I’m not saying it was a picnic from 2020-2024, but 2025 has reminded me how viscerally painful it is to watch the rule of law be dismantled from the top down. Here we go again with the lurch of unsettling, sickening news, the feeling that there is no floor, there is no ceiling, there is no common sense, there is no safety. Perhaps it’s worse this time around because I’ve learned how to pay attention, to see how quickly and silently harm can come to the most marginalized and vulnerable folks.
There’s a fair amount of privilege in my life – white, middle class, employed, educated, homeowner, citizen. Although I am affected and will be affected by this madness, it isn’t me that feels the pinch first.
In 2016, I felt disconnected and stuck. My own life circumstances, with infants and toddlers, were fully consuming. It was bewildering to try to figure out how to contact my representatives and to feel like any of that made a difference. I cared about what was happening, but let action fall to the wayside as my life carried me along.
If the second Trump administration is going to mean anything to me now, it’s that I’m 8 years older, wiser, and capable. I can take sustainable action.
On the day we received the news about the election, I marked the event by updating my seed storage for my garden. If we’re headed into economic turmoil or depression territory, at least I can grow some beans.
On the day of the inauguration, I addressed some gaps in our emergency gear that had needed to be dealt with anyhow. We now have a few flashlights, and better yet, a solar powered and hand crank one that can also charge a cell phone. Well, it’s something.
Next week, I’m double checking our water storage, such as it is. I honestly have no idea where my husband stored those jugs in the basement.
All of these small actions don’t amount to much, but they bring me a small sense of control, of preparedness. If you are prepared, you won’t fear, right? Nope, I’m still plenty afraid, but I do know that survival is community, not a bunker.
So I talk to my friends and my neighbors. We hug, we share, we connect, we commiserate. We pay attention to local politics. We sometimes fantasize what it would be like to take advantage of all those ex-pat offers in Europe. Maybe my best possible life is sheep farming on the Aran Islands?
But then I need to go to work, or take the kids to karate and dance, or I’ve got a blog post to write and the deadline is getting frighteningly close.
With that reality, I resurrected my old pal 5Calls on my phone. I’ve registered a few comments on local bills in my state legislature. I’ve made a few phone calls and left a few messages. A few minutes a day, a comment here, a call there, fit into my life.
I used to find it difficult to make these calls and send these messages. It was frustrating to feel I was throwing my time and effort into the void, without tangible return on investment. I didn’t know who to call or what to say. Now I know that every small action does make a difference. I don’t necessarily have to stress about saying the “right” thing. All I have to do is let my representatives know I care and I am watching and that I have a preference for or against the proposed bill or issue. If I have a specific personal experience with the issue, I share that too.
So what I do does matter, but I also have let go of the idea of ever seeing a return on the investment. Probably, most of the time, things won’t get better, but every once in a while, they will.
A state bill that would have further limited reproductive care in my state died in committee because thousands registered their stance against.
Against this one happy moment in the last two weeks, I have witnessed the anguished howl that seems to rise up from the ground itself, at outrage after outrage. Sometimes it is simply enough to see and name what we observe around ourselves. To simply say, this is happening.
For me, the rule of law is crumbling. The president and his cabal are attempting to turn our nation into a Christian nationalist/technopoly/oligarchy something mess that will not serve the people or protect our freedoms. They are attempting to impose a world view that is limited and harmful and they don’t care what they break in the process. This is happening.
And what can I do about it?
Jess Piper, a popular activist also known as the Dirt Road Democrat, gave me what have become my marching orders for the duration, in a post on her Substack:
“I know my power is limited at the federal level, but I can help stop awful federal mandates by gathering groups and opposing my state lawmakers implementing those awful mandates.
This is our power. It’s local. Focus there. Pay attention everywhere, but fight at the local level.
We still have power.
Take care of the livestock and post in your social groups about the rise of a paramilitary group beholden to Trump. Order your garden seeds and keep a record of Nazi and fascist players in the government. Play with the grandkids and write a letter to the editor. Make supper and make a phone call to your Representative.
Don’t look away and don’t give any official even one inch.
Hold their feet to the fire while you handle your responsibilities.”
In light of the Ezell memo and an executive order by the current President of the United States sent on January 20th and the executive order of January 28th, and the many reports of harassment and harm that have become our new normal, the only way forward to me is to hold tightly to my people. Witness the atrocity, the anguish, the wrong, and be there for who I can, when I can. What we do in our local spheres of influence will make a difference.
Photo by Niklas Hamann on Unsplash
6 Responses
I was just on the phone with my sister the other day, talking about all of this. We kept wondering, what can we do about the horrors we are seeing come out of the White House, nonstop, worse and worse, day after day? What can we do, how can we talk to people, that will make ANY difference?
