Okay, well whether this is depressing depends on what you make of it. And I do think that if we're going to win this, we need to understand what we're really up against. Now that I've got that out of the way, here goes.
Everyone can see how Trump keeps firing people and replacing people with loyalists. Now, some people say that means we've got him on the cornered, that it's only a matter of time before he spontaneously combusts. We can hope, I guess.
The problem with that line of thinking, as far as I can tell, is the math. There are still about 50 million die-hard Trump supporters out there. Whenever things don't go their way, Trump and those fiercely loyal supporters blame what they call the “deep state” what I call the scaffolding of civil society. By the most generous definition of that term, it would include everybody employed by the federal government, which is about 2 million. That’s a long way from 50 million. What if we add in everyone who works at any level government? That would include state, local, municipal, special purpose (water, sewer, school, garbage, library, mosquito control and what-have-you) — still barely over 20 million. Even if throw in certain key industries like education (public and private), banking, insurance, law, and media — that might get us close to 40 million. My point here is that it’s still not enough.
Bottom line: Trump and his ilk have the authority, the leverage and most alarmingly the manpower to take over all of our institutions, completely, decisively, and crushingly. Starting from the federal government and working their way down. I worry that what we’re seeing now is just the beginning of Trump and his cannibals flexing their muscles.
I don’t claim to have a solution for this. I do know that it will have to involve way more than cheap shots. It will require a resolve and coordination on our part that I’ve yet to see. It will require all hands on deck and we will need to redouble our efforts to become more involved not just in activism (which is of course worthy) but also getting ourselves to….battle stations.
Resist.