And so the resistance begins

"Trump supporters are saying this is a day of reckoning.  

Well, yeah, as in, I reckon we are all f**ked."

- Bill Maher, Jan 20

Donald Trump's inauguration has come and gone.

Trump enters the White House with the lowest favorable rating of any President-elect in at least four decades.  He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes.  Attendance at his inauguration, from photographic evidence and Metro fares, was significantly less than that at either of Obama's inaugurations.  (Churlish as ever, Trump and his press secretary spent time on his first full day in office berating the media for "falsely reporting" the attendance.  The Trump Administration's grasp of reality apparently has not improved.)

In what could have been a healing and uniting inaugural speech, he failed miserably.

Trump didn't create our country's racial divide or its xenophobic mistrust, but he stoked their flames and rode those fears to victory.  His "all blood is red" was a paltry concession to the bigotry unleashed by his campaign.

Trump didn't create the bitter partisanship that dominates the political scene, but he lashed out at "all talk and no action politicians" - words similar to those he used to attack civil rights activist and Democratic congressman John Lewis.

When he pledged to end "the American carnage" of the inner cities and the rust-belt, he somehow seemed to lay this at the Democrats' doorstep.

When he spoke of  "forgotten men and women," one wondered if he meant all the American people, those of every color and creed.

When he declared "their victories were not your victories", one wondered whom he was addressing and what victories he was talking about.

Women's March, Washington D.C.
Credit: Slate.com Jan 21

The massive Women's March on Washington followed Trump's inauguration by a day.  More than a million people demonstrated across the country and around the world in solidarity.  Madonna's dropping the F-bomb got a lot of coverage, but it was Latina actress and activist America Ferrera who best expressed the sentiment of the marchers.  Ferrera declared that “our new president is waging a war” on the values that define the country with “a credo of hate, fear, and suspicion of one another....It’s been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an immigrant,” said Ferrera, whose parents are from Honduras. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have been under attack....But the president is not America,” she said. “We are America.” (Washington Post, Jan 21)

In a more moderate vein, Pope Francis in his congratulatory message to President Trump said, "Under your leadership, may America's stature continue to be measured above all by its concern for the poor, the outcast and those in need who, like Lazarus, stand before our door."  But, as the French news agency AFP noted, in his inauguration speech, Trump gave little indication his thoughts matched the Pope's as he vowed to put only "America first" and to make it rich again.

Aside from his nationalist blathering, much in Trump's inaugural speech was good - if what he was saying was meant to address our nation's inequalities of opportunity and its income disparity.  The speech had a populist ring to it.  As with many of Trump's pronouncements, we need to look at his actions rather than just hear his words.  His generally appalling choices for the Cabinet and his initial orders after taking office do not give us much hope.  Within hours of his inauguration, he issued executive and administrative orders that would pave the way for dismantling the Affordable Care Act and put an end to President Obama's efforts to cut premiums on FHA-insured home loans for low-income home owners.

While many news organizations are touting they will "hold Trump accountable", the rest of us need to resist.  Resist mean-spirited bigotry.  Resist the alt-right's agenda.  Resist the marginalization of the vulnerable and of those different from ourselves.  Resist the assaults on civil and voting rights.  Resist despair and fear and finger-pointing.

And in four years time, take America back to its real, best values.