Nicole Sanders

How’s He Doing?

If you ask Trump, his lackeys, or his supporters how things are going they are bound to tell you that things are looking up. I have more hope. Actually, Trump is running into problems left and right, with more storms brewing. If you step back and think about it, there’s a big list:

For all his talk of government efficiency, DOGE has been very inefficient in their record keeping. As reported by the New York Times, their website has been riddled with falsehoods, exaggerations and stupid mistakes. More than once they have had to take down receipts off their wall and massively revise downward what they have saved.

So far, Trump has done absolutely nothing to address the issue that got him elected: food inflation. While he has been distracted with culture war issues and berating war-time presidents, food prices are actually up slightly. This is mostly due to high egg prices, which is due to avian flu and price gouging. He now says he is going to do something about the problem, but, in reality, his unelected “special government employee” terminated people responsible for monitoring the problem and developing a vaccine; then scrambled to rehire them, slowing the response and worsening the crisis. Trump says that the USDA and the CDC will have all the resources they need, but Iowa Public Radio has reported staffing shortages at the USDA main office in Ames, Iowa. These are the people in the middle of developing a bird flu vaccine. The USDA and CDC are left trying to combat an epidemic while being gutted. It simply is not possible. Trump’s solution to the problem is more of the same. Which means more federal funding for more dead chickens and more boots on the ground at the UDSA. So much for the price of eggs. Not to mention the fact that this could become the next pandemic.

As for “drill, baby, drill” nobody is doing it, and probably no one is going to. Oil companies want tight supply and high demand. They’re making good profits. They are going to exercise “capital discipline”– meaning not investing in what will become excess capacity. They (unlike Trump) know that the future demand for oil is probably going to go down as the rest of the world tackles climate change.

Then there is the Ebola epidemic already occurring that DOGE “accidentally” cut finding to. What Musk doesn’t seem to understand is that if someone makes a “mistake” with a global health crisis, which Ebola could become, you risk hundreds of thousands if not millions of people dying. This is no time for “accidents.” It is time to give decent people who really know what they are doing the resources they need and let them do their jobs. These are people risking their lives trying to keep the next pandemic from hitting America. They needn’t take orders from a man whose greatest responsibility was an unmanned rocket.

Closer to home, at least one child is now dead due to the policies of one of Trump’s controversial cabinet picks. There is now a measles outbreak in Texas within a community with historically low vaccination rates. Kennedy is falsely asserting that such outbreaks occur every year. In reality, measles was nearly eradicated in the US by 2000. Only now, as conspiracy theories have led to lower vaccination rates, has it made a resurgence. Meanwhile, the CDC refuses to listen to the vaccine experts responsible for creating our yearly flu vaccine. Last year that vaccine saved 3,700 lives and prevented 6 million illnesses, according to the CDC.

And, the EPA has angered its own people by dropping a lawsuit against a chemical company poisoning the children of a majority Black community with a mutagenic carcinogen. Apparently ensuring these kids don’t die young from cancer is “wasteful” and too “woke.” They’re the victims of a purge of anything called “environmental justice.”

At the same moment, Trump’s lackeys in Congress wasted time putting forward a bill they knew Democrats would vote down which did, amongst other things, take power from the NCAA over policy decisions surrounding transgender athletes. Of the approximately 500,000 athletes in the NCAA less than ten identify as transgender.

All the while, on the world stage, Trump has now managed to start a trade war, with our closest ally, that inevitably will spur inflation and has rattled stock markets. Why? Trump seems to have forgotten that far more drugs flow from the US into Canada than the other way around.

His ideas for Gaza have created pushback not only because his proposals are in violation of international law, but as his own followers have pointed out, turning Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” is inevitably going to require billions of investment in nation building and American boots on the ground.

Lastly, Trump’s strongman tactics toward Zelensky may seem like a power play from “The Art of the Deal.” But his geopolitical protection racket is quickly causing Trump to become a pariah on the international stage. Trump’s “America First” agenda may prove less popular when people see the cruelty with which he addressed Zelensky.

