Blog#220- 10/25/24
WHAT’S NEXT?
By
Richard Davis
There are two possible scenarios that could play out after the November 5 election that are causing a lot of anxiety for a lot of people. Then there is one outcome that would ease some of the psychic pain many of us have been feeling and that is the election of Kamala Harris as President.
A Harris win would mean that the specter of fascism and rule by a deranged egomaniac would not happen. But what worries me is that there are so many Americans who have bought into the evil plans that Trump has proposed for this country. If Trump loses I don’t think that he will walk away with his tail between his legs and quietly drift off into the sunset. His ego is too big and his need for recognition is too great. He will seek out a new way to spew his poison to anyone who will listen.
There is a plan (Project 2025) in place for the Trump cabal to totally restructure American government if he wins, and I think the people who crafted this insane plan will find a way to at least keep the issues alive even if they cannot take the reins of the federal government. They are already working to push their agenda in states in the same way they are trying to make abortion illegal.
According to a description of Project 2025 by the ACLU, “Project 2025 is a federal policy agenda and blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch authored and published by former Trump administration officials in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity. Project 2025’s largest publication, “Mandate For Leadership,” is a 900-page manual for reorganizing the entire federal government agency by agency to serve a conservative agenda.”
They go on to note, “Project 2025 includes a long list of extreme policy recommendations touching on nearly every aspect of American life, from immigration and abortion rights, to free speech and racial justice. A number of its recommendations rely on support from the executive branch and from Congress. Many other initiatives are outright unconstitutional.”
There are many members of Congress who have shown support for these principles and that means that if the Republicans retain control of the House and win control of the Senate they may tie up the congressional processes trying to pass legislation that would have no hope of passage in a Harris administration. A slim Republican majority in either body means veto overrides can’t happen. Cold comfort.
A Trump win and Republican majorities in both houses would surely mean passage of Project 2025 legislation. That may not mean much after the dictator is installed and the U.S. military is used to control anyone Trump doesn’t like. The U.S. Constitution will be shredded.
Just in case you need more evidence of what is at stake in this election please make an effort to read the details and plans for Project 2025. Here is a list of some of the major initiatives.
• Cut overtime protections for 4.3 million workers
• Stop efforts to lower prescription drug prices
• Limit access to food assistance, which an average of more than 40 million people in 21.6 million households rely on monthly
• Eliminate the Head Start early education program, which serves over 1 million children annually
• Cut American Rescue Plan (ARP) programs that have created or saved 220,000 jobs
• Restrict access to medication abortion
• Push more of the 33 million people enrolled in Medicare towards Medicare Advantage and other worse, private options
• Expose the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of increased discrimination
• Deny students in 25 states and Washington, D.C. access to student loans because their state provides in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants
• Roll back civil rights protections across multiple fronts, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related (DEI) programs and LGBTQ+ rights in health care, education, and workplaces
We are facing an unprecedented assault on democracy. This election is like no other in American history and that means that voting is the most important thing any of us can do right now.
Brutish New World
As this article and others have pointed out, there’s unprecedented amount of anxiety in the air. For me much angst comes from not being able to fathom the widespread embrace of cruelty and hypocrisy. I’m having a hard time accepting so many of my fellow countrymen could validate the Republican agenda.
I’m wondering if a Trump victory would open the doors to revamping some basic ethical practices in our institutions. Would schools encourage bullying, cheating, calling people stupid on a constant basis? Will churches backing Trump consider removing several of the flagrantly disregarded ten commandments?
I could go on, but you get the point. How is a Republican victory not an embrace of our more brutish instincts, and will these tendencies become formalized in a MAGA future?
Deep breaths?
I think the most likely “what’s next?” is that we won’t know who won for a while. I expect one candidate to claim to have won while others want to wait. Limbo could be extended for a while.
Remember Bush v Gore? It was holiday time before we had an official outcome there.
During this waiting period, a different level of shenanigans might be expected. The world “loser” might be tossed about. In 2000 we had hired protestors and everyone talked about chads for months.
Whatever the outcome, each one of the elections in my life seems to be another in a series of steps in the wrong direction. That’s 60 years of mostly wrong direction. I was born into an optimistic civil rights era, hippie generation, earth day world and it all peaked when I was about 10 years old. After that, getting along with one another and making things a better place were tossed aside in favor of money and games.
Like Biden promised Goldman Sachs, "Nothing will fundamentally change"
> This election is like no other in American history and that means that voting is the most important thing any of us can do right now.
I’ve heard this about every single election for as long as I’ve been an adult. (I’m 52.) I don’t buy it.
The strongest predictor of what our government will do, far more powerful than campaign promises or party affiliation, is: “what will make the oligarchs who run the country the most money?” This is why Trump began Medicare privitization and then the Dems under Biden doubled-down on it. (Funny that you included that in your list.) It’s why despite both parties having very different-sounding soundbites on illegal immigration, the flow of illegals (or whatever euphemism you prefer) has never slowed down appreciably over many administrations: importing an exploitable underclass to suppress wages for Americans is too valuable for the wealthy people calling the shots.
If Trump wins, he’ll say some outrageous things, maybe especially about illegal immigrants, but the most he’ll do is nibble around the edges, because just like last time, the oligarchs won’t let him curtail the flow of illegals, deport many, or basically do anything that would increase the power and wages of American workers.
In my case, the boy has been crying wolf for pushing 40 years. Really – and I don’t expect people to believe this, it’s too comforting not to – we don’t live in a democracy in any meaningful sense, and haven’t for our entire lives.