What is most important about the second Trump administration is not everything Trump is doing with his flurry of executive orders–it’s what he won’t do. As the debate continues non-stop as to whether America has lost its democracy, one thing gets lost in the back and forth–Trump is so busy wielding the power of the federal government to push his radical philosophical agenda that he isn’t serving his constituents. The Trump administration wastes time and energy rooting out “wokeism” and targeting DEI initiatives for trans people. In the meantime, the federal government is disappearing. It is hard to know whether or not we will look back on this moment and see America as having lost its democracy, or if we are still at a point where our institutions will hold. But for millions of people who depend on the federal government it is a mute point. For many, the debate about loss of democracy is in essence pointless. Whatever happens to American democracy in the future, irreparable harm is being done today. There are those who cannot wait four more years for the government to step up and meet their needs.
Conservatives have long pushed for a smaller government that interferes less in the everyday lives of the American people. But this is different. Conservatives and progressives alike believe that the purpose of government is to serve the people, not an ideology. This isn’t about smaller government; it is about refusing to govern. The Trump administration believes it has the right to use the disappearance of the federal government as a powerful cudgel in suppressing speech it doesn’t like. Take NIH funding for breast cancer at Columbia University. The Trump administration is holding research hostage because of real or perceived anit-Semetism. The point of this conflict is not whether Columbia hasn’t done enough to address anti-Semetism. The Trump administration is free to believe that Columbia needs to do more to address anti-Semitism, and to take action because of that belief. It does not have the right to prevent millions of women from benefiting from lifesaving advances in research because he disagrees with someone’s ideology.
Let us argue that rooting out the incredibly vague idea of “wokeism” really ought to be a national priority. At this point, however, the conflict becomes one of means and end. However important the end, the means by which to achieve that end isn’t to withhold government funds for things that logically need to be priorities.
Now, often, when someone is unwilling to toe the MAGA line, the Trump administration threatens that the government will withdraw from the lives of its people. Such disappearance and hostage taking is far more destructive than the literal disappearance of some of Columbia’s students. It is the dangerous idea that rather than the federal government having the best interests of its people at heart, it functions only to bring about ideological change. It is the most destructive and unwise kind of intimidation. Democracy or no democracy, it must be stopped.
Progressive Without Apology 