Trump is more vulnerable than he realizes. He can’t spin straw into gold. However intimidating his actions may seem now, he has already begun to falter. For all the power that Trump believes he wields through his flurry of executive orders, in reality he is being forced into court and losing right and left. Is it really “strength” to put oneself in the position of having to disobey a court order and create a constitutional crisis in order to advance one’s agenda?

For all his “flooding the zone” Trump’s first weeks in office have created the confusion and chaos that nearly got him removed from office the last time around. Trump says he came into office much more prepared this time. He did. But no amount of preparation can change the fact that Trump’s entire ethos is one of entropy.

The Most Important Branch at This Moment

There is no way to adjudicate our way out of another Trump presidency. The issues we face are just too fundamental to be handled through the courts alone. Once an individual has the kind of grip Trump has on his base, it is very difficult to restore and maintain democratic guardrails. Much more than just lawyers and precedents will be needed if we are to do something meaningful and get to the heart of Trump’s executive overreach.

There really are not three co-equal branches of government. The constitution makes it clear that the legislative branch is the most significant, because it most directly represents the will of the people. The forefathers simply did not intend for the courts to have this kind of role in democracy under these kinds of circumstances.

The Supreme Court may be wrong about presidential immunity, but they have a perverse point. The Justice Department going after a former president is not the way the founding fathers would have preferred us to deal with a man like Trump. Not to say that Jack Smith’s work wasn’t important, but it was an imperfect way of addressing the problem. Trump should have been impeached.

The question is what to do when members of congress forgo their constitutional responsibilities. America is facing a constitutional crisis that the forefathers anticipated but knew could be very difficult to advert. Government simply cannot function without congress’s oversight role. However, critically, simply because Democrats are narrowly in the minority doesn’t mean that they cannot fulfill their role as direct representatives of the people.

Trump is convinced that he has a broad mandate for radical change. This “mandate” is a smokescreen. Trump won the popular vote by a whopping 1.5%. It is not that the entire American population has given Trump permission to do whatever he wants. The people who sent Trump to the White House asked specific things of him. So far he seems to be delivering on those promises.

However, it is an issue of just how extreme Trump has become. One of the things about surrounding yourself with yes men is that you lose perspective about how extreme you have become in relation to the outside world. Trump will go too far for that 1.5% of voters who maybe wanted economic change but didn’t necessarily vote for radical overhauls. When the effects of Trump’s policies hit home some critical group of voters will regret Trump. One of two things is going to happen: either the negative consequences of Trump’s nihilistic approach will become untenable, or Trump will be forced to back off. At that moment, progressive legislators must be there.

There is a role for the judicial branch when it comes to the threat Trump represents, but it is far more important for Democrats in congress to keep fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities, despite being in the minority. Legislatures do more than just vote, they also give voice to the American people. Never has that sacred duty been more important.

Deceived?

Trump isn’t being that deceitful. Actually, for the most part, we should take him at his word. Ignore the walking back. Never mind the equivocation. He and his lackeys are actually doing and are actually going to do exactly what he has said he is going to do; and the rest of us need to be prepared for it. He is not going to help Ukraine. It’s simply not in his nature. He has no use for NATO and will jettison it at the first opportunity. When it comes to foreign policy, it is better to believe Trump the first time. The Trump administration’s “mixed messages” consist of Trump telling his base he keeps his promises and then saying all he needs to say to keep world leaders from interfering. History will look back and judge us for being stunned.

Why was it that no one saw his decision to speak unilaterally with Putin coming? This is typical Trump. I feel for Zelensky. He wants to believe that Trump won’t really make a deal without him at the table. He’s wrong. Trump will go behind Zelensky’s back and it will prove very difficult to stop him. Will Trump involve Europe, or worry about future Russian aggression? Not on your life. His VP said as much. Listen to the tone of contempt in J.D. Vance’s voice as he scolded European countries for not giving free speech rights to their far-right factions. Since when did Trump think that the fate of NATO nations was his prerogative? What motivation does he have? Trump is motivated by one thing and one thing only–a transactional relationship in which America has something specific to gain. In this case it seems to be rare earth minerals.

