The Witness Chronicles, 11/19/24

We need to chill out

Photo by Raychel Sanner on Unsplash

Building a Quiet Resistance

People are flailing around trying to figure things out but I’m opting for a subtle approach

There are a lot of angry people out there right now on both sides, though one side is rejoicing in their anger. But this isn’t the brave Resistance fighting the wicked Empire in Star Wars. That’s a fantasy, a fun one, but not one that will work right now.

We have to let things shake out and watch the right mess things up, because that is a given as long as they continue to pick extremists to run the country. But it is going to take time, and right now a lot of us are too angry, frustrated, or feeling hopeless to be effective in countering the actions of the Trump administration.

They face some huge challenges and the fantasies of their leaders do not line up with reality. So we have to let them fail before we start stirring up division again. They have set themselves up for multiple failures with overly ambitious plans that are not based in reality.

If we resort to fighting hate with hate we will take ourselves down to their level. I’m talking more Gandhi and less Malcom X, at least for now. That’s not going to be easy as we watch them try to take apart our democracy, but if we start look closely at the feasibility of their plans it looks like they will start to fall apart on their own.

Take the planned tariffs on all goods produced by China. That action alone could bankrupt our economy and instantly raise prices for many things we take for granted, everything from phones to dishwashers, just as the supply chain interruption during Covid made those things nearly unavailable.

Tariffs are a regressive tax on those in the middle and lower classes because they are paid by consumers. It’s one of those realities that Trump supporters couldn’t be bothered to verify or even understand. There are a lot of examples of that stuff that we are going see unfold in coming months as Trump’s team starts implementing their plans.

Patience is going to be the challenge we face in the next months. And it will be a big one because testing people’s patience is a Trump tactic he has used all his life. Nobody ever called him subtle. But I need to be clear, I am not suggesting we be patient because his stuff might work. It won’t.

How can I say that with conviction? Because it never has worked in the long run, with one exception. His primary goal has always been to stay in the limelight, at any cost. Not money, not women, certainly not altruism, just his need for adulation. And he has done a remarkable job getting it. But that is the only accomplishment of his that has worked.

I know, none of this is reassuring right now but I cannot see any path forward at the moment. Sometimes we just have to wait and see how things play out. Not what I want to write but that may be the only option.

However, I named this newsletter the Witness Chronicles for a reason. We all have a responsibility to pay attention and record what is going on, if only for our own sanity. If we take this stuff as something distant going on in DC and the penthouses of the very wealthy, we are giving him a real victory.

My mantra these days is simple: Pay attention and do the right thing. You’ll know what it is. And sometimes we need to simply watch and record. In my case these posts are my record of what I see and feel and I have chosen to share those things, for better or worse.

Shifting gears, this time of year as the days get shorter and the sky dims, my usual gut reaction is to get a little down, and this year that would not be surprising for any of us. But for some reason I’m not down. Maybe because I know that in just over a month we will see daylight start to return, incrementally at first, but then accelerating.

And that, for some reason, is the metaphor I need right now for how things can unfold, a reminder that in this life all things are cyclical. We are in the darkness right now but only for a few weeks and months.

I could be wrong about that, politically, but in the real world I know that is true. Small comfort but I’ll take it.

The need to support writing that witnesses is more important than ever. Please consider supporting my writing with a small donation through Buy Me A Coffee, a site for supporting creators, or by upgrading to the paid subscription option. I realize not all readers can afford to help out and that my writing needs to earn your support, so all my content is available to all subscribers. Thank you, ME