Are We All Losing Hope in the Trump 2.0 Era?

How do we not lose hope?

I’ve always been proponent of not giving up and using toughness to fight against oppressive political movements and leaders.

But right now, things feel hopeless in a way I’ve only read about in books.

I feel it, too.

It’s scary, to be honest. The threat isn’t external, even if it appears that way. The enemy is truly within.

I don’t mean to suggest that what’s happening our political systems right now is’t alarming nor dangerous, because it is. What I mean to say is that there’s a complacency, a passiveness, a quiet dissension to what’s occurring, as opposed to a visceral backlash or organized uprising against the oppressor in chief. 

I feel it, too.

I’ve read many articles about how this moment in our countries history feels different than the others that came before. There were the Nixon’s, the Jackson’s, and even the Trump’s the first time around in 2016. There were the world wars, the collapse of the financial system in 1929 and 2008, 9/11, the Iraq and Vietnam wars and many, many more.

But those moments were met in a different way, from how they’re being met now.

There was visceral anger, grief, and pain being expressed. There were sit ins, protests, and movements create to oppose the darkness and inspire new light. There were programs and aid to help the downtrodden, rights given to minorities, people empowered with the awesome power of suffrage. Wrongs were made right, justice was served, and barriers were overcome. 

Now, there’s a collective silence. We all seem to be burrowing into our holes, crawling into our caves, burying our heads and counting down the weeks until either Trump or our nation is gone, whichever comes first.

Remember The Women’s March? The Squad? New Congress? The 2018 Democratic sweeping of the house? The impeachments? Speaker Pelosi? That energy is completely gone. I believe that this resistance and strategic, calculated political maneuvering is one of the most important tools to creating change and pushing against executive power and overreach. IN fact, I would go as far as to say that this opposition set the stage for Trump losing re-election in 2020. 

Thinking of these examples in the realm of your sympathetic nervous system, we could classify these acts and attitudes of resistance as a fight response and the current acts of withdrawal as a freeze response. While being dormant, playing dead so to speak, while shutting out the noise can protect our peace, it’s a response that also leaves us incredibly vulnerable. If we are caught lying down by the other side, and they realize we are in fact, still living, we’re rendered essentially defenseless.

That is my greatest fear; that we are accepting defeat through this collective freeze response. This has played out countless times throughout history; it’s how the Nazi regime was able to co-opt power and create such deep divisions, stoking systemic violence at the most extreme levels.

We’re back to the original question: how do we not lose hope?

There’s no easy answer. 

My take?

We find hope, one step at a time.

We find silver linings, cloud by cloud.

We keep going, keep resisting, keep protesting, and keep speaking out, day by day.

Even if we feel that what we do doesn’t matter or isn’t making a difference, we must counter that thought process with evidence that it is.

As Newtown taught us, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Notice, even within yourself, how your contributions are permeating and impacting others. Notice how they impact you. 

Writing these words, has opened me up and motivated me to take action, to share more, and keep writing. These small changes are the way forward.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.