And let us not kid ourselves about Gaza. Trump will push his plan and strong arm anyone who tries to stand in his way. The reason Isreal isn’t sending tents into Gaza is because Trump wants to expel the population. He will do everything in his power to shove his plan down the throats of any country, as he deems it necessary. And when the world community protests that international law cannot be violated, he will either ignore it or attempt plausible deniability and expect the world community to go along with it.

The world community needs to stop standing around and waiting to be told what they want to hear from Trump. When he does lie, it is only because people in positions of power are willing to listen to him imply that it is all empty threats and bluster. No, it isn’t. The sooner the world community wakes up to that fact the sooner people in power can step forward and start figuring out how to respond. The real work needs to begin–the work of understanding how the world is going to cope with Donald Trump as he truly is. If we fail to act it is on us. We cannot say Trump did not warn us.

Who Knows About Efficiency?

Government workers will be facing, especially over the long term, some of the worst consequences of the new Trump administration. For them, change means not only the end of a career, but also a feeling of helplessness as they watch years of hard work being dismantled right before their eyes. As they are forced to leave, and as the risk of the government unraveling grows ever greater, the voices of these workers will and can become crucial in combating the chaos that is bound to ensue in a second Trump presidency. These are the people who know all too well, and better than anyone else, just how much damage is really being done to the rule of law and the ability of the American government to meet the needs of the American people. It is they who most understand that you cannot treat the Federal bureaucracy like an entity whose sole goal is making money. Yes, reforms to the bureaucracy are needed, but not by corporate executives. Changes need to come from the people who are doing the day to day work of the government, who have the expertise to know best how to deal with waste, fraud, and abuse.

The realities of responsible cuts to government spending are extremely difficult. Rather than waste, fraud, and abuse; most programs are serving a purpose and doing so in a reasonably efficient manner. Cutting government spending will mean reevaluating priorities–a notoriously difficult process.

Simply shutting down entire departments with no regard for the functions those departments have, will not, in the long run, seek to balance the budget; it will only sow chaos. You can shut down a department, but you cannot shut down the need that those government departments and their employees help fulfill. Some other way of filling the void created by this absence will eventually emerge. The only thing “gained” by the wholesale abdication of the responsibility of a government to its citizens is a power vacuum. Trump can cut whatever he likes; but people will find a way to get the things they need from their government. Denying citizens access to critical functions of their government is a recipe for chaos and will accomplish nothing else.

Civil Servants are not perfect people and they are dealing with a system badly in need of reform. However, there is no other group of people who can better tell us how to streamline government: what is most critical, what we can afford to let go, and how we can inject fiscal discipline into an admittedly broken system. If Trump really wants to tackle inefficiency he should start by listening to federal workers, not declaring them to be the enemy. He is demonizing the very people who could most help him reach his stated aim.

“Efficiency” is a smoke screen. What Trump really wants is a government non-responsive to the needs of common American citizens. Hopefully, eventually, the people who voted for him will come to that realization.

What if You Get it Wrong?

One thing is utterly lost on DOGE. The federal government is not a corporation. He is unable to understand that a government agency does more than just spend appropriated money. Government agencies have very specific purposes–intangible purposes. USAID, for instance, its purpose is American soft power. The problem is that you can’t put a dollar value on that, and therefore in Musk’s mind it has no purpose. But government is about all the things in life that you can’t put a dollar value on.

Take something as seemingly economic as farm subsidies. Being from a rural state I have seen Washington politicians convince themselves that things like crop insurance are solely economic matters. Anybody who lives here will tell you differently. The politics of farm subsidies is about what kind of farming we will have–the life and death of the family farm. What seems to be a matter of mere money is in actuality an existential fight about what it means to be a farmer. Money is not the point.

All of government works this way. Things that seem to be about dollars and cents are really about the things that cannot be bought and sold. By ensuring the government meets the needs of vulnerable populations, Social Security protects our democracy. The Education Department provides oversight, ensuring kids have the resources they need to learn. Expertise is a resource that cannot be bought.

