Potential catastrophe

I don’t know if a Trump presidency is a catastrophe, because I don’t know what Trump’s actual policies are going to be.  I don’t think he knows.  I think he’s going to enjoy the power and the attention, and leave the policy to the others.

That’s where the catastrophe might be, because the Congress is suddenly empowered.  I bet there’s a slew of bills that got stuck in the machinery because they’d never get ratified by a Democratic senate or signed by Barack Obama that are suddenly going to make their appearance, and fly through the Congress: abortion law, shutting down the EPA, withdrawal of funding for science, draconian curtailment of civil liberties.  Forget addressing climate change on an international level; as soon as we drop out so will China and India, and we’re done.  That’s on top of the stuff we know they’ll do, like repeal of the ACA, curtailing Medicare and social security, …

The bastion of defense against popular legislation that infringes on the rights of the minority is the courts.  And that’s the third thing that’ll change with the new regime, so I don’t feel confident relying on the justice system to hold the line here (Giuliani as attorney-general?)

So, time for people who care about fixing this stuff to stop being spectators and start making noise.  Find the good stuff and support it (Friends of Friends.  Whidbey Community Solar.  Good Cheer and the food bank.  The sandwich bar behind the community coffeehouse.)  Find the bad stuff, and push on it, hard. (Barbara Bailey, local congresswoman.  Failure of the passage of I-732, the carbon tax for WA.)  Work to change Congress (https://brandnewcongress.org/home)

The institutions are all aligning to make the bad stuff happen, so time for the alternatives.

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