Since the presidential inauguration, Trump 2.0 has proven as threatening and dangerous to our values and freedoms as he promised. Political pundits categorize it as a hostile takeover, government readjustment, or a coup. Whatever one calls it, the times are not a-changing for the better. Rather, they are provoking people’s flight-or-fight responses. In short, they evoke all the symptoms of W. H. Auden‘s Age of Anxiety –on steroids.
What To Do?
However, this is not a screed about about how dire life will become under the second Trump administration. Nor will it reassure you with platitudes about our leaders and the courts are pushing back until the next election. Trump and his allies won’t wait that long. In fact, there is every reason to believe Trump’s campaign promise that “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
Guidelines to Cope with Trump 2.0
Perhaps not on an institutional level, there are things you can do as an individual, however, to alleviate stress induced by the current political chaos. Much as family caregivers must cope with stress, we must cope with the political stressors that stymie our actions to restore our democratic power and authority as responsible citizens.
Stay Informed
The first action to take is to stay informed. Find out as much as you can from various news sources including traditional (legacy) and alternative media, social groups, and online sources. Examine issues from the other side’s point of view and determine whether their arguments hold water. Or whether they bother to defend their actions at all.
Take a Break
The second seems contradictory: take a break. After you’ve taken in all you can handle, turn off the TV, put aside the PC, find a quiet spot, and get in touch with your inner self. Rather than a dearth of information, we drown in the firehose of information available in the 21st ceintury. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Hold your breath and release it applying counts of four to each action. Other relaxation techniques include mindfulness, yoga, and tai chi. Learn which technique works best for you, stick with it, and regain your quiet center.
Share What You’ve Discovered About Trump 2.0
Once you’ve recentered yourself, the next thing to do is share the information and opinions you’ve collected with someone else. Start with family members and close friends, then work outwards. Contribute to social media groups. Join their discussions. Britain’s Mental Health Group and the Mayo Clinic encourage people combatting anxiety to socialize. More than that, challenge those thoughts and worries causing your ill health.
Why? because this same approach works for addressing political ansieties, too. Defending your opinions against others forces you to look outside yourself and recognize the thoughts, feelings, and convictions of others, people who could become your allies.
Get Involved
Take the next step: After you’ve espoused your opiniions on social media and elsewhere, take action. There are plenty of ways to accomplish this. Write postcards to underserved minorities. Call, write, or email your congressional representatives about issues you care about. Serve on committees. Even more proactive: participate in marches, sit-ins, and other acts of civil disobedience to dramatize your convictions.
Hold Trump 2.0 Accountable
The purpose of your activity involves dramatizing your convictions in a way that impacts the most people. Not only does it put Trump and his minions on the defensive, it also forces our representatives to do their part and stand up against the usurpation of their constituents’ rights and liberties.
On the individual level, taking such proactive actions reduces personal anxiety. On the institutional level, it encourages others to take heart and stand against those people who unlafully and immorally are trying to take over our government. Department of Justice lawyer Brendon Ballou said it best on the mpact of outside agitation on employee pushback. “Public outrage gave us courage and the knowledge that we were, in fact, working in the public interest. Advocacy on the outside made advocacy on the inside possible.”
Trump 2.0: Personal Note
These observations arise from the convictions of a confirmed Baby Boomer who experienced the divisiveness caused by the Viet Nam War. My rebelliousness then stemmed from my countercultural attitude toward the social mores of the political establishment. The irony is not lost on me that despite my convicitions remaining the same, I now must defend that culture’s values, constraints, and instituions. That’s how instutionally powerful conservative America has become over the past 60 years.
However, taking some of the actions cited above holds out hope that with our united effort the United States can become a haven for freedom of choice and democracy once again.
What do you think? Let me know in the Leave a Reply secion below.