Now what?
When I turned in the first draft of this piece about media bias, my editor wasn’t happy. The conclusion I reached was bleak: Six companies control 90% of all US media today: Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Sony, and Amazon. Together, they shape most of the news we see and hear.
These media companies literally tell us what to think, and increasingly what they tell us to think is whatever Trump wants. Los Angeles is out of control! Trump’s $50 million vanity parade is really a celebration of our military might! Our economy is great! The tariffs are working!
If your conclusion about this sorry situation is “we’re screwed,” you’re probably right.
“What should any of us do then?” my editor asked. “Curl up in the corner? Take to the streets? It can’t be that hopeless, can it?”
I don’t know the answer to that question, but our country is undoubtedly in big trouble. America has crossed a dangerous line, where reason is now irrelevant, truth unrecognizable, and trust completely broken. The Trump cabal are domestic terrorists, and people are afraid. From law firms and college presidents to CEOs and immigrant families, fear and intimidation are all the rage.
Even Congress people are scared. Just look at the prophetic words of a US Senator from Alaska in April.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski said. “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
Less than two months later after Murkowski’s remarks, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband were assassinated by a man posing as a police officer. I place the blame for these murders on the shoulders of Trump and his thugs, as well as the mainstream media who have amplified his violent rhetoric for years.
What to do?
The relentless stream of chaos embraced by today’s GOP is maddening, and there’s not a lot any of us can do to change how it’s all playing out. Make calls and write letters to Republicans in Congress? Of course, but don’t get your hopes up. They’re all afraid of Trump and will never cross him. We have elected a bunch of cowards.
That said, do consider sending words of encouragement to Democrats, asking them to stay strong and fight harder. They need to know we’re still here and still engaged.
That’s what happened on the No Kings Day of Defiance on June 14. More than five million people across the country – with tens of thousands here in North Carolina – marched in a show of force that even Trump apologists couldn’t ignore. Combine these numbers with all the no-shows at Trump’s humiliating birthday parade, and you can feel the momentum beginning to shift.
I’ve done plenty of marching in my lifetime, and I was even arrested in Raleigh back in the Moral Monday days. But remember this: elected Republicans don’t care how many people are protesting. They’re all in for Trump, they fear for their political lives, and they will not be dissuaded.
Marches and protests in the US are especially challenging because our country is so large. It’s hard to get the masses of people needed to make a difference to show up in any one place. And even worse, the news media didn’t report on the protests in any meaningful way. Trump’s anemic birthday parade garnered significantly more cable and newspaper coverage than did more than 2000 protests nationwide.
There’s now talk of an upcoming nationwide strike in which tens of millions of Americans might “call in sick,” thereby stopping this country in its tracks. That’s something I could get behind.
I don’t know if traditional tactics like protests and marches have run their course or not. We’re in a strange era where gerrymandering and the Electoral College have allowed a minority party to take control of most levers of government. That party is backed by a multi-billion-dollar propaganda machine, with too many people making too much money telling lies.
Republicans don’t have to care what “most” people think. They have rigged the game, and I see no easy fix.
All that said, I believe there’s a chance Trump will shoot himself in the foot through a combination of incompetence, arrogance, and depravity. Republicans will still back him, of course, he can do no wrong. In the meantime, stay as vigilant as your mental health permits and look for opportunities to act. For me, that means four specific things:
Don’t trust the media. For example, Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, has
forged a personal financial relationship with Trump and his family, one that reeks of quid pro quo. Bezos has billions of dollars in federal contracts and is simultaneously paying Melania Trump tens of millions for a documentary – and paying Trump himself for streaming old episodes of The Apprentice. It’s safe to say the Post will not be investigating or reporting on any of these business dealings.
Diversify your news diet to include alternatives like The Contrarian, The Atlantic, Democracy Docket, and the Tangle. It takes a lot of work to stay informed, but there’s no good alternative.
Don’t hide your rage. If we’re gearing up for more protests or even a national strike, make plans to participate. Some people are living in fear, for legitimate reasons, and may not be able to protest. But if you have the privilege to speak out, make it a point to do just that. Become known as someone others can trust for strong, authentic opinions. Lead by example to give others permission to find their own voices. Stop pretending that business-as-usual is even possible.
Consider thoughts and prayers. Sometimes it feels like the rightwing has a corner on prayerful pleas for divine intervention. So I’ve dusted off my Southern Baptist upbringing hoping that the forces of good will put an end to the Mad King before things get irretrievably bad. These are desperate times.
My editor may still not be happy with what I’ve written, but this is the best I can do. I’m not a glass-half-full kind of guy. On the contrary, I think the glass has been shattered to pieces. We’re all at risk of being cut to shreds.