The biggest problem with Mr. Musk is recklessness. When SpaceX fails a rocket blows up. When the government fails, a generation of children are not able to function as workers and citizens. A “move fast and break things” approach may work in the corporate world where the worst thing that could happen is for your venture to go bankrupt. But if the government goes bankrupt there is a lot more at stake than man never making it to Mars. Millions of people will have their lives impacted in really serious ways. I am all for reform. Washington does need to be shaken up. But no one has the right to just put a stop to the business of government. If Twitter shuts down while Musk remakes the company people can’t Tweet. If Musk shuts down USAID for a while millions of people who rely on emergency food aid will be in danger of dying of hunger.

What we have never heard from anyone in the Trump team is an acknowledgement of the terrible responsibility that rests on their shoulders. These people may be the smartest people in the room in Silicon Valley, but that doesn’t mean they are psychologically equipped to deal with a situation in which mistakes cannot be made, and where you have to get it right the first time. We can live without Twitter. Millions of people here and all over the world cannot live without the American government. With power comes responsibility. Have Trump and Musk ever, in their hubris, ever stopped to consider the consequences if they get this wrong?

More Than Just Four Years

I would say that we are in for a long four years, but it is going to be a whole lot harder than that. Whatever happens in the next election cycle, irreparable damage is being done to American democracy as we speak. Taking a look at the people Trump has gathered around him, it is sobering. For one thing, impeachment will not be enough. Even if we find a way to oust Trump we will still be stuck with his nominees, not to mention that now the world’s richest man has better access to sensitive Treasury payment systems than career employees. Now that Trump has a group of powerful acolytes who are in the business of remaking government, it is going to be really hard to put a stop to the damage being done.

This is not a moment to hunker down and wait. It is a moment for action. The Democratic Party is floundering after being unable to block a raft of dangerous nominees to the most important offices in the land. That isn’t to say that people aren’t trying. Time and again members of the committees demanded yes or no answers to yes or no questions. Time and again they received none. A good example–Pam Bondi hedging, unwilling to say that Biden won the 2020 election, constantly attempting to interrupt and talk about her “experiences” in Pennsylvania.

Clearly, there are a lot of Americans who are not fooled. This was a close election. The margins in the Senate are small and razor thin in the House. But enough people have been taken in to give Trump enough power to form an administration. The question is if, over time, voters will see that the people Trump is putting in power are not who they say they are.

For one thing, we can hope that voters will realize they did not elect Elon Musk. Hopefully, those who voted for Trump will see that he is abdicating his power to unelected oligarchs. Trump and Musk are taking a huge risk. Trump’s promises to wrest America from the deep state may yet blow up in his face. If their “reforms” cause something to go seriously wrong with the government on Trump’s watch, Trump will have trouble blaming someone else for the mess. But this is the hard way. If America goes down this road there will be a lot of destruction left in the wake of Trump’s administration. The greatest hope we have is that Trump’s administration will crash and burn without taking the entire American government down with it.

Musk is right–this is indeed a fork in the road for America. It will come down to the values of each individual acting collectively. It will be a test of American values. The people will have to decide whether or not they want their democracy, or if they are going to abdicate their role as citizens because of the false promises of a man and a movement attempting to destroy American democracy.

“Great Again” When?

Whatever has been is what will be, and whatever has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new beneath the sun!

Ecclesiastes 9:1 Stone Edition Tanach

Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” has one glaring flaw. When exactly was “Great?” Rather than restoring America to a former glory, he is refusing to learn from history. For instance, his hostility toward USAID. We take USAID for granted now, but it only became important as America struggled to win the Cold War. In the beginning, America believed in fighting the Cold War solely through military might. Then we learned the importance of soft power and the war of ideas–that the world viewing America as committed to human rights was as important as being a superpower.

Trump’s shocking and utterly unworkable idea to remove Palestinians has been tried before as well, several times. Ironically, one effort was made by USAID. They moved Palestinians to Jordan, hoping they would see themselves as Jordanian. It didn’t work. It became clear that the Palestinians were a people with a homeland and were not going to go willingly. They were displaced once and were not going to be displaced again. The world moved forward and came to understand that a two state solution was needed–except Trump, who insists on repeating history and telling the world it is something new.

