It Can't Happen Here - Part One - The Crisis. Where is the outrage?

Since the November 2024 election, our lives have been ambushed, thrown into chaos, seemingly by surprise. But in reality, none of this was a surprise. The warning signs were there. We chose to look the other way. "It Can’t Happen Here" unearths the quiet warnings we’ve ignored, revealing how the storm we dismissed now rages daily, its deep seated unimaginable affect on our lives, and what we, as everyday citizens, can do.

Not only can it happen here, it has and is.

Stunningly, it was only 12 days ago that Donald Trump was sworn in as President.12 very long, excruciatingly painful, head-spinning days ago. It’s not as if we weren’t provided plenty of warning. We were. Trump, his co-president, Musk and their administration are now neck-deep into the implementation of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.

I know, I know. Trump emphatically denied any knowledge or culpability of Project 2025. He even went so far as to say he had no idea who the Missive’s architects were, despite more than half had either worked in his previous administration and/or remained close to him after his 2020 defeat. But his bluster, or lies, as I like to call them, were just that. He wanted first to become elected before inflicting pain on millions of Americans.

It’s hard sometimes to understand how half of Americans thought electing this massively flawed, corrupt, self-serving, narcissistic, twice-impeached, convicted felon was the right fit to serve our country. But clearly they did. Every dystopian thing about him has been normalized.

But hey. It can’t happen here. Right? Yet, we are here. On the edge of a very high cliff of a Constitutional crisis. All the while we are cratering into the abyss of a despot government at breakneck speed.

Most of the country has been in a deep sleep/denial since 2020. It’s understandable. Four years plus of Trump was beyond exhausting. As was the pandemic which melded itself within the last year of his term. A double, painful wamy.

BUT —-12 days later —- Where is the outrage?

Where is the outrage against the Laken Riley Law, named after the Georgia nursing student who was killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2024. On the face of things, it seems fair enough and balanced. But upon closer look, there are potentially major civil liberty flaws.

The law requires mandatory detention without conviction, in other words, a person need only be suspected of committing a crime by law enforcement, arrested and detained before being convicted. A law that raises concerns about presumption of innocence which could lead to unjust detentions. A law that raises all kinds of questions regarding due process. Or the increase of federal powers in immigration detention, which some argue may lead to detaining individuals without adequate judicial oversight.

The Laken Riley law also raises questions about racial profiling. The disproportionate targeting of Black and Brown people will most certainly lead to over-policing of immigrant and People of Color communities, including legal residents and U.S. citizens. We saw that last week, when a Puerto Rican mother and her child were detained simply because law enforcement officers heard her speaking Spanish. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. A number of Native Americans, also most definitely U.S. citizens, reported being unlawfully detained —- because of the color of their skin.

Laken Riley Act garnered the support of 26 Senate and 46 House Democrats. No outrage. No townhalls with constituents. Just a rush to judgement for fear of extreme-right attacks and the bullying of a mobster, no matter the long-term chilling effects on Communities of Color.

Where is the outrage over mass deportations? Declaring a “National Emergency” for the sole purpose of deploying the U.S. Military to the Southern Border, against an imaginary “invasion” of the undocumented? All of it to invoke fear over an imaginary Boogey Man, demonizing an entire culture of human beings.

Where is the outrage over the for-profit concentration camps, most notably Guantanamo Bay, to house detainees?

Where is the outrage over the 2.2 million Federal non-politically appointed, career civil servants, who received, en mass, a “Fork in the Road” email notifying them of a proposed buyout, or the freezing of Federal grants and monies legally authorized by a co-equal branch of government, the U.S. Congress, or the freezing of all foreign aid, also approved and appropriated by Congress? Or when Special Counsel prosecutors were fired because of their work on prosecuting Trump? Or senior FBI leaders and rank-and-file, being ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday, with a focus on anyone and everyone who played an investigative role against the Trump. In other words, for doing their job?

Where is the outrage over the dismantling of the USAID and Centers for Disease (CDC), ceasing any and all communications? All of this with bird flu and the largest outbreak of TB in decades looming on the horizon?

Or the dismissal of Labor board leaders who backed workers rights? Or the removal of the head of the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB)? Or the head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)?

Where is the outrage when 1500 rioters, militia members, violent offenders and thugs, characterized by the president as “hostages,” were summarily pardoned, despite being convicted by a jury of their peers and sentenced by judges to serve time, to say nothing of assaulting over 140 law enforcement officials, now free to roam the streets?

And —- how about those tariffs? Run, do not walk, to the nearest grocery store and load up on avocados, because shortly they’ll be more expensive than a dozen eggs.

Then, there is the forced resignation of the Treasury Secretary, who had four plus years to go of his appointment, because he refused Elon Musk, the unelected, unvetted, richest man in the world, and Trump’s co-president, access/control of the country’s most sensitive payment system.

As of only a short time ago, Musk and his merry band of marauders, also unelected, unvetted, and without security clearances, gained access to the U.S. Treasury Department payment system. These guys, Silicon Valley Bros, none of them with even a scintilla of government experience, are accessing a system responsible for trillions of dollars in government payments, that controls the flow of more than $6 trillion annually, to tens of millions of people across the country. This includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, salaries for Federal personnel, government contract payments, grant recipients and tax refunds. The database includes sensitive data including but not limited to, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and a whole host of personal information. All of it, now in the hands of Elon Musk and his team.

Where is the outrage from our leaders? Someone? Anyone?

During a press briefing yesterday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, alongside Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, discussed their strategy for navigating the early days of Trump’s second term. At the briefing, Jeffries made an analogy, comparing his approach to that of Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge:

"We understand that extreme MAGA Republicans have a strategy. They want to flood the zone with outrage, but we can’t chase every outrage. I’m a Yankee fan and Aaron Judge is my favorite player. One of the reasons that Judge is a great hitter is that he does not swing at every pitch. He waits for the right one and then he swings. We're not going to swing at every pitch. We're going to swing at the ones that matter for the American people."

Okay. I get it. If we start swinging at everything we’ll have no swings left. BUT —- there have been ZERO swings over the last 12 days. No pushback. No coordinated efforts anywhere. We are in a crisis. A Constitutional crisis.

And also today —- The Democrats met to elect a new chair. They chose an institutionalist, hellbent on following and reinforcing traditional party structures and unity, over a candidate whose focus is on sustained grassroots engagement and year-round mobilization. A head-scratcher to be sure, given the post-mortem, election analysis hysteria that ensued (rightly so) following the November election. We’ve learned nothing. It’s no wonder why people stop engaging. No one listens.

With each passing day, Trump gets closer and closer to consolidating his power over every institution that serves as the foundation of our republic, into an authoritarian government, answering only to his billionaire friends, donors and to himself. After all, it took Hitler merely 53 days to bring down his government, and Victor Orban, Trump’s hero, 8 months to bring down Hungary. It can happen here.

As a Woman of a Certain Age, I came up through the 60’s — the Civil Rights Movement, Voting Rights, Vietnam War, Watergate, Feminism, Roe vs Wade, LGBTQ and Marriage Equality. I managed to stick around after Trump’s 2016 election and George Floyd protests. But somewhere along the line, we stopped with our outrage. Have we become so transactional that retreating now appears to be the best option? I wrote here Don’t Turn Away. Because if we do, I believe this time, we are doing so at our own peril.

There are actions we, as ordinary, caring, engaged citizens can do. Stay tuned for a resource kit I have been putting together of collections from others. But for tonight, hold on to each other. Rest. Read. Watch a good movie. Have a nice meal. Educate yourself. And prepare for tomorrow.

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