Listen, if you get the opportunity to hang out with friends and at the same time protest the demolition of your country’s democracy, I vehemently suggest you take that opportunity. So heartening, on so many levels. Maybe, like me, you would rather stay home/warm/indoors. No, it turns out, you wouldn’t, not if you knew what it would be like. Imagine me putting my freezing hands on the sides of your face and looking earnestly into your eyes, while with my thawing toes I attempt to place an order for warmer winter boots and a selection of HotHands hand and toe warmers, so that I will be ready to attend future such hangouts. And, as I’ve mentioned before, but I think only on Bluesky: if you can’t attend a protest, but you can honk and wave as you drive past a protest, YOU ARE ATTENDING THE PROTEST. I’d never realized how bolstering and cheering that could be to the protesters, but it’s HUGE.
Also, make yourself a mental note to go out for drinks/snacks/treats afterwards, to reinforce the psychological payoff.
In the words of author John Scalzi: what a deeply embarrassing day to be a U.S. citizen, on so many levels.
Presumably in the future we will not remember which specific embarrassments went with this particular day, so I will pin an example: the U.S. president texted the prime minister of Norway, saying that because “Norway” hadn’t given him the Nobel Peace Prize, even though he had “stopped 8 Wars PLUS” (citation needed), he “no longer feels an obligation to think purely of peace.” He went on to say that he personally has done more for NATO than anyone else (citation needed), and that therefore NATO should let him “have” Greenland, which he has said we will take the hard way if we can’t get it the easy way, because we “need” it. I feel I should mention that the actual winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (a prize not in fact given by the government of Norway, as the prime minister of Norway said he has repeatedly explained to our president without effect), María Corina Machado, GAVE OUR TERRIBLE PRESIDENT HER MEDAL. This makes me feel like sobbing, gagging, and burning everything down, all at once.
Embarrassing doesn’t cover it. It is mortifying. Excruciating. Horrifying. Terrifying. Nauseating. We are afraid for our lives, of course, and for our country, and for our future, and for our children’s futures—but also for the lives and countries and futures of everyone else on this planet. We are on a rollercoaster driven off-road by a mad clown who does not have a valid driver’s license, and also is under the influence and not watching the road, and also that rollercoaster is headed directly for a nuclear device on the edge of a cliff, and also our mad clown thinks that cliffs and nuclear devices are Democratic hoaxes to make him look bad. It is not a good ride, in case you are wondering.
This situation, and by “this situation” I mean the one that began in 2016, has changed the way I talk about world politics. I should have changed sooner, but I’m embarrassed to say it took me that long to tune in. In the past, I would have said things such as “Russia is attacking Ukraine,” or “Germany attacked Poland,” or whatever. Now, I might still lazily slip into that kind of speech, because I am new to this and also not good with history or geography, and because of what William, who co-majored in linguistics, tells me is called “synecdoche“—but generally, when my brain is engaged, and when I remember how it feels to hear that “the United States” is trying to take Greenland, I now try to remember to say “The government of Russia is attacking Ukraine.” There is no reason the world should grant the U.S. similar grace as we ONCE-A-FUCKIN-GAIN overstep our bounds to step all over everyone else and rob them of whatever we can carry—but it would be so sweet if they would say that THE U.S. GOVERNMENT is once-a-fuckin-gain overstepping its bounds to step all over everyone else and rob them of whatever we can carry, or even more specifically that TR*MP is doing that. Some of our citizens would do it if they could—that’s undeniable! But the majority of us would not, and NONE of the citizens CAN do it or ARE doing it. It is our leadership that is doing it.
Imagine yourself, as you are, a citizen of your country. Now imagine how much power you personally have to stop your country’s leaders from doing whatever they choose to do. No, no: I know you are imagining you would RISE UP or whatever—but we ARE doing that, and our government is sending our own military to shoot us in the face, so what is the NEXT idea you have for stopping your own highest leader, and does it seem like it would…like, WORK? Picture YOU, or even you and a group of like-minded citizens…against your country’s leader. What power do you personally have? What SPECIFICALLY would you do to stop it, chosen not from Fantasy Dream Options but instead from Things You Could Actually Do That Would Stop It. Right. Right. Exactly. It is the same for all the world’s citizens against all the world’s leaders, except that some are even worse off than that, and get their homes burned down and their families shot for trying. A citizen can SUPPORT the actions or DENOUNCE the actions, but a citizen is not DOING the actions and has no actual power to PREVENT OR STOP the actions.
