If you’re at all like me, you’ve spent many moments in despair since Nov. 9, 2016. How could it be that my country — a place that has presented itself to the world as a haven for the oppressed and as a symbol of freedom — elected Donald Trump, the very antithesis of what makes America great?
So much of what Trump and his Republican members of Congress have done flies in the face of decency, fairness and our democratic ideals, it’s hard to know where to begin and where to leave off. Some of it is personal for me:
My mother was a refugee from the Russian civil war in 1921. If Trump’s ideas around immigration had been in effect then, she might have ended up caged and forgotten, or sent back to die among the millions killed in that war. Today, despite Trump’s supposedly rescinding his policy of separating families, more than 500 children have not been returned to their parents. No one seems to know if they’ll ever see their families again.
I worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for five years, in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Though I saw Ronald Reagan’s band of marauders try to take apart environmental protections, they were nothing compared to Trump’s people at EPA and the Department of the Interior, taking their cues from the oil, gas and chemical companies as they dismantle regulations, ignore the law, and endanger human health and the natural world. Recently, it took a federal court order to reverse an EPA decision to allow use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos despite evidence it was harmful to children’s brains.
I’m a retiree who relies on Social Security for much of my income and on Medicare to keep my healthcare costs affordable. Yet Trump and the Republicans pushed through a tax cut, most of which benefits the very wealthy, and are now poised to say that the country can’t afford to provide benefits we all have every right to expect from these two programs. They’ve already begun to target veterans’ benefits using the same argument. Maybe my benefits won’t be cut, but can I say the same for the people coming up behind me? Will my daughter, now in her 40s, ever see any Social Security or Medicare benefits when she reaches retirement age, and if so, how long will she have to wait to receive them?
This is not about Trump’s personal style. I’m disgusted and dismayed when he says foolish, even nasty things. But when he encourages racists, or calls journalists “the enemy of the people,” or attacks NFL players and other athletes for exercising their freedom of speech, he is inciting violence among the most extreme of his following. These are not the actions or words of a democratic president; they are the signs of a tyrant-in-waiting.
American government is designed to have “checks and balances.” Presidents can only do so much on their own; the Congress has the power to make, change and repeal laws, and it has the power of the purse — it appropriates funds to run the government. And it has the power to oversee and investigate what the government is doing. But this Congress, controlled by the Republicans, is happy to look the other way while Trump and his cronies dismantle programs and policies that so many Americans have come to rely on — as long as big business and the extremist right-wing of the party get their way on taxes and the so-called culture wars.
So there is an abundance of reasons to feel despair, to give up hoping for a better world, to hunker down and try to survive — even if we know that some of our fellow human beings are suffering and may not survive the onslaught.
Is there also reason for hope? I believe so, and am acting on that hope. This is 2018, another election year. Trump isn’t on the ballot, but many of his supporters in Congress are. All 435 members of the House of Representatives are either up for re-election, or their seats are open due to retirements. One-third of the Senate is also being elected or re-elected this November. This is an opportunity not only to make our voices heard but to build a serious counterweight to Trump and his gang.
Many more Republicans than Democrats in the House have announced their retirements at the end of this year — including Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. Believe me, he is not going home to spend more time with his family. He is leaving because he doesn’t want to be minority leader. The party with the majority of seats sets the agenda for the House, chairs all the committees, decides what bills will and will not come to a vote, and holds oversight hearings on the actions of the president and his administration. The same is more or less true in the Senate. Holding even a one-vote majority in either house of Congress can have a huge impact on what does or doesn’t happen on Capitol Hill, and that can determine whether Trump gets his way or gets stopped in his tracks — at least some of the time.
So why am I hopeful? It turns out the Democrats need to win only about 25 more seats than they hold now to take control of the House. (The math in the Senate is more challenging, but is still possible.) I joined a fledgling organization called Swing Left in early 2017 because they looked at those numbers and at the number of congressional districts that the incumbents won by small margins (“swing districts”) and saw that winning that many seats (or more!) is within reach. It can be done. In fact, they calculated that if everyone who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 votes for a Democratic candidate for the House, the Democrats would win an additional 120 seats.
Here in Massachusetts, we’re fortunate to have a congressional delegation that is already doing their utmost to fight Trump and his allies. We need to continue supporting them, but we can do more. Swing Left has inspired volunteers around the country to work for Democrats in swing districts. Swing Left Pioneer Valley, which I helped found, has focused on two neighboring districts: New York’s 19th District, which borders Berkshire County and has a first-term Republican representative, and New Hampshire’s 2nd District, which goes from the Massachusetts line to the Canadian border and has a third-term Democratic incumbent who won her last election by less than 5 percent. In April, a group of more than a dozen local organizations in the Pioneer Valley, including Swing Left, came together as the Take Back the House Coalition, which is now holding phone banks to call voters in those districts and sending volunteer canvassers to both districts every weekend to knock on doors, encouraging folks to vote Democratic this November.
How can you help? Start by going to the coalition’s website, www.tinyurl.com/flipthehouse, and take a look at the volunteer opportunities. Come to the office 18 Center St. in Northampton for a phone-banking session. Join other volunteers on day trips to canvass. Help raise money for the candidates and for the Coalition’s efforts. Together, we can make a difference. Hope married to action is the best cure for despair.
Michael Dover of Leverett is a retired environmental scientist with a Ph.D. in ecology. He worked at EPA from 1978 to 1983; he has also worked at Michigan State University, Clark University, and in private consulting. He and his wife share a small farm with another family. Much of his career concerned environmental policy, but he has been a politically active private citizen since his teens.