalism, France, and Ireland.
The rule of law ACTUALLY exists also in Nordic capitalism and South Korea (which ironically is dominated by neo-corporatism, which is a hard right ideology and thus worse than the far right).
This has allowed Trump to reduce democracy in the United States, and I would think the democratic backsliding dates back to the oppression of freed slaves in 1865 (democratic growth which was the freeing of the slaves lasted a few months at most).
Side note: one of the things that I love about Sarah is that when she brings a strong point of view (even if you disagree), it's very clarifying. And having a wishy-washy "everyone makes good points" disposition, I find her clarity to be so valuable.
Backstory: I have been reading lots of DMs/watching reels/headlines/etc. and have felt legitimately confused about the use of this language, so her note and this whole comment section is actually a ruse for my education, so thank you (and Sarah).
I've said several times in these threads that I feel a little alarmed at the "all is lost" feeling I get when I hear "this is a coup" or "he's a dictator." And I have joined a few right-leaning groups on Facebook (because feeling such a shock at the last election's results led me to realize that I was missing something). And so, I am seeing all these posts from people gleeful that the democrats are so sad, and they're joking about drinking liberal tears, and they think Kash Patel is the greatest, and and), and I just want to see some sturdy opposition from the democrats. I think in that White House meeting today, Zelenskyy looked like the grown-up, and President Trump and Vice President Vance looked like toddlers who hadn't had their nap. I want the democrats to have that kind of seriousness and to so obviously be the grown-up in the room that people see it.
I see and agree that ALL of the things your pointing out are happening and I guess I see us as hovering on a teetering edge of a mountain like at that point in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (and I would really like the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes and pull the sled back on this side of the mountain and bring democracy back to whoville - as it were). I do see that teetering, especially around the undermining elections, gaslighting people so they don't know what's real, and cult of personality.
And I REALLY see the negative side effects just on people. It's not nice or good for us. I do not like any of this one bit. At all. Zero. But I just want us to all swim together (switching to a Finding Nemo metaphor) to get out of the net, because I want to believe in us so bad!!!!
This discussion of language reminds me of learning the term "palabras gastadas" in one of my Spanish language & culture courses in undergrad. It translates roughly to "worn out words"—the idea being that some words (like "wonderful") are so overused that they lose their meaning. I think you're right that precise language, paired with realism about what's happening, is important so that people *actually* pay attention should the occasion arise.
Just because a plurality (not a majority) voted for him, it doesn’t mean that whatever he does has democratic legitimacy. It’s still a coup and a constitutional crisis when he exceeds his power so egregiously, openly and brazenly.
I keep repeating this, but having an insurrectionist in office despite explicit language in the constitution forbidding this means we were already in a crisis. We have been since he took emoluments and got away with it. The crisis began when flagrant violations of the constitution occurred and everyone acted like the solution was normal electioneering. The signal was clear: the constitution is actually meaningless if a critical mass of the public decides they don’t like it and people in power find enforcement too uncomfortable.
As the weeks and months drag on, we’ll find out which other parts of our constitution and body of law are meaningless. The crisis is ongoing.
I see nothing wrong with calling this a crisis or a coup, because that’s what it is. But I take your point: that can’t be ALL that we do. And maybe one day, as we rebuild from the ashes, we’ll even figure out a way to have a political system whose rules are actually enforceable even when people in power don’t want to face consequences for breaking them.
I’ve been thinking about this. But what IS the word for being elected and then gradually (or not so gradually) ignoring laws and consolidating power into yourself. That’s what both Hitler and Putin did, and I think that’s a better explanation of what is happening now. I just read Navaly’s memoir and his descriptions of Russia truly freaked me out, because that is what we are echoing (and by echoing I mean that’s the general direction it seems they are headed, especially with out loud arguments that the courts have no right to stop the executive). How they still have “laws” but really none of them matter because the judges and police and whole system are under Putin’s thumb. We could still have a constitution and laws and courts and none of it would matter — in Russia it’s all a farce. Anyway. I also think his voters a) think it’s all great because they have been convinced that all this fraud they are “uncovering” is real or b) won’t be convinced until their own lives are impacted, which might not come until it’s too late. Because alarmist language doesn’t help but also facts don’t help either.
"I’ve been thinking about this. But what IS the word for being elected and then gradually (or not so gradually) ignoring laws and consolidating power into yourself." I've been thinking similarly. Perhaps what's happening doesn't meet the definition of a coup, but I disagree with simply saying that Trump is the government, was duly elected, etc., so check the "alarmist" language. What IS the word for what is at least an erosion of our constitutional balance of powers & at worst a steady though non-violent destruction of our constitutional balance of powers? If not a coup, then whatever it is is still alarming.
