Americans are no strangers to weird politics. Especially since the Trump era, posturing, identity-based arguments, and cultive personalities have become staples of our political landscape; right or wrong, it’s the reality of the world we live in, and it’s behaviour engaged in by both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat alike. This publication is not the first to point this out; and this writer is by no means the first to draw issue with it. But, what this writer does feel with their whole heart, is that Americans have let themselves grow far too numb to the destructive truths we see playing out on our national stage.
20 years ago, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean got on stage at a rally and had his entire presidential campaign upended by one voice crack. Today, we live in a world where a president was elected despite references to Mexicans as “poison”; where a president is, as I write, attempting to erase entire classes of identity he does not agree with; where a president rode a tide of billionaires’ money all the way to the White House, where he will reside for as long as he bends to their will.
What happened, America? Where did our vitriol go? Where is our passion? Our vision for our nation? Donald Trump and his “cabinet” of billionaires say they’re the party of common sense, that their ascendancy will bring about a revolution of normalcy and a return to “Good American Values”. What is “Good” or “American” about a proudly anti-semitic, South African billionaire, who will proudly salute Hitler on stage, overseeing our government’s resources? Where is the “common sense” in selecting CEOs and venture capitalists to manage departments and industries they’ve made their fortunes from exploiting over decades?
The new government claims to work for you? What good does it do to the American people to threaten invasions of Panama, Canada, Greenland, or Mexico? What does the high school gym teacher gain from Elon Musk legally monopolising entire sectors? How do steel workers right here in Pennsylvania benefit from losing their access to free healthcare? To their union rights? The fact of the matter is, America no longer works in service of everyday Americans. The government serves nobody but those in power; those with wealth large enough to exploit, abuse and manipulate our flawed systems of government to their own gain.
All we see today in America, the partisanship, the discourse, is engineered by those who have now landed in power to distract you, the citizen, from holding them accountable for their abuses and their hate. Billionaires and CEOs are terrified of the day when the American public realises both the extent of their pervasive reach, and of the tininess of the group who controls that reach. We saw this in the killing of Brian Thomas, CEO of UnitedHealthcare – “nevermind the fact that his policies led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, his killing was murder!” Is it murder to kill those who kill Americans? To take revenge for the family and friends left to die because they couldn’t meet extortionate prices? Was Brian Thomas just doing his job? Just following orders? I can think of some other people who killed Americans by “just following orders”; should we rue their deaths as well?
It is the sad reality that America is no longer the “Land of the Free”; we are all of us, right, left, center, bound by the chains of economic dependency to the whims of the ultra-rich. The fight the American people face in 2025 is not against “the other side”; it is not against our peers, our neighbours, undocumented immigrants or law enforcement. It is not against trans teens, against Christians, against anyone but the very people who’ve poured billions into making us think that they, from their lofty perches, understand our struggles and care for us. They are not like us. They do not care about us. They exploit us, let us die for profit, evict us for our land, whip up media frenzies pitting us against one another to distract from their actions. These people hate me. They hate you. I charge you to hate them right back.
This writer’s second charge to you, dear reader, is simple. Care. Oh, you already care? You post on social media? You voted? Do more. Care more than you already do. Do more than you already do. And don’t just care about yourself. Care about others. Recognise that the person across the street, or across your dorm, who voted for the other person is not your enemy; is not what is threatening your livelihood, the livelihoods of your children. I know that as you read this, you might be feeling anxiety, anger, and sadness, for any number of reasons. I charge you to take those feelings and direct them at their true cause.