HEY AMERIKA

Robert Reich: How Are You Doing? – OpEd

 December 12, 2024

By Robert Reich

We are in a queasy interregnum. Four weeks ago, we learned that Donald Trump won the 2024 election. In six weeks, he’ll be taking over the United States government. 

To run that government, he’s nominated a Star Wars cantina of fanatics, extremists, conspiracy theorists, billionaires, sexual harassers, and disreputable no-goods. 

Republican senators — the only firewall against this bunch — seem reluctant to take Trump on, other than drawing a line at the reprehensible Matt Gaetz. 

The person Trump wants to run the FBI is pledging a campaign of vengeance against his political enemies. The people he wants to put in charge of the military and the border are promising a mass roundup and deportation of undocumented immigrants. The billionaires he’s put in charge of eliminating “waste” are gunning for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The person he wants to run the nation’s health is a nutcase who doesn’t believe in vaccinations. And so on. 

This time there will be few if any grownups around him to constrain Trump’s worst instincts. 

Some of you are frightened. Me too. You’d have to be living on another planet not to fear what will happen starting in six weeks. 

Meanwhile, most of the criminal charges against Trump, as well as his sentencing for the felonies he was found guilty of having committed, have been dropped or vacated. 

Many of you are furious that Trump won’t be held accountable. I am too. 

Yet I’m surprised at how many of the people I speak with are in denial. They tell me “Trump is just bluffing,” or “He’s not so stupid as to try these things.” Or they say “the Constitution is strong enough to withstand Trump.”

I fear they’re wrong. He’s nuts, he and his minions will try these things, and the Constitution is already near the breaking point. 

I’ve also been surprised at the silence of the Democrats. Where’s the Democratic leadership? Who’s speaking up for the rule of law right now, other than Liz Cheney? Why have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris seemingly disappeared?

Democratic leaders apparently believe it’s better for them to say nothing now and let Republicans take the heat. 

But there’s little or no heat. Trump seems to be taking over Washington without a whimper of opposition. 

I just heard from an old friend who’s also a U.S. senator, who writes: “The new administration isn’t as bad as we thought. It’s worse.” 

I wish him well. We need people of integrity on the front lines to try to constrain Trump and his sicko sycophants. 

Yet even those of us who aren’t on the front lines must be activists. 

If you don’t want to watch the news, I understand. If you’re feeling frightened or furious or worried, you’re in good company.

But I hope you feel more determined than ever to fight the fanatics who will take charge in just six weeks.

Stand up to them. Call them out. Do not tolerate intolerance. We cannot compromise with cruelty. There is no middle ground between democracy and fascism. 

I use these daily posts to you as ways of finding some hope in the dark. As small tokens of resistance. As means of fortifying you in these difficult times. 

Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your comments and your words of encouragement. 

Mostly, thank you for your commitment to a fair and decent society. 

As we head into the darkness, we need each other to help light the way forward.

• This article was published at Robert Reich’s Substack

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, and writes at robertreich.substack.com. Reich served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.