Endangering Us All

“The Republican Party is the most dangerous organization in human history.”  Noam Chomsky, linguist and public intellectual, has maintained for years that this, admittedly outrageous statement by him is, nonetheless true. With continual shocks and shake-downs perpetrated at whim on the international stage by the “mad-king” Trump, and the flouting of constitutional rights at home, it’s seeming less outrageous by the day.

We live in a time of immigrants being disappeared, US citizens, who are children no less, being forcefully deported, an​d judges being arrested. These sorts of openly authoritarian activities are profoundly dangerous both to our legal and constitutional system, and to our safety as individuals and communities. Worse, we have not even begun to feel the damage of many of these decisions that have been made to our economy, to our mental and physical health, and to our rights as Americans. The pain will not be shared equally, though, we know it is the poor and middle class who will take the worst hits.

Scary and dangerous though they may be, it was not these sorts of authoritarian tendencies that caused Chomsky to label the Republican party such an existential threat. Instead, he identified the cause of Republican danger as being the intersection between an agenda that accelerates the threats against organized Human Society like climate change and Global nuclear war, and the immense global power of the United States to realize such plans.

Under the Trump Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency is not only attempting to gut the Endangered Species Act, an overwhelmingly popular policy, to allow for greater drilling and exploitation of mineral rights, it’s attempting to claw back over 2 billion dollars in climate grants that incentivize green investments by businesses. Meanwhile, the newly proposed federal budget has 1 trillion dollars in defense spending. When combined with Trump’s recent belligerence on the world stage to both allies and enemies alike, the chances of conflict are higher than anyone would comfortably like.

The Republican policy agenda is a danger to not just every human, but all living things on the planet. It is a nihilistic, and extinctionist philosophy whose followers care nothing for others or the world at large. Thankfully, these are not popular policies. Trump's popularity even on immigration and economics, formerly his polling strongholds, are now underwater. His attacks on the environment, while less high profile so far, are even less popular.

It's going to take more than Court injunctions and legal arguments, however, to swing the tide away from this authoritarian slide towards a more representative democracy. The only thing that will make Trump and his cronies blink is united political and economic power exerted on behalf of the people in the streets, at workplaces, and in stores around the country until it becomes much too costly to pursue these deeply unpopular policies.

Currently, our system is allowing climate advocacy non-profit groups like Greenpeace to be sued into oblivion by fossil fuel interests for the sake of profits! The rich get richer, the planet burns, and the health and prosperity of average people lies in the balance. We can choose to invest in the future that protects the panoply of life, with thriving healthy ecosystems for all living creatures, including humans, or we can continue down this deeply nihilistic and exploitative path.

The recent resistance across the country shows that the American people are not ready to lie down and accept this bleak vision. They want a better country and a better world. So, join us each Tuesday in growing solidarity as we build an economic coalition that can stand against the donors behind “the most dangerous organization on Earth.”

Don't shop on Tuesday!

#DSOT