We were losing slowly. Now we are losing quickly. Democracy, accountability, human rights, social justice – all were rolling backwards as money swarmed our politics. Above all, our life-support systems – the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, ice and snow – have been hammered and hammered, regardless of who is in power. Donald Trump might strike the killer blows, but he is not the cause of an ecocidal economic system. He is the embodiment of it.
Trump has pledged to wage war on planet Earth, ripping up US climate commitments and reverting to unrestrained fossil fuel extraction and burning. If he follows the Project 2025 agenda, he will leave the UN climate framework altogether, making his assault on Earth systems much harder to reverse.
His evangelical base, eager to advance the biblical apocalypse, will love him for it. Most simply deny climate breakdown. Others perceive events such as floods and fires not as warnings, but as joyous portents of the end of times: a great cleansing, in which the righteous will be uplifted to sit at the right hand of God, while their enemies will be cast into the fiery pit. What we will see under a new Trump presidency is a neat alignment of the interests of fossil fuel companies and a constituency gunning for Armageddon (and hoping that Benjamin Netanyahu will assist its delivery).
One thing I remember from last Trump presidency, is that the people in government who aren’t him will sometimes hold the line. Fight back and push back where it makes sense to. Younger generations are very passionate about climate too. Despite all his talk, Trump is lazy and has no plan. I’m hoping he’ll just sit on his ass enjoying the great numbers Biden left him with.
Unfortunately, though trump is lazy and has no plan, the christofascists pulling his strings are motivated, smart, and have been working on a comprehensive plan for years. Trump can just sit on his ass – his only real job is to be a rubber stamp.
Now that they have a mandate, any real opposition can be ousted and replaced by loyalists. The guardrails that existed in trump’s last administration are mostly gone now.
I’m usually optimistic, but looking at the situation honestly and closely, it really does look dire now.