Rhode Islanders are right to be worried and angry about what’s going on in Washington. Trump is applying heavy pressure to the guardrails of American democracy. What’s happening in DC will have real effects at home in Rhode Island and across the country. My office has been flooded with phone calls and letters. People are asking, what can we do?
This is the simple truth: citizens will always have the power to shape the future of their country. Trump’s actions are designed to make people feel powerless and overwhelmed. He wants you to tune out—a natural reaction to chaos. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to stay informed and active as a citizen right now.
As Edmund Burke said, “Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.” We will work on, together.
I’m going to use this space to share information I think Rhode Islanders may find useful or items I have drawn insight and inspiration from. Some of what appears here will be written by me and some will be borrowed from other sources. If you find something helpful to you, feel free to share it with others.
Here’s how I see where we are right now:
The creepy billionaires want to destroy the U.S. government because it is the only thing big enough to stand in the way of their vanities and ambitions.
The big polluters want to destroy the U.S. government because it is the only thing big enough to quell their ruination of Nature and our common American public spaces.
The criminal Trump wants to destroy the U.S. government to avenge its investigation of his crimes, and to loot the wreckage for himself and his corrupt cronies.
An anti-democratic, far-right strain of “Paranoid Style in American Politics” has always wanted to destroy the U.S. government, because democracy leads us forward, away from old, familiar prejudices.
Corporate America is happy to stand by for some destruction of the U.S. government to free itself of taxation and regulation, and then frightened to stop further destruction out of fear that it will be next (which, history teaches, it will — but then it’s too late).
So it’s really up to good-hearted American people to defend our government and constitution from “enemies domestic,” and begin a Gentle Revolution against the forces of destruction.
The ingredients are simple: an end to dark money in politics; return of political power to people from corporations and political monstrosities like superPACs; rule of law for giant social media platforms; an honest and accountable Supreme Court; and de-corrupting a tax system that favors billionaires and big corporations.
The ship will begin to right itself under those conditions. If we persist. Relentlessly.
More to come.