Stocking a federal bureaucracy on the basis of loyalty isn’t a new idea either. It was called the “spoils system.” But the rest of us don’t want to return to the 1880’s, before the Pendleton Act established a merit based process for hiring civil servants. It would take a long time for the merit based system to take hold. But as it did people understood it as a step forward. Ironically, the main reason the merit based system was instituted was to increase efficiency.

Furthermore, it is not as if transgender people have never encountered laws that force them into the closet. Not so long ago people went to jail for dressing in “drag”. Cross-dressing was kept secret and if discovered lives would be ruined. It was accepted that gender dysphoria was a mental illness. Then we had the Stonewall Uprising, and the movement it sparked. Transgender people became recognized members of society.

The last two generations have brought negative changes as America has transformed socioeconomically. But this isn’t the first time America has faced such changes. During the Gilded Age, America transitioned from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. There were real problems, like child labor and tainted food. But America did not return to an agrarian economy. We passed child labor laws. Harvey Wiley and his Poison Squad laid the foundation for the FDA. America had to adapt to seismic changes; it could not return to the past.

We should be careful when we use the word “unprecedented” to describe Trump. There are precedents to his backward and dangerous ideas. They exist far back in the annals of the history he is repeating. Trump isn’t making America great again. He is rolling back hundreds of years of human progress, not returning America to a storied past.

A Way of Making America Poor Again

A good name is better than much fine oil.

Ethics of the Fathers Chapter 6 Mishna 7

Donald Trump is promising to make America rich again by using the power of the purse to intimidate our allies. In Trump’s over-simplified universe, all we have to do is intimidate people to get what we want. Since America is an economic and military power-house, it ought to be able to get everything it wants.

But there is another kind of capital that Trump is burning through with record speed–political capital–the good graces of our allies and the respect of our adversaries. For instance, we stand to lose a lot if we alienate Canada. Taking the attitude that Canada is a less rich country and therefore we will simply ignore Canada’s wants and needs, and disregard its interests, is foolhardy. Someday we will need the Canadians; or we will find that we would have been a hell of a lot better off for having their trust and cooperation on some matter of mutual importance. Why tear down this relationship? Trudeau may mollify Trump, but even now the Canadian people have begun to sour on America.

This reckless attitude toward the goodwill of our friends and allies is no different than someone who believes that they have an endless supply of money. Eventually, they end up bankrupt. Trump will burn through American political capital only to find we need something we cannot get simply by throwing our weight around.

Take Columbia–yes, we can throw our economic might in this small, poor country’s face, deciding that we should be able to have all we want simply because we are bigger and might makes right. But why? Why throw away a perfectly good relationship? It is ironic that Trump claims that the flow of drugs into the US is one of his top priorities and then deliberately alienates one of America’s most important allies in stopping the flow of illegal drugs. Sure we are bigger than Columbia, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to offer us. The diplomatic relationship is still worth a lot. And Columbia knows that. A time will come when we need something from the Columbians that we cannot cajole them into providing. A moment will arise when the political capital we have invested in for years will prove invaluable to the interests of America, and will have a real-world impact on our everyday lives.

It’s almost impossible to make some other country share intelligence. The benefits of a stable economy in a troubled region are something that cannot be obtained by coercion. Aid and democracy efforts keep people from becoming migrants in the first place. Our interests extend beyond our borders.

There are things America needs and wants that bullying cannot afford us. There are more things for which bullying is the really hard way. I’m not asking anybody to be a bleeding heart liberal. Political capital is necessary. It’s about being pragmatic. Just as no one person has an endless supply of money, no one nation can address all of its interests by projecting intimidation.

Breathe Deep

We all need to chill. We need to think about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Like the MacCarthy era, or Salem 1692, this has all the classic characteristics of a witch hunt. We are allowing ourselves to be caught up in mass hysteria. There is a problem at the Southern border. It doesn’t mean immigrants are responsible for all our problems. No, we can’t just ignore illegal immigration. That too is a band-aid. It means we need to strike a balance between recognizing immigrants have much to offer and, yes, no country can function without a border. Yes, a small minority of people who cross the border illegally are truly criminals. Yes, the undocumented have committed a crime by crossing. Most are desperate.

