If you want to keep ahead of the nightmare to come, you better pay attention now. Better follow Truth Social and not just MSNBC. Better listen to Steve Bannon and not just Rachel Maddow. Bannon's term "muzzle velocity" explains why we're having a hard time keeping up with the firehose of grim ideas, lies, deceptions, and mad directives the Trumpists are heaving out right now to overwhelm and confuse us all.
If we knock off the whining and chattering among ourselves and listen carefully to our enemies, we might be able to figure out just what they're doing and prioritize just how we need to respond.
Second, never shut up.
Don't mistake that as a cancellation of the first point. It means that this is the time to report the bullies and complain -- to do, in other words, exactly what I didn't do back in junior high school. We need to keep calling and writing our legislators, showing up at the local town council and school board meetings, while making our opinions clear in voicemails, e-mails, and letters to the editor. We need to keep up the pressure. Most people serving Trump just want to hold onto their gigs. Let them know that they could lose them when the resistance steps up if they don't start responding to us now.
Don't ever pass up voting again. How many of the bullied in the Trumpian era were among the misguided whose unused ballots provided him with his heartbreakingly narrow victory?
Support local media outlets and create new ones. The weakening of major newspaper and broadcasting sites has been a shocking development of these years and an indicator of how oligarchic media entities have been co-opted. When the Times pushed columnist Paul Krugman out the door, they lost some trust. Jim Acosta's parting words as he walked the plank at CNN ("Don't give into the lies. Don't give into the fear. Hold onto the truth and to hope.") sounded brave but sadly desperate.
Never shut up on environmental issues. It's a priority to rally around the Earth in the "drill, baby, drill" era of Donald Trump. Many issues are local and coverage is accessible.
Third, above all else support the bullied.
I sometimes still fantasize about my classmates rushing forward, knocking Willie down with their book bags, and saving me. I wonder if that's our only hope now.
The bullies have a public list of whom they're coming after and if you're not on it yet, you're likely to be in some fashion sooner or later -- unless you become one of them. Even then, don't count on that lasting forever.
Some "sanctuary cities" have already stepped up and declared that they won't allow their police forces to support ICE in the deportation of undocumented workers. There are major corporations that have refused to disband their Diversity-Equity-Inclusion units and the rights of their gay, trans, ethnic, and racial minority workers. Universities are cranking up to defend against a renewed assault on academic freedom. Obviously, we need to support them and new movements of every sort.
We also need the kind of awakening that right-wing pundit Peggy Noonan seemed to doubt could happen in a recent Wall Street Journal column when she wrote, "With luck this battle will last no more than four years, but we can't count on the return of shame and decency, the resurrection of the Democratic party, and the emergence of the kind of leadership we need."
Not on its own we can't. The return of shame and decency to people who seem historically to have them in short supply sounds improbable. It's a nice notion. Better we concentrate on growing the grit and smarts to fight back from the hedgerows to the dark net. We can beat Willie and Donald, but only if we do it together.
Copyright 2025 Robert Lipsyte
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