I haven't been able to pick it up back up (probably because I know how it ends) but it's a book called In the Garden of Beasts. It's the story of a diplomat & his daughter we sent to Germany in the rise of Hitler and when I read about the American sentiment around Jews at the time, it reads so similarly about the American sentiment around illegal immigrants I just couldn't. Also the "vibe" among the German people at the time sound a lot like how Republicans feel right now and whew, it was just too similar for me to keep turning the pages.
We are not scaring people by speaking the truth. His actions are scary and deplorable especially for the vulnerable. I don't think a cerebral academic response is the answer. Violence comes in many forms and we cannot dismiss the emotional distress this is causing millions of Americans who are subject to racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, those who have lost their livelihood (where will well educated DEI professionals now work?) including federal employees, those of us who rely on social security, Trump was not elected to destroy democracy and human rights. People are appropriately scared and we need to support people with what to do with the fear and how to move out of flight, fight, freeze response. Our reactions are appropriate and designed to depress us so we throw up our hands and do nothing. I am not having it. I am fighting this coup as a happy activist.
Thank you for voicing this Deborah!! I feel that those of us who have generations of experience living in oppressed and openly hostile environments don’t have the luxury to sit back from a distance and watch our communities, children and our livelihood be destroyed. This is a coup and musk is an unelected official who is running rampant while people just sit and watch because it hasn’t affected them YET…My mom is on medicare, she needs her meds, millions of people (especially seniors and the disabled) will eventually be on the street or die because they can no longer afford their medications or place to live….If this doesn’t require alarm bells, I don’t know what does.
We are definitely with you in 'appropriately scared' and we love a happy activist.
I think where the "coup" language has bothered me is that it's not over. It IS worth it to vote. There are real consequences to these actions. Harmful consequences. AND the system hasn't toppled, which means it's worth it for us to work on it. There's a finality to 'coup' that I'm not willing to concede. -Maggie
I think we are on the same page with the direction. However know that your headline and AI summary of this post gets carried as not a coup which minimizes the terrible actions and decisions being made and for many people who do not read or listen to full your work gets interpreted as even progressive liberals are saying just calm down, it isn't so bad. We can't afford not to be vigilant and resist.
I guess where I'm at with constitutional crisis and coup, people are abusing words that actually have a severe & real meaning and they just aren't happening (yet). I'm not saying we should blindly sit here until they do - fight, resist, vote, yell - yes. But if I call something a coup before it is, if it actually becomes one, no one will listen to me. So I'm reserving the scary words for if/when I need them. Do I believe there are people within this administration that "want" a coup? Yes. I feel, if I give power to the word coup I'm saying they've already won. The courts do not have to stand because I have accepted that they shouldn't/won't. I'm not willing to do that yet. I still am going to hold the courts & the judicial branch of government accountable until I cannot.
You’re probably right, and something like “authoritarian takeover” is probably a better descriptor for when someone consolidates power and shreds rules, norms and laws with no consequences. My worry is that regular people will hear the word “authoritarian” and think, “finally, someone is assuming the authority necessary to actually get stuff done.” We should use whatever word or phrase is most effective at driving DOWN his popularity. I’m past caring if it’s perfectly accurate or not.
Now we just need some Democrats who aren’t too paralyzed by pathetic weakness to actually go out, find microphones and cameras, and say these words with their mouths.
YES! You're hitting on something I've been feeling but couldn't name. When we say it's a coup, there's a feeling of finality. And our story isn't over yet. -Maggie
It just feels very useless right now to try and say anything. No amount of any words help. I'm terrified of where we're going, but I feel like I'm very limited in my ability to change it. I've tried to argue to reason and the only thing I've managed to do is become an outcast in my friends and family because I don't cater to their voting choices. Am I the crazy Aunt?
My 13 year old son walked by right when I opened this, and when he saw the picture he asked if I was reading about WWE wrestling. Seriously, WTF is even happening right now. 🤢
Thanks for writing and sharing. It's so disconcerting to be witnessing...**all this** meanwhile having family and neighbors that voted for him who are excited or happy or "Well, every president does illegal stuff. At least he's getting sh*t done."
And then getting on the internet (on my algorithms) and seeing posts and podcasts such as: "6 ways to resist Trump this week," "How to talk to your kids about the coup," "How to get enough sleep during a government takeover," etc.
Like...I wouldn't be surprised to see: "GRWM for standing up for democracy"
"Take this quiz to find out which government department you are (that Musk just defunded)"
It's...surreal. And almost feels satirical of our own (apparent) aims.
