Trump Cards and Crossing Lines

The recent new yorker cover shows the torch atop the Statue of Liberty snuffed out — fuck this. There is no way the Trump administration…

The recent new yorker cover shows the torch atop the Statue of Liberty snuffed out — fuck this. There is no way the Trump administration will put out this flame. They will not diminish America as a beacon for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free because the vast majority of Americans will fight back. Don’t get it twisted, there is no mandate for this shit.

Everyone who voted in the election in November was an American — and there are even more of us who didn’t vote. Americans all know, deep down, what is happening in Washington today is not only anti-american, it is demeaning to basic human dignity and we recognize that our president is creating instability on a global scale.

Every American who loves this country and what it stands for knows what Trump is doing is wrong — we are a country founded on religious freedom and made great by access to opportunity for all. These values unite us as a people. These values come before political party affiliation and rise above the differences that divide conservative and liberal Americans. We all know exactly what these values mean and we call it the American Dream.

The equivocation of a Trump voter with support for all his campaign policy promises is tiresome, lazy and misrepresents the position of 50 million Americans— it is also currently a framing primarily promoted by the Trump administration itself. We all know politicians say lots of things that they don’t actually do and historically they fail to deliver on most campaign promises. In our decisions, we typically have a primary issue — a thing that trumps everything else, a trump card or line that cannot be crossed— and a vote is a probability based decision — I believe that most Americans who voted for candidate Trump placed high probability that he would take action on their trump card issue and low probability that he would take action on his hateful rhetoric like the muslim ban or limits on the civil liberties of Black people, Hispanics, women or the LGBTQ community.

Before the election, to be a trump supporter meant that you didn’t believe the stuff he said (hence the meme of take him seriously, not literally) and you had a cause (pro-life, 2nd amendment rights, trade policy, tax code reform etc.) that you believed he would move forward. I think most Americans voted for him in spite of his bigotry, xenophobia and misogyny, not because of it. To put it another way, I think most Americans placed very low probability on his desire or willingness to follow through on the white supremacist planks in his platform. But, just like the polls got his probability of winning wrong — many Trump voters miscalculated the odds.

For all but an isolated few, a vote for Trump was not a mandate for an immigration ban or for attacks on the rights of minority groups. These policies and their underlying motivations are horrifying to 99% of Americans and the 99% will organize, will speak out, will protest and will resist.

In the face of these extreme policies, all politicians, advisors, general members of the administration and those associated with them as well as those in power in the private sector will start to use a longer historical lens than the next election cycle or the next earnings call. The American people will raise our voices in protest and make it clear that leaders must decide to stand with Trump or to stand up to him and speak out against the policies his administration is putting forward. Lines have been crossed, trump cards have been played and today, being a Trump supporter or advisor means you have to own ALL the actions of the administration. When you vote or work with Trump, or choose not to speak out against specific policies like the immigration ban, you are tacitly supporting the stuff he is actually doing. There is no more room for parsing promises from the campaign trail. The luxury to take him seriously but not literally has been vaporized by the actions of his administration over the past few weeks.

The choices we all make today will be the Trump Card that defines our legacy for the ages. Choose wisely. The future is watching.