We are allowed just one “I Told You So!” before we move on!
The Politics of Hope is about the politics of the possible in this impossibly fraught moment in our American Experiment. But there is one thing that is telling for many of us who feel like the Cassandra of Greek Myth that tried to tell everyone what was coming, but were doomed to failure. As it was in Cassandra’s case, the Gods of Fortune decreed that no one would listen to or believe the progressives and Democratic coalition that tried to warn everyone how calamitous a second Trump term would be!
In this case, the Project 2025 Debacle was well forecast and laid out in great detail for all to see. And the actions and past presidential behavior laid the groundwork for much of what has occurred during this first month of the Trump Administration. The COVID Debacle and the January 6th attack on the Capitol that led to “The Big Lie’ were all perfect indicators to where Trump would lead the country if re-elected.
That is why there is no excuse for people being ‘too busy’ when we live in an age where all this information is literally at our fingertips and on our phones. You cannot be ‘too busy to pay attention to politics’ when there were campaigns and commercials and online sites and all types of indicators that told us that this is where we would be if we had a 2nd Trump term.
It is what it is…But even our most progressive and liberal of activists have been shocked and stunned by this nightmare scenario. It is not the speed of the Project 2025 minions, but by the advent of Elon Musk and the computer DOGE-boys. These Musk-powered minions have somehow managed to secrete themselves into the workings of the government’s most secure and sensitive files and programs!
So we have simply been allowed to shake our heads and throw up our hands and say, “What did you expect?” and “We told you this would happen’ when we see the horrified reactions from the viewing public. Because for us, this is something that is not unexpected. However, the actions require an equal and opposite Re-action. That means activism and the power of the people to unite and fight back to save whatever remains of our country when these people get through trying to destroy it!
We are allowed to say, “I told you so.’ But we are also required as citizens and activists and as fellow members of the Global Community to DO Something about it! I think that when the call goes out, we are allowed to explain the history of what happened when there was no regulation for banks and we had the Great Recession of 2008. We are allowed to point out that the adventure into American Cowboy “Rogue’ Diplomacy ended badly with twenty-year wars that were never conceived with an exit plan to allow us to find a pathway to peace as the endgame.
This time, we can be more strategic when planning an Opposition Movement. There is a way to #TAB (Take America Back) without simply dividing and alienating half of American Society. Trump is a Dead Man Walking in terms of his political life. He is older, more confused, and he is being led by others because he is soon to be a “Lame Duck’ in terms of his viability in future elections (No matter what he says!)
So there is a way to lift up leaders and new ideas and to turn the ship of state around. With planning and smart leaders and optimistic messaging, there is a way forward. Knowing that marketing and promotion were the only real tools that Trump ever had going for him in his limited arsenal of talents; there needs to be a promotion of ideas and a marketing of a new agenda that will lead the way forward and help us out of this self-created mess that the Trump Agenda has led us into.
There will be economic fallout-if Trump tries to use Crypto banking to steal money from the US Treasury! There is a huge amount of debt incurred from his self-dealing for billionaires that will create massive new debt we didn’t need. There will be rebuilding of the US Government when they get through destroying agencies that have been built up for almost the last century and are the gold standard for the entire world-until now.
So there is lots of work to do. One is to educate a disinterested electorate who will soon learn that it’s not fun to play footsie with wannabe authoritarians and dictators. So that is one way to sell the message of freedom and liberty and democracy and good governance!
There is another problem. The branding of the Democratic Party has been massively damaged by Trump & the extreme right. Therefore, the next few cycles will have to use a hybrid blend of tickets that include not only Democrats but Independents and younger candidates to run against the MAGA agenda. There is a way forward, but it’s not an easy one and it’s been made ten times harder with Musk and the billionaire class of Oligarchs that are standing in the dark shadows behind Trump & Co.
We can say “I told you so’ as this horrible agenda unfolds for the next few months. And then, we must get to work and do what we have done in past times when things looked bleak for the American Experiment. We will get to work and do what needs to be done to Take America Back! #TAB
