I’ve been thinking about what needs to be done. I think the first thing is to get our priorities straight. What are the biggest things we are worried about happening because Trump is president, and what do we need to do to prevent them?
It is important that we be as specific as possible. For example, saying that we are worried that he will repeal Obamacare (the ACA) is not a good way to put it. A better way to put it is we are worried that he will change our health insurance system such that health care costs rise faster, or that people lose their health insurance. If he repeals the ACA and replaces it with a real single-payer system, I’ll be perfectly happy. He has promised to make a better deal for us. If he doesn’t keep his promise, we need to hold him responsible.
So I’ll write a few other examples: I am afraid that he will stack the Supreme Court with people who will reverse gains we have made in gay rights. What we need to do about that is have the Democrats commit to filibuster any nominee who opposes gay rights. Pure and simple.
Another example: I am afraid that Trump will curtail freedom of the press. He has already punished media that reported things about him that he didn’t like. We need to make sure that he can’t do that as president.
I’m sure you have other things. Please put them in the comments. Again, be specific. We need things to be clear, so we know when he actually does one of these things, and have a response planned. I will try to collect them up.
21 Comments
Worries should be
– him passing laws that worsen climate change. Reduces subsidies for clean energy and increases subsidies benefits for carbon fuel and repealing epa regulations http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/10/trump-presidency-bullish-long-term-for-oil-and-gas-energy-ceo-says.html
– Worsening income inequality by cutting taxes for the wealthy and reducing benefits for the poor
– Worsening healthcare standards by importing unregulated drugs and lowering approval standards at FDA
– Belittling science.
– Not doing anything about racism
I’m worried that…
he’ll pull the U.S. Out of the Paris climate treaty, but I don’t have a clear response.
He’ll roll back support for renewable energy, and try to put money into fossil fuels. Luckily, the economics are tilting more to favor the former.
In word and deed, he’ll legitimize hate speech, xenophobia, assaults, etc. It’s hard to counter the interpretations others make of his statements and actions, but we can help fund the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, etc.
Plenty of other obvious ones, but I’ll look for others to post some while I sleep.
I worry about Trump’s authoritarian leanings leading to policies and legislation that effectively outlaws encryption. The FBI’s been pushing this for a while (via mandatory backdoors) and he owes them a HUGE favor. That’s something to watch for. I don’t think he’ll realize what an advantage this will give competing countries.
What about policies and actions that favor oppressive regimes? He owes Russia a huge favor as well – along with who knows what else. We need to fight that kind of handout, both for the oppressed and for the long-term reputation of this country.
Roe v. Wade could easily be reversed during his term if the wrong people end up on the Supreme Court. I hope that respect for this established law is another nominee litmus test.
One of the reasons that this country has done so well over the years is its long-term support for objective science research. He’s expressed his disdain for this repeatedly. Actions that politicize scientific research or eliminate it altogether can results in very long term damage.
Ryan just announced that he’ll try to replace Medicare with private insurance. That totally fits with Trump’s calls to modernize it. I suspect that means loss of negotiating power, no protection from cost inflation, and who knows what else? That makes it a horrible idea for all of our seniors. We need to take our walkers to Washington when this comes up!
How will we protect anything without the filibuster? Getting rid of it is already being discussed by Repub. politicians, as is the removal, not only of Obama are, but Medicare. Further, how can we survive having extremists controlling all three branches of government and who gets to vote? How about surviving the normalization of whitesuprimisist groups? I’d love to hear some encouraging words about these issues!
We need to find ways to protect consumers and homeowners and workers from the overreaching that wrecked the economy in 2008.
Also, we must continue our presence in NATO. The Eastern European countries are already nervous about what might happen if the candidate’s threat to pull out of NATO was a real threat. The western European powers are worried about trade and the world economy as well as the balance of power that currently maintains peace among the Western powers.
Make sure that President Trump doesn’t change the law that says a president has to leave after eight years. Even the people who elected him whould not want a President-for-life Trump.
Yes, to all the above though it will need to be edited for clarity and prioritized :-). Great start!
Yudith’s concern about presidential term limit is right on but I’d like to expand the idea. We need to stop and eventually reverse the undemocratic trend of politicians selecting their voters rather than voters selecting politicians. Gerrymandering is, of course, the most obvious but there are other benefits to encumbants as well.
I don’t want to become the new Party of No but the loyal opposition Republicans were not. I fear that Trump will be good at redefining Democrat’s principled stands as merely partisan obstruction. That will be hard to fight because of the complexity of real world issues. He’ll keep winning when he reduces the debate to, “I’m rubber, you’re glue”. So, perhaps we should be looking for a few areas of overlap to point to as well. Infrastructure is an area of both great potential and risk. We need to try and bend in constructive direction Trumps call for infrastructure development.
The 10 year limit for presidents is now in the Constitution, so I’m not too worried about that.
