We on the Left Didn't Want to Be Right
To those who voted for Donald Trump,
We on the Left were right.
We were right last year when we warned you that Project 2025 was the impending Republican Party agenda—that its explicitly outlined plans for theocracy would inevitably become their platform and that this would negatively impact all of us, Christian and non-Christian alike.
We were right in the Fall when we sounded the alarms about Elon Musk’s proximity to Trump’s presidential campaign, and the implications of an unelected billionaire having unprecedented access to our government and our personal information.
We were right when we predicted that our economy (which had been robust under President Biden, despite a Conservative media campaign saying otherwise), would be completely upended by the recklessness and impulsivity of MAGA’s leader.
We were right in our verbalized fears that if elected, Trump would fill his Cabinet with the dregs of the Fox News orbit—anyone whose morals or convictions hadn’t already led to their exodus or dismissal.
We were right to tell you to worry about losing Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Education, the EPA, the CDC, and the IRS.
We were right in our prognostications of an accelerated and heightened move toward authoritarianism, with Trump’s promise to be “a dictator on day one,” one of the few he would ever keep.
We were right about all of this but know that this rightness gives us no satisfaction whatsoever, despite what you may think.
There is no great vindication in watching our nation’s systems being dismantled or hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their jobs or our National Parks being set up for the highest bidder.
We feel zero satisfaction witnessing low-income families facing greater adversity as their safety nets are being removed.
We come with no raised-nose self-righteousness as our global standing is disintegrating.
The reason we are not celebrating or rubbing it in or taking some kind of moral victory lap in these moments but are actually fully grieving—is because we love this country as much as you do and we are in this along with you. This isn’t a win for any of us.
From the beginning, we on the Left have tried to let you know that we were for you. We were fighting him because we cared for you and your family in ways he never could. Many of us have spent years tirelessly trying to dislodge you from your cultic adoration of a man who more than half the nation and a vast portion of the planet could recognize as a predator and conman and grifter.
Every single day, we did all we could to help you understand that we are all closer to being beggars than billionaires, and that people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk know nothing of the working poor, those living in food scarcity, or families on the brink of poverty—nor do they care to. To them, every single one of us is a potential victim, a possible mark, another resource to be plundered.
We know many of you may finally be realizing that all his promises were ear candy for people who wanted to believe that the world was against them. You might be slowly having the wool pulled from your eyes and seeing him for what he is. At the very least, you may be having a bit of buyer’s remorse as you watch your 401k dissolve and your grocery bills skyrocket and your job situation grow unstable.
And if this is indeed happening, we can only say that we welcome you to join those of us who’ve been in the trenches here for the last decade, hoping to avoid the place we now find ourselves—at the edge of a cliff teetering precariously toward oblivion.
As for us, we’re not interested in political tribalism or digging our heels in or making you feel badly about your decisions. We’re more interested in fixing what is broken, now that it is.
We’ll try not to toss out “I told you so’s” or posture in a way that makes it seem like we’re happy—because we’re rather miserable.
If there was ever a time we’d have wanted to be wrong, this was it.
But sadly, we were right about him and about his presidency—and we aren’t enjoying it one bit.
It doesn’t matter that we warned people that this would happen - we’re in it now.
It feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion…and we’re stuck on the tracks. Now we have peter Navarro yesterday on CNBC saying Canadians have to stop killing Americans. You know what he’s doing, of course - he’s laying down justification for Trump to militarily attack Canada - it seems that lies are no longer enough for this horrible man. It should be patently obvious to anyone with even one brain cell that Canadians are not currently killing Americans. And yet…
We didn’t sign up for any of this - not for days of unending anxiety, not for fear for ourselves and our cross-border friends & neighbours, not for the breathtaking speed and cruelty that’s tanking the economy. We didn’t sign up for the endless lies nor the Constitution-defying idiocy coming from the Oval Office, nor for the Retribution Tour. And yet here we are.
Telling people to practise self-care during these times, though well-meaning is, well... How do we practise self-care with a lunatic in charge, when any moment things could get exponentially worse than they are now, if that’s even possible? If anyone has any tips I’d be happy to hear them.
What? Canadians have to stop killing Americans? WHAT? I didn't hear about this - but, really? Trump and his cabal - and there are sadly SO many of them - are truly taking this to the next level. The blatant lies, the many distortion would make Goebbels proud indeed - it worked back in 1930s Germany, it is working now - fueled by social media platforms and a total lack of education and critical thinking. (I know Trump doesn't read, but I do believe somebody read "Mein Kampf" to him at some point.)
I see the arrest of Mr. Khalil as simply a test case - a "foreigner" they can vilify. He will be made an example of and soon enough anyone voicing a dissenting opinion will be rounded up under the guise of some bogus charges fabricated by the FBI, CIA, MAGA cop, etc. who will all fabricate whatever Trump wants them to so as to please their Dear Leader. I get a sick feeling that if "We the People" and whatever politicians still have a conscience do not act with a greater sense of urgency, this will not in fact get turned around. Europe has seen what's happening, and I hear from my friends there that their shock is only surpassed by their disgust of what America has become.
The sad thing is that while many didn't sign up for this nightmare, many others wholeheartedly did - and were only too happy to vote for a buffoon who promised cruelty and to take away the rights of "the others" . It's only now that some of this cruelty is touching them personally that they have decided to show some indignation --- truth be told, I have no sympathy whatsoever for those folks. But my heart does go out to the many that will suffer, and perhaps even die, because of this diabolical regime.