My inclination is to apologize for my country’s leaders, but of what use would that be? It’s approximately as valuable as the power I have to stop them, which I have just said is none. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, I do apologize. I kneel before you and put my forehead and palms to the ground. The behavior of my country’s leadership is shocking, shameful, reckless, irresponsible, offensive, disrespectful, callous, dangerous, disgusting, traitorous. I am so unhappy that this MUST, absolutely MUST, result in my entire country, including me and all the other people who oppose the leadership, being exiled from the world’s friendship. An alliance cannot stand when one member of that alliance is swinging its dick around and forcing other members to kneel and kiss it. I hope you will pardon my vulgar metaphor. It is hard to avoid vulgar language when trying to describe a vulgar leader taking vulgar actions.
I hope the citizens of other countries realize that many, many of the citizens of the United States not only support but CHEER other countries’ efforts to resist ours. PLEASE stand with Greenland. PLEASE stand with Canada. PLEASE support retaliatory tariffs, and sanctions against the United States. PLEASE do what you can to resist our country’s leader from the outside, as we do what we can to resist him from within. Insofar as you have any power, as a citizen, to affect anything our leaders do.
I protest as often as I can. I was giving money to like-minded groups but I’ve had to cut back because of my wife’s retirement and to make matter worse I lost all my postcard writing supplies when we reorganized the living room to make room for the Christmas tree and when I went to put everything back I couldn’t find them and I am hesitant to spend the money to replace them. These small things make me feel even more helpless.
But today we are one year into the second (and worse) go around. I won’t say one out of four because maybe he will die or be removed from office before three more years are up and maybe he will refuse to leave office and be here indefinitely, but whether it’s three years, less or more, we are one year closer to the end.
Powerful words. Your pain is my pain.
Thank you for this. I agree with everything you’ve so clearly and powerfully stated.
Watching from Ireland and hoping that you all (and we all) stay safe. Stay strong
You have articulated this better than I could. Thank you for saying what we are all thinking/feeling.
SWISTLE. This post is everything I think and feel but haven’t been able to find words for, and it is deeply validating to find that once again, YES, SWISTLE GETS IT, and that look, these are the words for all of the swirling thoughts and feelings. These are them. Thank you for putting it all together and wrapping it up so nicely. (She said, about a post mentioning a swinging dick et al.)
i cannot believe he won’t just DIE. like what freaking magical elixirs that are not available to us peons does he have access to? how is his swiss-cheese dementia-brain still functioning enough for him to do anything other than lie in bed and drool? how can so many of our countryfolk look at this gross, embarrassing group of leaders and say, yeah, keep on doing what you’re doing, this is great? I know there will be a pendulum swing at some point but i don’t know how we go back to being a normal country, knowing that a significant portion of the population thinks this bullshit is the way to go.
*applause*
Hi from Europe and thank you for writing this. Some of our co-citizens elected a wannabe trumptator of similar kind for prime minister WHILE WATCHING WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE US so I share your feelings. At least we have no nuclear button.
I agree 5000% with every single word you have written here. Thank you for taking the time to articulate, and doing it so well. I get so frustrated – all I feel able to do is wave my arms around helplessly while paralyzed from the overwhelming realization that nothing I do can actually STOP what is going on. Support my community, yes, but to STOP it – that is what I want so desperately to do and I have absolutely no idea how. I can only hope that foreign countries can somehow save us all, because it’s clear that no one in our elected government is going to lift a damn finger.
YES to the arm waving, etc. Exactly.
One year in and the insanity keeps ramping up. The trend line is worrisome to say the least. The last round was terrible, but there were at least SOME people with level heads stopping things like military use against civilians and at least *trying to*, maintain some sense of dignity for the highest office. This time, not at all. No grown ups nearby. Thanks for your inspiration! The response to the madness has to be to do Something, Anything! Keep speaking up, advocating for our communities, and pressuring Congress!
Well, well, WELL said. Thank you.
I didn’t think I was a protest person before this year, but they are absolutely uplifting and I even got my mom to go to the last one and she found it uplifting despite not liking when people use crude language on signs. (Small caveat – I live in a purple city with less than 100,000 people and our protests are maybe a thousand people standing along the side of the road while people honk in support. I might feel differently about the kind of protest where you are blocking the road/part of a crowd that you can’t easily get out of any time you want. But also…there are protests like mine all over the country and I bet anyone who finds the big city ones overwhelming could find one).
