As another week of the Musk/Trump “flood the zone” strategy comes to an end, we continue to hear heartbreaking tales of federal workers abruptly and unjustly losing their jobs and thousands of people around the world needlessly suffering from a lack of food, water, and lifesaving medicine due to the abrupt closure of USAID. The administration shows no signs of slowing down the pace or planning to take a different “fork in the road” anytime soon. In fact, they appear so pleased with their results so far that they are doubling down on dismantling the government institutions that we have depended upon for decades to provide essential services to the American people. They are doubling down on preying upon the most vulnerable among us including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and other minorities. They are doubling down on threatening and insulting our allies. It appears no one is coming to save us.
The embarrassing spectacle of Vice President Vance chastising our European allies while pledging to abandon Ukraine and hand Vladimir Putin everything he ever wanted was unbearable to watch. Journalist, Anne Applebaum, said this week, “What we are witnessing right now is the end of 80 years of U.S. foreign policy…the end of the western alliance.” Perhaps even more chilling were the social media posts by Vance, Musk, and Trump questioning the legality of our entire judicial branch of government and suggesting that they may defy any court orders attempting to reign in their unchecked power. Just in the last few days, President Trump’s sincere belief that he is above the law has been on full display in the following social media posts:
“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” paraphrasing a quote long attributed to exiled French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte (February 15, 2025).
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” after announcing his administration would rescind the Biden administration approval of a New York City congestion pricing plan (February 19, 2025).
So yes, we are living through a true constitutional crisis, and we are all trying to come to terms with a very uncomfortable truth. NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US. We must stop waiting for the Democrats, the media, business leaders, or the ever elusive reasonable, patriotic Republicans to save us. No one is coming to save us, and now is the time for every American who values our democracy to step up. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
So what now? In a recent post, Indiana Young Democrats President, James Wells, told young Hoosiers: “It is not enough to post on social media. It is not enough to send press statements that go nowhere. It is not enough to assume things couldn’t get worse in Indiana.” Thousands of Hoosiers, along with our fellow Americans across the country, can and should continue to protest and contact our representatives to voice our anger, fear, sadness, and despair over the fact that our politicians and our systems are failing us when we most need them to defend our constitution and protect our democracy. Unfortunately, our leaders still do not appear to be listening.
What We Can Do
We MUST command the attention of the corporations funding our representatives to make it clear that the policies of this administration are unpopular! We must do this in a way that is immediate, impactful, and sustainable. We are asking you to participate in several upcoming, nationally planned, economic boycott events that will remind our leaders and representatives that we have more power than they think and that they work for us. 70% of the U.S. economy is consumer driven. When money talks, they listen.
First up, join H4D on February 28, 2025 for the national Economic Blackout. This event originated with The People’s Union USA and is being promoted by organizations across the country. Absolutely NO SPENDING for 24 hours on February 28th. If you must spend on essentials, please try to shop small, local stores and avoid using bank cards and credit cards.
We also ask that you maximize your impact by recruiting 3 friends or family members to participate and to ask them to recruit 3 people to participate, in the hopes of creating a snowball effect.
Please share information, including any of these images, on the 2.28 Economic Blackout to your social media networks, and ask your followers to recruit friends and family to participate.
For more information on the Economic Blackout and other upcoming events, visit The People's Union Economic Blackout.
In the coming weeks, we will be sharing information on future boycotts planned to provide quick, easy, tangible ways to empower the people and keep this movement going.
Yours in people powered resistance,
The H4D Team
Note: The pinned image for this post is a cartoon by Zez Vaz titled Cybertruck Man - a cartoon in defiance of Musk, February 2025.
Thank you for writing clearly and honestly. This is when those of us who are small citizens step up to do what we can for democracy.