Think about it; how much money would I have to pay you to walk through the Darien Gap? It is 60 miles and can take 10 days. The mud can literally swallow you whole. If you don’t dehydrate in the densest jungles on earth or die from exhaustion walking up steep mountains, you could get eaten by jaguars. It can cost as much as $500.

Despite this, there is a $30 million a year industry guiding the 400,000 people who crossed in 2024. One of the reasons the number is so high is efforts to stop illegal immigration. Mexico tightened its borders so Venezuelans could no longer get in by plane. 40,000 chose the Darien Gap instead. The Trump administration believes migrants living in fear of ICE will deter illegal immigration. If they weren’t afraid of the jaguars…

Are the cartels pedaling fentanyl terrorist organizations? I lost a friend to the opioid epidemic; no one can claim I am soft on drug dealers. But there is no invasion. Everybody has drug dealers; everybody struggles with illegal drugs crossing their border. A lot of the people in this “invasion” are unaccompanied minors–children. Most are families. Many of those children are escaping gangs. They want what we want, what all people want: a safe place to live, a way to make a living. They want the things people want because they are human.

It is appropriate to deport non-citizens who have committed serious crimes. But America has the world’s most sophisticated law enforcement; we can separate the sheep from the goats. We have too many native born citizens committing violent crimes to waste resources tracking down tax-payers whose only crime is being desperate enough to walk through a jungle in search of a better life.

Why exactly did undocumented workers rise to the forefront of the threats to America? Trump hypocritically pardons the Proud Boys and then says our undocumented co-workers and neighbors pose a threat. The most destructive aspect of Trump’s effort will be how it convinces federal agencies to take their eye off the ball of real threats to the nation–like the domestic terrorists he pardoned.

America had immigration problems before Trump. Now, it has all those problems and xenophobia.

Toxic to Democracy

There has been a lot of Democratic soul searching since Trump was reelected. But there is one thing that contributed to Trump’s reelection that Democrats logically could do nothing about–something that both women and many men have grown increasingly alarmed about for decades–toxic masculinity. For a long time now, people all over the world have watched as a destructive definition of manhood has overtaken American political culture. From Mark Zucherburg’s new lock to Dana White’s critical endorsement of Trump to Hulk Hogan’s shirt ripping and proclamations about “real Americans” at the Republican National Convention; Trump won the White House by convincing other men he was a “real man.” Toxic masculinity has become a threat to our democracy.

I am not surprised. Democracies aren’t built just on politics. They are built on a set of shared values. Values that are non-existent in the “manosphere.” People whose values revolve around the Ultimate Fighting Championship aren’t going to know anything about the most basic democratic principle of them all: solving conflict without using violence. This is the point of a democracy, and what makes a democracy a democracy.

There was a time, in my lifetime, when boys looked up to people like Joe Biden, when his achievements would inspire admiration. But increasingly young men look with disdain on men who show a willingness to solve conflicts through any other means but violence. A democratic society cannot maintain this forever. In order for a republic to function, its people must aspire to cooperate and find ways of resolving disputes other than through intimidation. Terry Gene Bollea (Hulk Hogan’s given name) may be a nice guy, but the kind of values his occupation espouses have no place in a diverse democracy that can function only when people agree to work in a cooperative manner with those with which they disagree. WWE may be good entertainment and a release for men; but kickboxing, pinning, submitting, and a general attitude of doing anything and everything to intimidate your opponent have no place in the White House. Hogan said it best himself at the Republican National Convention when he called the Trump-Vance ticket, “The best tag team ever.” referring to a WWE match in which teams compete.

Like the wrestlers that support him, Trump is a bully, constantly attempting to gain power through threat of force. The “tough guy” attitude that makes Trump so popular is also what makes him dangerous. And he now has the world’s greatest military power behind him.

But this problem is bigger than Trump’s presidency. As long as toxic masculinity endures, it will poison American democracy. Part of defeating Trumpism over the long haul will mean finding healthy role models for young men–men who don’t solve problems through violence. American democracy will not be truly safe until being a “real man” means wisdom, integrity, hard work, determination, and a belief in the power of the pen and the spoken word. This, not Hulk Hogan, is what it means to be a “real American.”