I think the BEST time to be less alarmist would've been in Trump's first term. Or during his first campaign.
It DOES seem the MOST warranted now. But...we've already worn out all of the scary words. Meanwhile, he's doing the scariest stuff yet.
Well, I suppose we can concede that doesn’t meet all the elements of the definition given. Therefore, sure, not a coup.
I am not here to encourage the use of the term coup in our rhetoric. But I have lived through two violent military coups. I have seen bombs being dropped over my city near my house by the insurrectionists inside the military. I was in Caracas, my hometown, and Hugo Chavez was the failed leader of those two. He went to jail, then pardoned by the next legitimate president, and finally ran a very successful political campaign and was elected president democratically in clean elections by a true landslide (we don’t have electoral college, it’s a direct democracy, popular vote rules).
Why does that matter? Because I feel like I am seeing a remake of that movie but now in English and with a few details changed. So this might not be called a coup. Neither was what took Chavez to the presidency, but this is what happened:
Hugo Chávez and Donald Trump, despite their ideological differences, shared key actions that undermined democratic institutions and concentrated power:
• Purging Government Institutions: Both fired public employees en masse, replacing them with loyalists.
• Politicizing the Judiciary: They appointed judges who favored their political agendas.
• Weakening Legislative Oversight: They pressured lawmakers to comply and dismissed institutional checks on power.
• Targeting Political Opponents: Both used legal and administrative measures to silence critics.
• Attacking the Press: They labeled independent media as enemies to discredit opposing voices.
• Undermining Law Enforcement: They cast intelligence and law enforcement agencies as threats to their rule.
• Challenging Elections: Both questioned unfavorable election results and pushed fraud claims.
• Promoting Nationalist Agendas: They embraced protectionism and blamed foreign actors for domestic issues.
• Encouraging a Cult of Personality: Both positioned themselves as the sole solution to their nation’s problems.
So, call it what you will. But I’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t have a happy ending. Of course, Venezuela was institutionally weaker. But what I remember well is what many, including me, used to say al the time as things happened. First, “Venezuela is not Cuba. That can’t happen here”. Second, “I don’t believe so, I am pretty sure it won’t happen that way.” Boy was I wrong.
The U.S supported classical liberal dictatorships in Romance America since the Banana Wars (beforehand Burkean dictatorships descended from the Latino Creoles who fought against the Peninsulares in the Romance American Wars of Independence) which is why the future dictator Hugo Chavez launched the putsches (I had forgotten he served in the military). Ironically, one of his minions went to the School of the Americas (which I am considering going to) and still serves Nicole Maduro.
Chavez himself was the victim of an attempted putsch in 2002, and whilst the progressivists want to bring down the dictator Nicole Maduro, the Burkeans and classical liberals want to co-opt the resistance to restore the situation that existed in or before the Banana Wars (no doubt the Burkeans and classical liberals will turn on each other once they have eliminated the socialist dictatorship and the progressivists). The good news is that the progressivists want freedom, NOT a dictatorship, and thus they will NOT kowtow to the U.S once they overthrow Maduro.
I realized in mid-2021 that one of Putin's and Maduro's tricks, and no doubt the trick of former dictator Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the late former dictators Hos'-ni Mu'-ba'-rak of al'-A'-ra'-bi Ja'-ma'-hir al'-Mi'-sr and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the National Party of South Africa, and all dictators who rig elections is that all people who could potentially vote for them go out and vote, and all non-potential voters stay at home: non-potential voters who DO go out and vote are forced to vote for the dictator and also fake rolls are created.
Local party branches offer benefits to those who vote for the dictator like what the Stupublicans did in early November: this is not illegal since they are doing what the dictator's electoral platform or the Trump 2024 platform said they were doing, but combined with the dirty tricks used by the Stupublicans since 1970 and the Dixiecrats since Andrew Jackson (with Whigs from the South doing this in the 1820s and early 1830s, and dirty tricks in elections existing since 1789 and in the U.K since the creation of the House of Commons under the Merciless Parliament) this gives an unfair advantage.
This means technically despite vote rigging, the elections were still technically fair since they would have won even without dirty tricks: this means that inverted totalitarianism is the sociopolitical structure of all dictatorships which are not one party systems: if any dictator was ever given a fair trial, they would only be in prison for five years since they would claim they technically did not rig the elections.
The dictators create a loophole just in case they are ever overthrown and also to prevent consternation among the people.
