2025-01-25 The Fall Begins: Bearing Witness to Democracy’s Decline

Introduction: The Fall

This post is the beginning of a new blog series I am titling, “The Fall.” In this series I will discuss the fall of democracy we are currently experiencing in the US and around the world. I will attempt to explain, discuss, and encourage ways that we can resist the fascists. Now is not the time to feel apathetic!

The Meta Blackout: A Personal Stand

Tomorrow I’ll return to Facebook and Instagram. I joined the cyber-wide Meta blackout effort a week ago. It was started to send a message to Zuckerburg that people are pissed with his move to the right and abandoning fact-checking on his sites. Judging by the emails I get telling me about the Facebook posts I’m missing, I suspect Meta’s algorithm has noticed my absence.

Did this sabbatical do any good? Other than improving my attitude, probably not. Still, I feel it was worth it. Why? Because apathy is our enemy here, folks. This is not the time to go all light-headed. Shake off the shock and awe we’re being showered with, take a deep breath, calm yourself, then keep your eyes open. There is much going on behind the scenes that we can still discern and report on if we do so collectively.

I can tell that a permanent break with Facebook is in my near future, unless something was to drastically change the trajectory that platform is on. I will miss frequent contact with my friends, but what’s happening to our society right now is extremely serious shit. When Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok become wastelands due to selective censorship, I cannot continue using them in good conscience, so I will have to leave. New platforms will arise!

It was difficult enough to decide to leave Facebook for a week, as it is my main conduit for speaking to the friends I’ve made over the years. But Instagram was in some ways harder, as it was also a window I had open to watch news whenever I wanted to. And I enjoy the videos I find there a lot. Still, it had to be done.

A Week of Unfolding History

And what a week to choose to have this minor boycott! History has been unfolding before our eyes all week! This is really an amazing opportunity we have right now. So often historical events go by nearly unnoticed at the time they are experienced, only to appear months or even years later to people suddenly remembering, “Oh, yeah, that was historical.” But, still we missed it when it happened and perhaps missed numerous opportunities to act on this knowledge. This is dangerous.

The Global Shift to Authoritarianism

Now’s our chance to see history happen in front of our eyes. The government all of us grew up with is morphing into an authoritarian state. Democracy as we knew it, is on its way out. And don’t for a second think that the USA is the Lone Ranger! A full 72% of the world’s people today are living under authoritarian rule of some kind! Google it. That loud, scraping sound? That’s the sound of governments all over the world being dragged slowly to the right. In some cases, like Hungary, not so slowly.

Bearing Witness, a Call to Action

I, for one, cannot turn away, as much as it pains me to watch it happen. I haven’t got that long left on this planet, but I intend to bear witness to the debacle happening around us. Turning away is an understandable desire, given the assault of presidential orders on years of human rights efforts, but we have to fight through our tears and refuse to give up. We need to fight the gag response and keep our eyes on the ball. We need to keep the memories of what used to be possible fresh in our minds, so we can tell our grandchildren about the days we remember, when things were different. Our memories may provide them with the hope and fuel they are going to need to carry on the fight for equal rights, freedom, etc. The things that really matter in life.

Understanding the Theater of Power

We also need to keep watching what this new fascist administration is up to. The virtual storm of dramatic executive orders flooding the airwaves is not accidental. It’s the old 80-20 rule, right? 80% of the executive orders are meant to be upsetting to liberals, to keep us distracted, angry and outraged, all in the hope that doing so will allow the bills that really matter, like rescinding Biden’s order to reduce drug prices, to go unnoticed; while the other 20% get implemented with minimal argument as we all gnash our teeth over the possibility of a Trump 3^rd term, or his renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

There is very real political theater afoot here, folks. I mean it. This isn’t just another Trump shit show. I can almost hear Redd Foxx from the TV series, Sanford and Son, crying out, “I’m comin’, Elizabeth! This is the big one!” He’d be right! And Trump isn’t even the lead actor in this tragi-comedy. He’s actually playing the part of a carnival barker, keeping the crowd amused while others behind the scenes pull his strings. Which people? The people and organizations who own Donald Trump. People like Peter Theil and Elon Musk. Organizations like the Christian Nationalists and the Heritage Foundation a.k.a., Project 2025. There are reasons why both the Christian Nationalists and White Supremacists are celebrating the Trump win.

I don’t know about you, but this week I felt like every time I looked at the news, Trump was signing some new piece of shit executive order. I think I read somewhere he has signed like 100+ of them so far, and he’s not done. Is this true? Maybe, but it’s somewhat deceptive. While the horror of it all makes me feel like it was so many, in reality, he only signed 28 executive orders so far. That’s right, only 28. There are other things he signed, but these fall under the categories of Memoranda (12) and Proclamations (4). The reason I feel so many things were being signed was the rather frenetic way they were depicted in the press. In their zeal to keep us glued to the screen, the media inadvertently do Trump a favor by confusing the public. It’s a win-win.

Decoding Trump’s Directives

It’s worth remembering that not everything Trump signs carries the same weight. Understanding the differences can help cut through some of the noise:

• Executive Orders: These are legally binding directives to federal agencies, carrying the weight of law when based on constitutional or statutory authority.
• Memoranda: Similar to executive orders but often used for routine administrative matters. They can still have significant legal impact.
• Proclamations: Usually ceremonial or used to announce policies, though some—like the Emancipation Proclamation—have had major historical significance.

Highlighting the Key Executive Orders

Recent executive orders worth paying attention to are:

1. “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.”

Buried in this executive order is language that is deceptively easy to miss, but this bill essentially defines “female” as “a person belonging at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” Similarly, it defines male as “a person belonging at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

This executive order is straight from God as far as the evangelical anti-choice crowd is concerned, delivered to us by his hand-maiden, Donald Trump. It’s easy to miss, but this is a back-door effort to ban abortion across the entire country! It’s right there though: human life begins at conception, not birth! Iron Age science at its best!

• “Rescinded Biden’s order to lower prescription drug costs.”

This executive order should have raised alarms everywhere as it is so contradictory to what Trump has been talking about through his entire campaign. Instead, it got mostly lost, although not totally, buried under the bullshit documents being signed. How is this going to make people’s lives better? Cheaper? There is no argument that could support his decision, other than a windfall for his pharmaceutical donors. To hell with what the American people need!

• “Unleashing American Energy.”

This order included provisions to pause the disbursement of funds for electric vehicle charging stations that were allocated through the Biden administration’s initiatives. Specifically: It pauses funding for “electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.”

Over $7B in money Biden chose to use to address climate change stopped immediately, pushed aside, to be reallocated to fit Trump’s wishes i.e., federal agencies have been given 90 days to submit reports to the Office of Management and Budget detailing how their disbursement of funds aligns with Trump’s new policies.

• Last, but not least, there are the 1500 insurrectionists who were released en masse.

Use your social media to keep this story and the backlash against this decision, in the news! Like every story you see on the subject. Repost when you can. Even some Republicans are upset with this decision. It’s a scratch, let’s turn it into a wound!

Conclusion: Resist Fear and Apathy

As this blog series progresses, I’ll work hard to pass on bits of hope and ideas that we can use to keep the fight up. For example, I am investigating joining a group called Veterans Against Fascism. I will post about other such groups that everyone can consider aligning with. The time is now! We have to resist! Fear and apathy are our enemies.