I ducked out of LA this weekend and found myself on a beach with some Trump supporters. Reality check: they are unworried about the firings and takeovers of entire government agencies. They are disgusted to learn that USAID funds an LGBTQ comic book in Peru. Someone, they said, is finally doing something about the no-good, lazy and corrupt U.S. government.
But many of us feel differently. I have heard from readers, friends and colleagues who are anxious, upset and concerned by the events happening in our country: mass firings of federal workers, abrupt on-again, off-again trade wars, the sudden unplugging of longstanding programs like USAID and at least one unauthorized mass download of citizens’ data by an unelected, unaccountable and thus far unstoppable Elon Musk.
It is all overwhelming, a “blitzkrieg” as I saw Bill Kristol refer to it, and intentionally so.
Many of us are struggling with how to react, and how to do so while staying grounded in our daily lives. I thought I would share some of my own thoughts as we try to navigate a very turbulent moment.
For one thing, we should prepare ourselves mentally for a long haul. This will not end soon. Keeping a long term perspective is important, as is knowing that things do not ever stay the same. What is true today may not be in a year, or beyond. Things are happening that should neither be ignored, nor presumed that they will right themselves or will eventually be just fine.
I cannot expect to know the political views of all of us, but I hope we agree that we intend to live and die in a democracy. That a representative form of government rooted in the rights of individuals is a baseline value which we all desire and intend to preserve. The current moves by our new president seem aimed at undermining that value, along with the hard-won system of government and the institutions that support it.
Secondly, we have experience from the first Trump administration. Chaos is his strategy. Keeping the entire country off balance with constant outrageous statements and threats is intentional. (See Ben Smith’s interview with Steve Bannon this weekend.) We can choose to see that and react accordingly, knowing that chaos and outrage is a tactic designed to get people to shut down, tune out and ultimately ignore what is happening. A lot of what is said evaporates within hours or days. Sometimes it is a literal smokescreen for other objectives that are happening elsewhere.
I am thinking a lot about how legacy media, whose job is to hold power to account, is outmatched at this moment.
A free and independent press is the most critical pillar of democracy. But our public square is broken, and Trump needs to break it further in order to expand his power. The signs are more than unsettling: ABC News pays to settle a spurious lawsuit against George Stephanopulos to avoid Trump’s wrath. The Pentagon yanks out credible news organizations in favor of Trump media lackeys (Breitbart? Really?); Paramount seems poised to settle its own even-more-absurd lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in order to smooth its path to a merger with Skydance Media.
Control of information and the spread of lies and propaganda are a tactic, as is the undermining of those of us who actually gather facts and present them honestly. Intimidation of the non-compliant press is a tactic.
We should expect an ongoing assault on journalists’ ability to do our jobs, and a deliberate and bad faith attack on our credibility, objectivity and accuracy. We do not have to agree or submit to doublethink. Simply continuing to do our jobs faithfully and fully is a statement of our right to disagree, to hold fast to our own values and not to live in fear.
For myself, I want to be intentional about finding balance: neither tuning out completely, nor being a piñata in the circus that is Trump 2.0, buffeted by one chaotic act or social post after the other. My hope for us all is that we can both remain aware of what is happening, and maintain a mental safe space for ourselves, our families and our colleagues.
The other harbor where I hope to seek sanity is in acts of kindness to one another, to ourselves and in our community. One friend I know just texts a photo of someone floating in the ocean to people she knows, a few dozen a day. Another person I know has taken up twice-daily meditation.
I’m currently reading a history of Andrew Jackson, both a reminder to myself that the country has survived turbulent times before, and a welcome opportunity to live in another era for a while. No one can predict what will happen in these uncharted waters, but we can stay mindful, be vigilant and determine – now – that we will not give in.