Block Privatization of social security.
I just wrote a similar post on one of my blogs and am worried about a lot of different things, but of all of them, climate change is at the top of my list.
I don’t think these demonstrations are helpful, but instead, we need to be more proactive about voting with our dollars and our lifestyle.
Here’s my post if anyone is interested:
http://www.tafalist.com/what-a-trump-presidency-could-mean-for-artists/
When a friend saw it, he said, “Are you trying to end up in prison?” So, already we are seeing fear of repercussions that might happen when Trump doesn’t like dissent. Ugh.
What an excellent approach! Elizabeth Warren last night laid out a very similar one to Rachel Maddow — in fact, she listed a number of Trump policy statements which she said Dems would be delighted to be the wind beneath Trump’s wings, and a number of others where she said “We will fight him every step of the way.”
Personally, I would like knowledgeable people to closely examine the mechanics of the recent election. Rs have had 16 years to refine their Diebold-based hack of the 2000 election — and they didn’t have tech assistance from Russia in 2000, the last time election results differed radically from all polls. When States’ electoral systems were hacked, what did the hackers accomplish?
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more questioning of the validity of this election. The closest we’ve come is the street demonstrations, which I take to be an expression of visceral distrust of the results.
His comments about the military and intelligence services and personnel were just unconscionable. I don’t know which is worse him making the comments or the people that voted for him.
Watch closely to see if he (and his posse) try to purge the leadership of the career DoD and Homeland Security Department. I don’t know how to stop it but we can’t let that happen.
One of the definitions of conservative in Webster’s New World Dictionary is “apposed to change” . Nature is in a constant state of change. Conservatives are apposed to change thusly apposed to nature. Bottom line.. Being a conservative goes against nature. It’s un-natural to be a conservative.
Our priorities need to focus inward as much as outward. Whenever Dem’s run as the lesser evil, they lose. So, a bottom up make-over of the Democratic party is critical. There’s no shortage of good policies and popular philosophies to embrace.
Opposing Trump must be done with extreme care. The right wing have an incredibly effective blame-throwing culture and infrastructure, honed to perfection over the past 8 years. Already, the protests taking place are encouraging the newly empowered authoritarians to shout for repression in the name of law and order. Do we also need to exercise our 2nd amendment rights to be able to enjoy the same freedom and privilege as far right militias?
Our opposition must be uniform but principled and backed by clear, simply communicated arguments. For example, tax cuts are income redistribution of the most regressive and harmful kind and will bankrupt our country – an area where Trump has much expertise.
The free market is not a religion – it is a mechanism managed by tools that can be used for good or bad purposes. Handing over large swathes of public service to capricious self serving private sector entities will not end well.
Good grief … there’s so much.
Interesting news piece involving Michael Moore defending Trump voters against the accusations of racism and bigotry being thrown around.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/11/michael-moore-millions-of-trump-voters-elected-obama-twice-theyre-not-racist-video/
I agree with some to a few of the suggestions in the preceding comments. I believe if Trumps supporters and Hillary’s supporters joined forces and demanded term limits for congress and the senate it would do a lot to further the weeding out of special interests, big money and corruption in DC. Why don’t we help Trump drain the swamp in DC.
This is looking rather far ahead, but one concern is that Trump will start a war in 2020, for the purpose of (temporarily) boosting his popularity before the election. It’s a proven method, and I perceive that Trump is an amoral person who will use whatever tools are available to him.
I’ve talked to people in Portland, and they say that the media reports of riots there are way overblown. The protests there are almost entirely peaceful.
As Electoral vote says: On December 19th, 37 of Trumps supporters vote for someone else. Then Trump has 269 votes. The group then selects a President to replace the moron who has no interest in being President and has only White Supremacists (Jess Sessions? for heaven’s sake???????????) on his Transition team. The Electoral college has a chance to save us on that Date. I’d happily pay off one of the $1000 fine for one of them.
Oh, and I think more and more states need to pass a law that the electoral votes go to the popular vote candidate.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_TRANSITION_TEAM_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-11-12-09-55-26
For all you elderly “rust belters” who voted for Trump. Good luck.
Another solution would be to find right now a good Democrat candidate to oppose Trump in four years. Hold tight, flood your representatives with calls and emails if Trump even hints at changing the Constitution and ask Michelle Obama to present herself for the Democrats. If Hillary doesn’t resign, you will have a good democratic race and good publicity. After four years of Trump, the people would be willing to vote for a black female as long as said black female is as charismatic as Oprah and since Oprah won’t do it, why not Michelle?
Accountability: Trump has never been an employee. He is now going to be an employee of the American people. He is already working behind closed doors, not letting anyone know what he is doing, such as when he visited our sitting President, Trump allowed no photographers. He owes us that. My guess is that he will allow no press in the White House, that is our house.