The Fresh Persepctive

WAKE UP!!!

By

,

United States of America 0 out of 10 stars, would not recommend.

If you are sitting at home and wondering why some of your friends are suddenly feeling very snippy or depressed you need to come off your media block. I understand it is hard to pay attention to what is happening in the United States right now. It makes me sick to my stomach and causes me so much grief, anger, and pain I am unable to focus on almost anything without something reminding me of how fucking horrible things are right now. So like the title says, wake up! We need you, your friends, your family, and even that stranger you saw at the gas station with a Harris/Walz sticker on their car.

We have to stand up and just say, no. It feels futile when the convict in chief is willfully deciding he doesn’t have to comply with a court order. I know it feels like you are powerless to stop anything as you are not an elected official nor do you have any judicial power other than that one time you fought a speeding ticket and won. America is a country of the people for the people not a country of Trump for Elon. So what can you do? Here are a couple things.

  1. Protect your neighbors. Don’t allow ICE, a dubious legal organization in general, make false claims and remove people without full due process of the law. Habeas Corpus is a thing people and we should not allow our government to destroy people’s lives because they don’t like the color of their skin.
  2. Spend less money and if you do have to spend money keep it local and keep it diverse. I know the pull of Wal-Mart and Target, who doesn’t like a shopping trip but we don’t have that luxury anymore. In fact I would say the worst offender is Amazon, instead of ordering from Amazon try to find it on a different site or somewhere in-person. If you can going to local thrift stores for clothes and furniture is better than going to the big box stores. They want your money so they start to get real upset and panic when you start using it to send a message.
  3. Call, Email, or go to your local elected officials and demand they stop Trump and Musk from violating the Constitution. Remind your elected officials they are elected by and for the people not by and for Trump and Musk. Along with fears of a primary challenge they seem to forget that they will still have to run against an opponent in the next election no matter what.
  4. If you can’t get them to acquiesce to doing something find a local candidate who is willing to run against them and start canvassing, hosting fundraisers or at the least donating to their campaigns to help them defeat the lackies Trump has flooded the legislature with. This is especially important in places that have the worst MAGA-hats in office like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Johnson.
  5. It isn’t over until it’s over. Fight until they take you away for some trumped up charge. It is better to go down fighting for what’s right then it is to continue to live in ignorance.

I live in a very blue area and all of my federally elected officials are on my side so it is harder for me to do some of these things but emails and letters work, even when the people you are writing to are on your side.

Another important point is little things mean a lot. Performative politics are important right now in a weird way. I fly my Pride flag year-round, I am in a heterosexual relationship but I want everyone to know my house is a safe place to go or be in case of an emergency. I make sure I send an email to my elected officials one a week hoping that something can be done. I also read, listen, and observe what is happening. I am working on reading not just fiction books this year but have added a lot of books on fascism, tyranny, race relations, the new deal, and gun control to name a few. Having knowledge of the past can help us immensely in pushing for reform and change.

If you are not okay with anything that is happening at the federal level you are now a soldier in the revolution. You may not have to fight physically but you do have to know how to combat idiots and sycophants. Cult experts would say MAGA is not a cult but it hits a few too many of the key aspects for it to now be at least cult-adjacent.

Never let someone tell you that one person cannot make a change because you can and if that means just donating money or writing letters that is what you need to do. So I am challenging myself and you to do just one thing extra to fight the tyranny of Trump and Musk’s illegal actions. Trump does not have a mandate and Musk is no more an elected official then I am a fucking ostrich.

PS also no more when they go low we go high. I love Michelle Obama and don’t really condone fighting dirty but as the minority party in all aspects of the federal government right now it is important that liberals and fighters for democracy fight a little dirty.

PPS Last thing, I promise, don’t let the fear control you. They win when we let the fear of them winning control us. It is important that we breathe, release the anger, despair, and fear, and then we put on our big girl panties and go out and fight.

Sincerely,

A revolutionary

Reading List (not extensive just ones I have read or am reading now):

  1. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley
  2. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
  3. Mistakes Were Made (but not by Me): Why we Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson
  4. American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress by Wesley Lowery
  5. One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts our History and Threatens our Democracy by Dominic Erdozain
  6. Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few by Robert B. Reich