On Claiming to Love This Country As You Try to Destroy It
A bit of a rant, really
Donald Trump came to power, both this time and last time, riding a wave of insidious nostalgia, a collective pining for a golden era of American superiority and a promise to return us to the greatness of America’s past. And while Trump took this nostalgia, this yearning for an idealized American dream to new heights, he was really only capitalizing on a long history of what Republican practitioners call national pride, and the rest of us call jingoistic nationalism. It echoes throughout every campaign, every moment of national tragedy or national triumph - they claim that the United States is the greatest country in the world, that they love America more than anyone else, and that love will restore us to our former glory.
Only, the actions of the Trump administration in their first two weeks in office have only served to expose this for the lie that it is. One of the first acts of the administration was an Executive Order that attempted to end birthright citizenship as it is laid out in the Constitution of the United States. Set aside for a moment that the language of the Fourteenth Amendment is about as clear cut as the Constitution gets. Set aside, even, that the President doesn’t have the power to amend the Constitution on his own. Aside from Indigenous Peoples, no one who lives here has any ancestral claim to this land - the cultural heritage across this country varies by the thousands. Whether you trace your lineage back to immigration or kidnapping, we all carry other nations with us. We are citizens by birth or by naturalization - we were born here or we choose here. That’s the thing tying us together. It’s literally what it means to be an American.
But it doesn’t stop there. The Trump administration, in contravention of the same free speech rules they champion, is attempting to make it illegal not just to have DEI programs in the workplace, but to celebrate Black History Month, or any other months and holidays recognizing the progression of civil rights in this country. Built into the very foundations of our democracy is the concept of change and the possibility of expanding the rights and responsibilities of everyone who lives here. I wouldn’t go so far as to credit the founders with intending to give women, people who don’t own property, Black people and other people of color the right to vote. But whether they meant to or not, they built into the Constitution the mechanisms that we still use today to try to fulfill America’s promise to her citizens - that of the inalienable rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and an equal stake in her governing. At several points throughout our history, enough of us got together and said “hey wait a second, this isn’t fair,” and fixed it. There is nothing more American than that.
At every turn, Trump wants to undermine the things that actually make America great. They want to make people who work in government so miserable that they quit en masse. Without claiming that every single person who works in government does so with good intentions, it is by and large a group of people who show up every day and try to use the machine of government to make people’s lives better, who have studied and learned, who have the expertise and experience to ensure that the services and programs that support Americans all over the country continue to function. Programs and services, by the way, that Trump also tried to cancel funding for. He does not like that Americans have chosen to pay taxes so that we can make sure everyone has enough to eat, that we all have roads to drive on and clean air to breathe and schools to attend. And he’s more than happy to hand off oversight of the payment system to Elon Musk, a billionaire whose entire goal is to use the federal government to enrich himself at our expense, and who, by the way, no one actually elected.
You’d think that American influence on the world stage and protecting American troops would be of interest to Trump and his cronies, but after they canceled nearly all foreign aid, it is clear that they’d rather hand off international influence to China and Russia. American programs that provided medicine abroad, that helped clean up unexploded ordinances that blow the limbs off children and American soldiers alike, that track and address diseases like bird flu and ebola, and so on - all of these programs saw their funding evaporate. And all of these programs were meant to keep us safe. Hard to return to a golden age when we’re all getting bird flu.
And these programs that Trump cut off funding for, both foreign and domestic? Well these are programs that Congress appropriated funding for. Seems that Republicans in Congress who also claim to love this country are undermining it at every turn. They were more than happy to confirm a man who has hardly any applicable experience, who has been accused of sexual assault and abuse, who doesn’t think women should vote, and who has drunkenly led chants suggesting we should kill all Muslims lead their beloved military. And the Constitution they claim to revere gives them the power of the purse, but they were more than happy to hand that off to the president, rendering themselves empty vessels for executive power.
We shouldn’t be surprised. In a country defined by its democracy Trump and the Republicans who empower him do not believe in elections, unless they win them. In fact, it was just four years ago that a riot of Trump supporters attempted a violent insurrection, storming the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the will of a majority of voters. Trump, who does not believe in American democracy, had no problem pardoning the lot of them - not only endorsing their behavior, but also giving license to others who would choose violence rather than democracy to achieve their political goals.
The foundations of American citizenship, the First Amendment, the storied history of Americans using democracy to expand the rights of human beings, the people who keep the engines of American society running, and the institution of elections themselves - be careful, the Trump administration is coming for baseball, hotdogs, and fireworks next.
The American story is a complicated one. As much as it begins with democracy and inalienable and fundamental rights, it also begins with violence and slavery. It was built with the blood and bones with so many who had no say in its direction, who our founders and forefathers tried to erase to make way for us. The American dream, a beacon for so many around the world, rings false in a country defined by rugged individualism. We have just as much heartbreaking, backbreaking toil here as anywhere, and as much an inclination to push others down as to support and lift them up on our own journeys towards a thriving future. We are currently in this mess because, among other reasons, about a third of this country thought the bigotry and chaos and the corruption was a reasonable price to pay for change, and about a third didn’t show up at all.
Still, the things that I’m proud of here persevere. The people signing up for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Watch so that they can protect their neighbors; the government workers holding the line by staying in their jobs; the lawyers and the judges working around the clock to hold back Trump’s unconstitutional attempts to remake American life, the Japanese American elders drawing on their own experience with internment camps to resist Trump’s deportation efforts. The parts of this country that I choose to celebrate are the people who fight to make it live up to its promises, the people who fight for suffrage and for civil rights, who fight for trans people and queer people and to give land back to the tribes we stole it from. I’m fighting for them, and for this bumbling and bold experiment - a country made up of people who choose it, who choose each other, and who build it together.
I want this experiment in democracy to persevere. I want a country where we all have a voice, where we all have the freedom and opportunity, the resources and the support to thrive. To that end, I can’t help but think that if we want to keep our democracy, we’re going to have to use it. We have to use our rights to free speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. We have to speak - to each other, to our communities, and to our elected officials. We have to call our Senators and tell them what we think of Trump’s nominations. We have to call our Representatives and demand that they take back the power of the purse. We have to write to our newspapers, and share information with each other through email and social media.. Our democracy works because we all decide that it does. And we have to keep deciding that everyday. We have to show up everyday.
To Save Democracy This Week:
Do you know anyone who works in government? Do you know anyone who works in or with public schools, foreign aid, health care, food assistance? Do you know anyone who relies on government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security? Ask them how they are doing this week. Ask them what they need, and see if you can find a way to help them get it. And if it feels okay to you, ask if you can share their story when you talk to your Senators, your Representative, your other friends and family.
When someone asks you how you’re doing, answer honestly.
“I’m not great, I’m really worried about my kids’ school, because it relies on federal funds.”
“I’m really nervous actually, I’m flying next week and this administration’s lack of care around aviation safety is making me anxious.”
“I’m really busy, I have to do a lot of extra training for work about what to do if ICE shows up and tries to arrest any of my coworkers or the kids in my daycare.”
Then ask them how they are doing.
Call your Senators and tell them not to vote for RFK Jr. who is an incredible danger to public health. Here’s a guide.
Invite a friend over for dinner.
Go to the library
Drink hot chocolate and take a walk outside.
Alright folks - now tell me, how are you going to use your democracy this week?
Love is, and thank you