Keeping the Faith

I HAVEN'T BEEN Up and attem at midnight on New Year's Eve since, probably, I was about thirty five, if not longer. I recall 1985, I think, when I actually had a date, which fizzled like Roman candles in rain. Seldom am I asleep at the ball drops, but always horizontal. This year I cruised into the new year ready to kick butt, as usual, enthusiastic and optimistic, even though the world I inhabit bears nothing in common with one the one I thought, when i was a kid, I might live in when I reached the age of seventy, in the far distant future year of twenty twenty five. One year ago at this time I was dreading the forthcoming second Trump administration and swearing to almighty whomever that I would dedicate my energies to opposing it. I kept my promise in my own meager way, and now, with Trump's approval rating well below forty percent and most of his agenda stalled out, I feel a certain sense of vindicaation, and empowerment. Although there is no feasible way to remove Trump from the presidency until 2029 without seriously doing damage to all of us, we who oppose him can, are, and will continue to get in the way of the MAGA fascist agenda and, lord willing and the creek don't rise, bring it to a complete standstill. To reduce the Trump presidency to the status of lame duck is the best we can realistically expect at this point. We do not want to allow the whimsical invasion and occupation of our cities by our own armed forces, nor do we want to seriously disrupt the economy by deporting millions of agricultural and blue collar workers. It is hard to imagine forcing millions of people off of Medicaid by cutting its funding will endear the Republican platform to voters at the bottom fo the economic pyramid going into the 2026 midterms. This, notwithstanding the obvious, demonstrated historical willingness of poor Americans to support billionaire politicians such as Trump who have not the slightest conern for their well being. Precisely why anyone would possibly believe that a billionaire olitician would give the slightest consideration to the plight of the poor and impoverished is nearly beyond the comprehension of any reasonably intelligent person. When he wrote most of the constitution, Madison assuemd that the wealthy elite, to whom he gave all real political power, would naturally manifest their inherent "noblesse oblige" and look after those at the bottom of society. Within five years after the document took effect, he realized that there was no way this was going to happen, and he regretted what he had written, regretted that he had not listened to his mentor Jefferson, who had advocated for more restraints to the power of the aristocracy, and more guarantees of protected power for the common people, whom Madison called "the lesser sort." Madison's system won out, Jefferson's vanished, and here we are today. It is neither unfair nor innacurate to call Trump a fascist, and the Trump movement a fascist movement. His obvious intent to govern by presidential decree, and the submissive willingness of the Republican caucus to accede to this usurpation of its own constitutional powers in deference to their cult leader clearly evinces the fascist approach. A strong man, leading the country with an iron hand, with the support of a tightly knit well organized political machine. Fascism, pure and simple, invited into America by America's extremist right wing fascist movement. 2026 will be a very good year to continue to ANTIFA campaign to defeat Trump-MAGA fascism, and to return the country to sanity and basic decency.