Silence Is Not Golden
All is only lost when we are silent.
And when we are afraid.
This is a story about a Facebook friend. I have about 4500, so try not to assume she is a close personal friend. Let’s give her a new name: Sally.
After the election, I felt like my breath was knocked out of me. It took me a few days until my fingers and my brain could hit the keyboard. I decided I should post something that would help people be prepared for what may come from Trump's world if the president-elect keeps his promises.
Gingerly, I decided to write about Social Security — how it will run out of money in six years should Trump’s tax plan be passed. What I did not post was this:
“The Republican Study Committee, which represents nearly 80 percent of House Republicans and 100 percent of House Republican leadership, has released a 2025 budget to make Republican plans to gut Social Security a reality. By forcing Americans to work longer for less, their budget would cut Social Security benefits for 257 million people, or 3 in 4 Americans. …”
The Committee also has plans to cut Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and food assistance for children. Trump’s plan to stop taxing Social Security will mean that after six years, the program will begin bankrupting itself.
The reality is that Republicans have to cut somewhere if they expect to find the funds for the big tax cuts they promised to their super-rich friends.
Sally was among the respondents to my Facebook post. She said, “Stop scaring me.”
I replied that my point was to be prepared. I gave her more information. This approach did not work. Sally kept saying she was scared, and I tried to figure out precisely why. I asked more questions.
But then she drifted off into — shall I call it? — politics. Kamala’s campaign didn’t care about white women. It only cared about Black women. If it cared about white women, why didn’t they say so?
Sally said she was scared repeatedly. I tried asking more questions. Farm Bill? Healthcare?
Sally said she was scared (again), and then she said she would block me because I was scaring her. Whether she did or not doesn’t matter. She chose to read my post, but she blamed me for it. It was my fault that she did.
What matters to me is that I have a new understanding of Sally and perhaps many of the Democrats who voted against us. Maybe they’re all scared. Trump looks so powerful that they think they can hide behind him.
In a way, it’s like Germany in the 30s. People voted for Hitler in part because they were scared. The economy had never recovered from WWI. They needed someone to blame. They thought Hitler — the strong man, would save them. These voters turned their cheeks as all the horrible things rolled out.
What’s scaring me is should Trump accomplish the things he promised — cutting Social Security and health care, driving about 15000 immigrants out of the country, sending citizen children with their undocumented parents out of the country, “drill baby drill” for the oil industry while canceling progress on renewable energy, following Project 2025’s plan to eliminate the Farm Bill, target his political enemies, drive the national debt into sky-rocketing conditions, etc., etc., will the “Sallys” of the world turn their cheeks?
Hopefully, they will not. Cheek-turning is dangerous for all of us. Silence is not golden. We must prepare ourselves for the worst, but as we do, we must be LOUD! We must:
Demand our Senators do their job, holding confirmation hearings and upholding strict standards for appointees requiring confirmation.
Be good communicators: Talk to friends. Talk to people you don’t like. Write letters to the editor. Post on Facebook and other social sites. There are “gazillions” of sites. Could you get to know them? Add more to your repertoire.
We Must Never Give Up. We Must Never Be Scared. We Must Keep Talking and Keep Learning.
Showing fear empowers bullies. Trump is a bully. Let’s not empower him. He didn’t get a mandate, but we can get through these next two years together. Working together, we can take back the House and the Senate.