Boston Globe | With Trump’s return to the White House, there’s good reason to be worried

By Yvonne Abraham | Originally Published in the Boston Globe

It’s no use pretending otherwise, friends.

This is going to be really, really bad. On Monday, a twice-impeached felon, a man found by a jury to have defamed a woman he sexually assaulted, a feeble-minded, insecure, racist bully, who will use his office to punish his enemies while further enriching himself and his friends — in short, an all-around awful human being — becomes president of the United States again.

This time, there will be no learning curve and no guardrails. Donald Trump will be unimpeded by the Supreme Court, whose extremist majority has conferred upon him the absolute powers of a king. He will not be stopped by people of conscience in his White House or his Cabinet, for there will be none: Trump is surrounding himself with people as appalling as he is. He will not be slowed by Congress, because the Republican majority there answers not to their voters but to him. Freed of the need to be reelected, and unfettered by decency or shame, Trump will do his worst.

There will be devastating attacks on immigrants, trans people, and abortion rights. There will be crippling blows to the environment, equality, and to what remains of democracy and the rule of law. There will be calamities in the economy, education, foreign policy, public safety, and health. The regressions will be generational, and worse than many people can imagine.

It is a desolate moment for those who believe we all have a duty to one another, an obligation to leave this world better for those who succeed us. It’s easy to understand the impulse to check out, or to escape, among those with the luxury to do so. I feel that pull more strongly than I ever have since I came to this country 30 years ago.

I’m in no position to offer you words of encouragement. So I turned for help to leaders who have spent entire careers fighting for our rights, who went to battle for us during the last Trump administration, and are heading back into the breach.

“Fear and despair are tools authoritarians use to try to keep people down,” said Carol Rose, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which, together with other branches of the organization, brought hundreds of cases against the previous Trump administration. “This is exactly what they want. That’s why it’s important not to give in to it.”

In his first term, the ACLU fought Trump’s ban on Muslims entering the country, family separations, and attempts to shut down protest and free speech. They started planning for the possibility of a Trump return last winter. There will be many more lawsuits, and they’ll bring them even though the Supreme Court has been captured by Trumpists, because even the Supremes can do only so much damage each year, and because there is still hope in the lower courts — and honor, too.

“It’s important that we bring cases, not just to win, but so we can answer our grandchildren when they say, ‘Where were you, what did you do, did you stand up?’” Rose said.

Hundreds of people have signed on as volunteers since the election, including lawyers ready to go into courtrooms on behalf of those targeted by Trump, Rose said. State and local officials have also made it clear they will not voluntarily comply with the administration’s efforts to persecute immigrants and others.

We can do plenty more here to protect each other: Massachusetts must have a location shield law, designed to protect the cellphone data of those who come here for abortions, so their repressive states can’t track them; we need a press shield law to protect journalists the new administration dislikes; and we can urge libraries and schools to avoid retaining information that might make targets of those they serve. It’s our job to push our elected officials to make all of that happen.

When it comes to reproductive rights, the immediate future looks pretty grim. Those behind the incoming administration want a national abortion ban. Some of them are targeting contraception, assisted reproduction, and proper sex ed, too.

“Overturning Roe was not the endgame, but the midpoint in a quest to end abortion in all 50 states, and more broadly strip us of our bodily autonomy,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, head of Reproductive Equity Now.

This state can be a bulwark against all of it, she said. In addition to protecting those who come here for care, we have to stand by our protections for providers. Governor Maura Healey ordered a stockpile be kept of drugs used in medication abortions, and has sought to out the lies of antichoice outfits posing as abortion providers. All of it — and our leaders — will be tested now, by an administration determined to make a splash by targeting blue states.

Those of us who can spare it can also use our money to help, Hart Holder said: by donating to abortion funds for those who need care but can’t afford it; to organizations providing and advocating for abortion here in Massachusetts; and to abortion-rights groups in reactionary states like Florida.

“Using your pocketbook, even at the five-dollar level, is a very effective way of fighting back,” she said. “Small actions defeat apathy, and Trump wins if we become apathetic.”

There is no sugarcoating what is about to befall us. But, unlike the craven oligarchs throwing themselves at Trump’s feet, we gain less than nothing from prostrating ourselves here. It’s going to be horrible, but those of us who can fight must find a way to do it. For the millions who cannot.