This post was a timely answer, a reminder to zoom in, work locally, refuse to look away. I’m really glad I read this.
And I had NEVER heard of 5Calls before. Thank you so much for sharing that resource!
Fifty-five years ago this week, a British philosopher named Bertrand Russell passed away in Wales. The guy had some interesting insights, one of which is paramount:
“People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people, is a secondary consideration.”
That bit of wisdom is rising in America, as stimulated by President Trump. His supporters tend to accept whatever he does, while his detractors refuse to acknowledge any worthiness on his part.
Presto, a divided country.
The loyal American owes it to the country to understand what is truly going on. If you think Trump is Hitler, you need a long rest in a remote place.
Likewise, if you believe the man is St. Peter. Rest. Reflection. Rehabilitation.
The President owns a vivid vision of success. But that is certainly not shared by everyone. And that’s fine if a positive national result is the goal.
Trump’s tariffs created a mini-hysteria. You should read my mail. But, the economic deals may bring in significant money to American industry and improve our security as well. That’s what is likely to happen.
But if it doesn’t, and inflation ignites again, there will be a new set of facts. And they will be important to accept.
Comfort shouldn’t have anything to do with it.
Thank you for a very thoughtful article. I’ve been more than frustrated with the church’s limp official response to all these horrors coming from Trump but really from Musk. Both individuals are literally brain-damaged, mostly from drugs, and unable to consider the feelings or the rights of real humanity. I don’t think there’s a single other Dem in our entire ward, unless they’ve become inactive for the same reasons I’ve considered that option. If I say two words that rabid Repubs don’t like, I get stomped on. Bishop is afraid of the heavyweights in the ward whose tails are wagging the dog. He doesn’t support me when such people are straining at gnats.
I’m weary of hearing people say both political bullies/cowards are children of God and should be prayed for. I don’t see how that can do any good when a person has sold his or her soul to the devil, with no chance of getting it back, due to horrendous behavior from childhood onward. I would hate to read their soul contracts to come here but bad as they probably are, every single one of us has the freedom to choose how we act. They weren’t sewed into those contracts.
(The first step in obtaining forgiveness is repentance which begins with a statement of remorse, which neither has expressed…not for anything they have done. And in most cases, saying “I’m sorry” only means they’re sorry they’re going to jail, anyway.) I hope that the lowest kingdom within the telestial kingdom has a basement for dungeons. It should be crowded with all the hideous dictators past and present. And yes, may they view fields of dandelions with bumblebees, if such intelligent creatures are willing to rotate often between other kingdoms.
But lest we forget, co-conspirators exist by the hundreds, even thousands. So the rest of us are now on daily vigilance and must speak up! Doing nothing was never an option.. And yes, thank you very much for the 5Calls link!
I would also like to see the church lead out on a response to protect marginalized people and support democracy, but I’m afraid that the moral panic driven fears of religious freedom in jeopardy and the bogeyman spectre of LGBTQ freedoms will stop our leaders from acting.
I don’t disagree with you there. But it’s amazing how people in other countries see what’s going on and are absolutely horrified that not enough is being done YET by US citizens to stand up and be counted. I’ve felt for some time that Captain Moroni would be marching mostly alone in his fight for liberty in today’s nation. Many Europeans and our Australian, Kiwi, and Canadian allies in WWII saw the horrors of fascism first hand. (My 18-year-old uncle was in the front lines of the British troops who opened up Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and what he saw destroyed him mentally.)
The US is now on that road itself but I’m not sure too many church members will wake up before the leopards come to eat our faces, as an Aussie friend just told me. We don’t seem to care enough about what’s happening to minorities and others on the margins of society, not to mention women. It reminds me of Martin Niemöller’s post-WWII statement “First they came for….” https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
We need to look outside the mainstream media if we want actual news. That could begin with the hosts and channels on the MeidasTouch Network on YouTube, along with Brian Tyler Cohen, Michael Popok, and other independent analysts and commentators. Not to be trite but they do tell it like it is, instead of sane-washing what is coming out of DC.
There are so many things to stay on top of locally in the political spectrum. I feel overwhelmed by it. Some PTA friends organized a meeting with parents to try and inform people in the district/neighborhoods about laws passed/going to vote here in Utah that are negatively affecting our school and district.
Or that Utah has been quickly getting rid of all our gun safety laws and replacing them with easier gun ownership laws.
I texted neighbors and ward members whose kids will be affected. Not one of them came.
I get it, their lives are busy and they don’t have time to think about all the things…..
I feel like the water is rising and I’m going to get tired treading water.