But I do also have recurring thoughts about how – for the rest of my life – there will be so many people who are justifiably angry about how they’ve been treated by this administration, and I won’t be able to tell all of them that I never supported him even for a second and that’s a little distressing to think about.
But then again, I amuse myself by thinking that if I lose my filter as I get older my grandchildren are going to have to warn the retirement home to keep me away from any Trump supporters because I will absolutely be the stereotype of the Southern granny still angry about the Yankees fifty years after the Civil War was over (except without the pro-slavery views, obviously).
Yes, yes, yes, all of this! Every little thing helps. This post helps. Speaking out helps. Protesting helps. Helping your neighbors helps. Taking care of yourself helps. Don’t let them scare your into silence or passivity! This cannot and will not last.
I could not attend the No Kings protest in October due to a family obligation. But as I drove home, I went through a small town in a rural area and there were about 50 people or so standing on the main street with their No Kings signs. I honked and gave them a thumbs up. And they all cheered back to me. I hope my honking lifted them up as much as their cheering lifted me up.
I’ve seen in several places that one reason to protest is to let other countries know that there are Americans who don’t support what is happening. That there are Americans who are trying to change things. And it goes the other way too. We know that there are Iranians unhappy with their government and are trying to change it because we’ve seen the stories about the protests.
Thank you for putting this out there, as many of us (at least me and I know I’m not alone) are just living with it grinding around in our own heads!
Yep. I feel you very deeply on this and I’m right there with you.
I keep thinking of the last time European leaders tried to appease a crazy man. As painful as it is to imagine what that would mean for us, I sure as heck hope the current European leaders are remembering it too.
I’m in Canada and I feel sick about the state of the world. We love visiting the States but will not go back for a long time. We send you all our love.
This is so far outside of my worst nightmares. Every message I leave with my Republican Senator’s office reminds him he will be remembered as being on the wrong side of history rather than among the heroes. It would take so few to stop this avalanche of sewage,
I, more often than not, attend a weekly rally in supoort of our immigrant neighbors. It is very uplifting. Even watching people give us the finger mostly makes us feel better because we made them mad.
But we absolutely are not there for the finger people. At least THREE people who have either: been detained or have had family members detained have stopped to talk, to thank us, to ask for help. This group of (nearly exclusively white women) has raised money for those affected, organized rides to school for them, and most recently both witnessed a son deported to their country of origin (which they fled with a LEGAL ASYLUM CLAIM) and then supported that same son (and his mother and sister) and assisted in getting him to Spain and one especially enthusiastic Russian Immigrant to the USA’s sister managed to deliver clothes and necessities to Spain for him.
THAT is why we do it. And I will continue. Even when the forecast is for a high of 11 degrees this week.
Thank you. This entire thing is breaking my heart daily. But I did get THREE HUGS from an elated mother because her son is currently safe and his whereabouts are known. And I did very little. But I did SOMETHING.
I totally agree with your whole post. I live in Minnesota and the ICE action is out of control! They are randomly knocking on doors, they smashed the car window and took into custody a white citizen who was simply observing. They are questioning any person of color. Those who are taken to the holding center are sometimes released into the freezing cold without their phones or a way to get home. It feels like all of the safeguards that police have- showing your face, giving your name, body cameras and actual probable cause are all gone. It is very tough here. Hopefully the -45 windchills this weekend will really hurt them. There is so much more going on here that is not making the news.
Hi Swistle, I’m Australian, and I know there are many good people there. I hate it for all of you. He terrifies me.
I’d root for all of you, but rooting means something different over here. Elbows up and lots of love.
xxx
I can only imagine how hard it is to live under what amounts to a functional dictatorship. I don’t live in the US, but it isn’t hard to see that people are trying to resist the waves of cruelty and chaos that are being unleashed. Your voice matters, thank you for protesting, thank you for sharing your voice with us.
I listen to the You are Good podcast and the host Alex Steed starts with a reminder that action is the way to stave off dread. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for this. I am Canadian and I often check in on this blog and these comments specifically to remind myself that many US citizens do oppose what’s happening. Because, I mean… it just KEEPS happening! Over and over, further and further, darker and darker, from impossible to improbable to real. Elected not once but twice. I admit one can lose sight of the opposition from up here at times.