The United States has suffered bad voter turnout since the start of the Gilded Age in 1870 (if you count the suppression of "white" people who were descended from blacks and Natives, then I think bad turnout would go back to when they were assimilated, which I would think would have occurred in 1649, when tragic mulattoes or the children of indentured servants were first freed) and big business has dominated the United States since plantations were created in Providence Plantations. Lack of accountability for the rich has always existed even when the Articles of Confederation put all men under the rule of law, which means the United States has been an inverted totalitarian system for all that time: liberal popular government has NEVER existed outside of Rhenish capitalism, France, and Ireland.
The rule of law ACTUALLY exists also in Nordic capitalism and South Korea (which ironically is dominated by neo-corporatism, which is a hard right ideology and thus worse than the far right).
This has allowed Trump to reduce democracy in the United States, and I would think the democratic backsliding dates back to the oppression of freed slaves in 1865 (democratic growth which was the freeing of the slaves lasted a few months at most).
Thank you so much for sharing X - always so insightful and helpfil
This is also really helpful to me.
Side note: one of the things that I love about Sarah is that when she brings a strong point of view (even if you disagree), it's very clarifying. And having a wishy-washy "everyone makes good points" disposition, I find her clarity to be so valuable.
Backstory: I have been reading lots of DMs/watching reels/headlines/etc. and have felt legitimately confused about the use of this language, so her note and this whole comment section is actually a ruse for my education, so thank you (and Sarah).
I've said several times in these threads that I feel a little alarmed at the "all is lost" feeling I get when I hear "this is a coup" or "he's a dictator." And I have joined a few right-leaning groups on Facebook (because feeling such a shock at the last election's results led me to realize that I was missing something). And so, I am seeing all these posts from people gleeful that the democrats are so sad, and they're joking about drinking liberal tears, and they think Kash Patel is the greatest, and and), and I just want to see some sturdy opposition from the democrats. I think in that White House meeting today, Zelenskyy looked like the grown-up, and President Trump and Vice President Vance looked like toddlers who hadn't had their nap. I want the democrats to have that kind of seriousness and to so obviously be the grown-up in the room that people see it.
I see and agree that ALL of the things your pointing out are happening and I guess I see us as hovering on a teetering edge of a mountain like at that point in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (and I would really like the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes and pull the sled back on this side of the mountain and bring democracy back to whoville - as it were). I do see that teetering, especially around the undermining elections, gaslighting people so they don't know what's real, and cult of personality.
And I REALLY see the negative side effects just on people. It's not nice or good for us. I do not like any of this one bit. At all. Zero. But I just want us to all swim together (switching to a Finding Nemo metaphor) to get out of the net, because I want to believe in us so bad!!!!
-Maggie
It seem like a civilian argument.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
This discussion of language reminds me of learning the term "palabras gastadas" in one of my Spanish language & culture courses in undergrad. It translates roughly to "worn out words"—the idea being that some words (like "wonderful") are so overused that they lose their meaning. I think you're right that precise language, paired with realism about what's happening, is important so that people *actually* pay attention should the occasion arise.
Oh that is a word I needed!
Just because a plurality (not a majority) voted for him, it doesn’t mean that whatever he does has democratic legitimacy. It’s still a coup and a constitutional crisis when he exceeds his power so egregiously, openly and brazenly.
I keep repeating this, but having an insurrectionist in office despite explicit language in the constitution forbidding this means we were already in a crisis. We have been since he took emoluments and got away with it. The crisis began when flagrant violations of the constitution occurred and everyone acted like the solution was normal electioneering. The signal was clear: the constitution is actually meaningless if a critical mass of the public decides they don’t like it and people in power find enforcement too uncomfortable.
As the weeks and months drag on, we’ll find out which other parts of our constitution and body of law are meaningless. The crisis is ongoing.
I see nothing wrong with calling this a crisis or a coup, because that’s what it is. But I take your point: that can’t be ALL that we do. And maybe one day, as we rebuild from the ashes, we’ll even figure out a way to have a political system whose rules are actually enforceable even when people in power don’t want to face consequences for breaking them.
I’ve been thinking about this. But what IS the word for being elected and then gradually (or not so gradually) ignoring laws and consolidating power into yourself. That’s what both Hitler and Putin did, and I think that’s a better explanation of what is happening now. I just read Navaly’s memoir and his descriptions of Russia truly freaked me out, because that is what we are echoing (and by echoing I mean that’s the general direction it seems they are headed, especially with out loud arguments that the courts have no right to stop the executive). How they still have “laws” but really none of them matter because the judges and police and whole system are under Putin’s thumb. We could still have a constitution and laws and courts and none of it would matter — in Russia it’s all a farce. Anyway. I also think his voters a) think it’s all great because they have been convinced that all this fraud they are “uncovering” is real or b) won’t be convinced until their own lives are impacted, which might not come until it’s too late. Because alarmist language doesn’t help but also facts don’t help either.
