Donald Trump is easy to figure out – many of us have known, or heaven forbid, had to work with, a sly, uninformed, vengeful, and narcissistic bully with a bunch of college degrees. Our reaction to him is what we have to watch.
While we are reacting to the latest swastika in a school near us, or up in arms about Trump’s latest Tweet, he and his friends from all over the world will be sitting in Washington, or New York, quietly pocketing our riches. They will sell off and privatize our national assets: parks, roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, the air waves, natural resources. If we continue in our outraged hysteria at his every provocation, we will have been looking elsewhere while this is happening.
Trump is not sexist – years ago he appointed his daughter to an executive position when she was twenty-five, and hired women managers before that was common. He is not prejudiced against people of color or Muslims – his business partners come in all human hues and many are Muslim, or Hindu, or something else. His hiring of inflammatory officials and his demeaning of others is a Byzantine diversion which makes the rest of us lose sight of what is happening. We allowed that to happen during the campaign and we cannot allow that to continue.
I am pleased they are doing the recount because it will drive Trump crazy. It’s easy to drive him crazy. He has packed on a lot of weight over the past few months – the pressure is getting to him. His skin is so thin that the slightest criticism unseats him. We should write clever, viral tweets in answer to his insane ones. Complain about Ivanka’s greed. Pay attention to his conflicts of interest and write to our legislators to make sure they are paying attention too. Support the American military veterans who are going to help the protesters at the Dakota pipeline. Contribute to Bernie’s Our Revolution. Sign up for Elizabeth Warren’s mailing list which will serve as an organizational tool. Befriend Robert Reich on Facebook – he is now the head of Common Cause. Pique Trump. Bother him. Write to our congresspeople. Write to the heads of government departments. Flood them with tweets, emails, phone calls, complaints. Let him see critics in the millions.
Most of these things cost almost nothing in either time or money. If you give $10 to five different organizations, it will add up, but more than that, they will gain media attention if they have millions of followers.
Mostly, we must keep our eyes on the progress in his main and only purpose – to siphon more of our wealth into the Trump club. We must remain organized and consequent, pressuring him at his every weak point. He, like all bullies, is exquisitely vulnerable if we will only keep our heads. Bernie says he’s going to work with him, so does Elizabeth Warren. Maybe they can get something done. But let’s keep our eyes on his main purpose.