The Slump

A while back, I discussed my desire to work toward change through understanding and education. As part of that effort, I decided that I would read the full text of Project 2025 (*2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf) to familiarize myself with its “promises” and perhaps promote discussion. I’m sad to report that, despite a valiant effort, I didn’t get very far. In fact, after struggling for a while I had to admit that reading this 900+ page hateful, straw man attack of a document was threatening my already precarious mental health. Because, let’s face it, the time to have read this and raised the alarm has long passed. Reading it now is like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped (and torn a bunch of stuff down and shit all over the place).

It was there in black and white for everyone to see, but too few of us paid attention. The authors provided a detailed agenda of what they planned to do starting at “12 noon, January 20, 2025”. Just a cursory glance at the first few pages set the tone:

“…the long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions…”

“freedom and liberty under siege as never before”

“…children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries”

“…contemporary elites…[built] the totalitarian cult known today as The Great Awokening”

“…the very moral foundations of our society are in peril”

“Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American left at home and abroad”

I used to think that if those of us who believed in civility and the Golden Rule (not to mention the tenets of the Constitution) could just educate those of us who were led astray by the MAGA movement, we could prevail. Now I believe that our job is much tougher: we are fighting both an oligarchy and a strong Christian Nationalist movement without the help of the majority of our elected officials, for whom it seems self-preservation is paramount. While I will always find Trump a despicable person, I believe he is simply a “useful idiot” for these dangerous forces, something that becomes increasingly apparent as his dementia progresses. I’ve had to accept that while some people have chosen our current reality due to a lack of correct information, there are others who have done so because they are either proponents of our return to our white supremacist roots or they somehow benefit from such a return.

So now my question is, how do we fight that? And as the weeks elapse and every day the news gets worse (how many times can we say “oh that could never happen” before realizing that it looks like it can?), I get further away from an answer and closer to despair. I’m learning how to fight despair and keep moving forward personally (although it is so fucking tiring after eight months straight), but I’m genuinely at a loss as to how to do my part to stop what’s happening.

So, I’m opening it up to all of you. What can we do, besides living our best lives and finding a scrap of joy each day? How else do we resist this turn toward fascism? Where are the helpers? Please, chime in.

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Thanks for reading.

GOOD THINGS

Full recovery. I’m finally negative, coughing infrequently, and extremely grateful to be resuming/rebuilding my routine after weeks. Ecstatic to get a mani/pedi, hang with the CWP, and go out for coffee with a friend.

It’s getting closer. This week I submitted the final edits for my forthcoming book (Rising: Notes on a Resurrection). Which means, barring any unforeseen glitches, it should be available for purchase by early November.