"I’ve been thinking about this. But what IS the word for being elected and then gradually (or not so gradually) ignoring laws and consolidating power into yourself." I've been thinking similarly. Perhaps what's happening doesn't meet the definition of a coup, but I disagree with simply saying that Trump is the government, was duly elected, etc., so check the "alarmist" language. What IS the word for what is at least an erosion of our constitutional balance of powers & at worst a steady though non-violent destruction of our constitutional balance of powers? If not a coup, then whatever it is is still alarming.
I haven't been able to pick it up back up (probably because I know how it ends) but it's a book called In the Garden of Beasts. It's the story of a diplomat & his daughter we sent to Germany in the rise of Hitler and when I read about the American sentiment around Jews at the time, it reads so similarly about the American sentiment around illegal immigrants I just couldn't. Also the "vibe" among the German people at the time sound a lot like how Republicans feel right now and whew, it was just too similar for me to keep turning the pages.
We are not scaring people by speaking the truth. His actions are scary and deplorable especially for the vulnerable. I don't think a cerebral academic response is the answer. Violence comes in many forms and we cannot dismiss the emotional distress this is causing millions of Americans who are subject to racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, those who have lost their livelihood (where will well educated DEI professionals now work?) including federal employees, those of us who rely on social security, Trump was not elected to destroy democracy and human rights. People are appropriately scared and we need to support people with what to do with the fear and how to move out of flight, fight, freeze response. Our reactions are appropriate and designed to depress us so we throw up our hands and do nothing. I am not having it. I am fighting this coup as a happy activist.
Thank you for voicing this Deborah!! I feel that those of us who have generations of experience living in oppressed and openly hostile environments don’t have the luxury to sit back from a distance and watch our communities, children and our livelihood be destroyed. This is a coup and musk is an unelected official who is running rampant while people just sit and watch because it hasn’t affected them YET…My mom is on medicare, she needs her meds, millions of people (especially seniors and the disabled) will eventually be on the street or die because they can no longer afford their medications or place to live….If this doesn’t require alarm bells, I don’t know what does.
We are definitely with you in 'appropriately scared' and we love a happy activist.
I think where the "coup" language has bothered me is that it's not over. It IS worth it to vote. There are real consequences to these actions. Harmful consequences. AND the system hasn't toppled, which means it's worth it for us to work on it. There's a finality to 'coup' that I'm not willing to concede. -Maggie
I think we are on the same page with the direction. However know that your headline and AI summary of this post gets carried as not a coup which minimizes the terrible actions and decisions being made and for many people who do not read or listen to full your work gets interpreted as even progressive liberals are saying just calm down, it isn't so bad. We can't afford not to be vigilant and resist.
I guess where I'm at with constitutional crisis and coup, people are abusing words that actually have a severe & real meaning and they just aren't happening (yet). I'm not saying we should blindly sit here until they do - fight, resist, vote, yell - yes. But if I call something a coup before it is, if it actually becomes one, no one will listen to me. So I'm reserving the scary words for if/when I need them. Do I believe there are people within this administration that "want" a coup? Yes. I feel, if I give power to the word coup I'm saying they've already won. The courts do not have to stand because I have accepted that they shouldn't/won't. I'm not willing to do that yet. I still am going to hold the courts & the judicial branch of government accountable until I cannot.
You’re probably right, and something like “authoritarian takeover” is probably a better descriptor for when someone consolidates power and shreds rules, norms and laws with no consequences. My worry is that regular people will hear the word “authoritarian” and think, “finally, someone is assuming the authority necessary to actually get stuff done.” We should use whatever word or phrase is most effective at driving DOWN his popularity. I’m past caring if it’s perfectly accurate or not.
If we want to make him less popular, we should call him old and that he's lost his step.
He looks tired and out of control.
He's lost his step.
He needs a babysitter.
He's slipping.
Now we just need some Democrats who aren’t too paralyzed by pathetic weakness to actually go out, find microphones and cameras, and say these words with their mouths.
YES! You're hitting on something I've been feeling but couldn't name. When we say it's a coup, there's a feeling of finality. And our story isn't over yet. -Maggie
Respectfully, Donald Trump is NOT the government, which is what makes all of his actions right now so dangerous. Yikes.
Call it a coup or don't. But if you are interested in clear language and strategy that gets at what is happening right now, I'd point you again to this conversation: https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/transcript-anat-shenker-osorios-actual-plan-beat-fascism?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1vhkb