I’m a proud Canadian but a child/teen I certainly saw the US as an impressive, reassuring neighbour or big brother, for us and the world. I mourn my own kids will never see it like that – philosophically and literally, as it’s hard to picture when we’d even visit. And now I wonder at 3am if they’ll fight in a war with the US?? Previously laughable.
Thanks for being a spot when I can remind myself, “not all citizens, not all citizens…”
You said that so perfectly, thank you! When Swistle uses a vulgar metaphor, you KNOW it’s bad :) It is so helpful to hear other people who feel as apalled as you do.
I’m so glad that driving by and honking and waving counts, because it fills me with JOY when my daughter and I get to participate in that way!
I am a Canadian living in Canada and I am watching with horror. I feel so badly for everyone who did not vote for this circus clown and are suffering because of him. I can’t imagine what it must be like to see your government attack your own people. Sending all my love to you, Swistle.
As another Canadian, also in Canada, who has spent the last 12 months protesting on the street outside our Premier’s (~equivalent of Governor, maybe) office, as she wants us not to be Canadian (and is dismantling much else) I very much agree that the beeps and waves are heartening.
We even keep a count of them (and the midde fingers), so we can all feel heartened at our support.
Solidarity, Swistle.
Hi Sara too – I live in the same province as you. Thanks for your work! I’m in the riding with the first (and unsuccessful) recall campaign (for the MLA for Education). We tried our best to oust him. Just wanted to say hi to a fellow Albertan in the trenches.
Hi Elizabeth
Sorry your petition failed – ours likely will, too.
But at least we know we’re not alone.
Keep fighting in anyway you can, everyone!
YES to everything you said. Street rallies are vital for visibility of the issues and also for the camaraderie and psychological boost to participants. Very important. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for going to a rally.
I’m late to the commenting party here but it’s because I was out doing stuff all week to counteract this ridiculous fascist regime that is bearing down on us. Some of it was quiet, behind the scenes work. I’m exhausted.
I want to add (although it’s unlikely anyone will see it) that if you can’t GO to a protest, and you can’t DRIVE past a protest honking short little honks in support, then you can:
1) Press your municipality to make a public resolution that your municipal police force will NOT enter into an agreement with ICE (a “287 g” agreement) and that your police force will NOT ask residents their immigration status. Ask your neighbors to press for it also.
2) CALL/WRITE all of your electeds. Right now, the best thing to concentrate on is Dem US Senators. Tell them DO NOT FUND DHS unless they put severe and meaningful brakes on the harmful actions of ICE/Border Patrol. And then call all your Republican electeds because they need to hear YOUR voice. No cussing. (Cussing can cause the staff to hang up or not count your call/webmail.) Just be your irate, empathy-full, pussy-hat-wearing self.
3) TELL THE TRUTH, as Swistle has done here. Talk with your friends and family about what is happening. Tell the truth. The federal government is out to gaslight us all. That is extremely damaging, as Hannah Arendt said, (paraphrasing) if they can get you to doubt what they are saying, then no one will be able to believe anything.
4) LOVE your folks and be with them as much as you can. Give thanks for Canada. I think Swistle already said those things, but I’m saying them again.
This is how I feel living in Israel today. Our government does not represent my values, yet Israelis are often seen as a single, unified voice because of its actions. That erases the many citizens who are protesting and working to replace this leadership in the next election. Unlike the U.S., which has term limits, Israel has been led by the same figure for nearly 15 years.
Thank you for this post. Truly
What absolutely blows my mind are the people who still support him. Just this morning Heather Cox Richardson wrote “The number of American adults who approve of Trump’s presidency has dropped to a new low: 39.2%” AND SOMEHOW THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE ENCOURAGING!?!
How can almost 40% of the population approve of all the hideous things this administration and the president himself have done / are doing?!?
As a Canadian, I am seriously starting to wonder if we’re going to be invaded by the neighbour with whom we have been so close, and share the world’s longest unguarded border.
There are these breathless newscasts about how 70% or whatever of Americans disapprove of the street-killings of U.S. citizens by ICE, and I am left boggling. BOGGLING. WHO IS THE 30%-OR-WHATEVER WE LIVE WITH DOWN HERE.