TURN HOPING INTO COPING DURING TOUGH TIMES--Part I
Hope Is a Choice
By Neil E. Lindley, PhD
The rate at which the Trump administration overhauls the federal government is mind-boggling. The massive changes made day after day are generating uncertainties about how America will be governed. Those changes are impacting our minds, bodies, and daily activities with feelings of apprehension, even dread.
How about you? How do you feel about the future? I know of some folks who don’t even feel like they are the same person anymore. That’s like cleavage from your soul.
How about you? Do you ever feel overwhelmed, anxious, and off-balance, like riding a roller-coaster that won’t stop? The uncertain mood for our country's future and present is palpable, not only in social media but in our daily routines as well.
Do you worry more, argue more, get angrier more easily, experience road rage, or resort to increasing use of four-letter words? (Be sure to show all five fingers to the other guy when you are in thick traffic.)
Do you find yourself wondering, will tariffs lead to more inflation? Will important health services be canceled? Will hospitals and pharmacies close? Will my Social Security checks stop coming?
What about other benefits, like Medicaid, food stamps, sick leave, or job security? Will mass government layoffs lead to another depression, or to stagflation? Will freedom of speech be curtailed, and will citizens be intimidated or punished for criticizing government entities?
It’s enough for many of us to want to exclaim, “Stop the world! I want to get off!” at least for a day or two, or a month or three. I find myself taking deep breaths and thinking, “Just give me time to recover”
-- before another round of mind-blowing cuts to staff and services of longstanding government agencies such as Social Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Emergency Administration.
In a more international vein, will the ongoing parlay between Trump and Putin further threaten the destruction of NATO and with it the strength and security of the U.S. against known foreign enemies? Will Ukraine be forced into a subservient peace? If so, who is next?
Will Trump attempt to take Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal and God knows who or what else by force? Will the United States become the next international pariah as we jettison all our allies for an imagined “greatness”?
Judging by the countless worries expressed across the media landscape, whether conventional or social, such concerns are no trifling matter. Nor is the vague foreboding I wake up to every morning. Or the uncertainty in important personal relationships. Or the feeling of the unraveling, not only of our longstanding democracy but of the fabric of America itself.
The political cocktail served up by Trump’s second term (based on Project 2500) appears designed to deliberately create chaos to render prospective opposition numb and ineffective. If Trump can get us to waste our energies by arguing with one another, we will never be able to gather our resources to mount either a long-term or short-term defense, much less a recovery.
What are the realistic options? At this point, certain political options are important, but they are limited. Trump’s trifecta (controlling all three branches of government at the same time) gives him both the power and the initiative to do whatever he wants without fear of retribution. After all, he enjoys immunity from prosecution.
The principle of “checks and balances” as a major underpinning of the concept of democratic government finds itself under attack by Donald Trump and his wrecking crew. He is already using the power of the Executive Office to badger the courts and render their contrary legal opinions moot.
In support of Trump’s move, Vice-president J.D. Vance intoned the famous quotation of Andrew Jackson in 1832, “(Chief Justice [John]) Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it” (Worcester V. Georgia). Similarly, Trump is daring the courts to enforce their judgments against him or his government’s actions.
Let me be clear. This essay is not about capitulation to the blitzkrieg waged against our democracy and our dignity. It is about hoping and coping during the worst of times. This newsletter is titled " Hope’s Witness.” For better or worse, I intend to be such a witness. I invite you to join me.
To see the solutions I propose, please see Part II of this same title
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