Ours to Lose

Guest Opinion

By Cathye Williams | Feb. 15, 2025

I like a February column. February is a beautiful in-between place. We are past the hustle of the holidays, but spring is still a ways off. And this year, at least, we are knee-deep in the white stuff. 

For those curled up indoors with a good book, the snow is quiet and beautiful. For the more adventurous, it provides a wonderland to trek, ski, and sled through. Normally, in February, I would write about the snow. I might also write about Restaurant Week, encouraging folks to get out and support local eateries. I could be cheering for the small farms featured on menus, and discussing how they nourish us. I might suggest that you plan out your dream garden, or order a summer farm share as a way to shake off the cold. 

Normally I might write these things in February. But this February I can’t, because right now, nothing is normal. And we should resist any urge to normalize in any way what is happening.

In his first weeks in office, the president has unleashed a flurry of executive actions, including orders to restore “biological truth,” end birthright citizenship, and “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in government. He has threatened tariffs and deportations and enlisted Marco Rubio as Secretary of State to cut off life-saving aid in developing countries. 

He also offered two million federal employees severance packages for leaving their positions, thus laying the groundwork for them to be fired if they failed to pledge fealty, not to the country, but to Donald Trump himself. Such a shift could end jobs, services, and programs that millions of Americans are entitled to and rely on. Efficiency is unlikely to improve with the loss of so much institutional knowledge, especially with unqualified, unvetted political cronies filling the void.  

These orders are clear in their intent, but muddled as to implementation, and have caused confusion and fear in equal measure. Thankfully, they are facing multiple legal challenges, with many having been blocked or put on hold by the courts, for now (The New York Times). 

Another anticipated outcome of Trump’s return is the power and access that he has bestowed upon Elon Musk.  

This unelected multi-billionaire is attempting, under the guise of “government efficiency,” to undo that which Congress has already enacted and funded. What could motivate the wealthiest man in the world to bother with all this? It’s hard to imagine someone like him wanting still more. 

Yet there he is—working at the highest level in the very government from which he, along with other oligarchs-in-waiting, stand to earn lucrative government contracts and tax cuts via the Trump controlled legislature.  

The rollout of these executive actions has been poorly planned and must be a disappointment to the Republican base, to whom Trump promised to restore American greatness, not a concentration of wealth and power far above them. I’m not sure what his voters wanted from him, but I don’t think it was that. 

My plan is to keep talking about the harm. And think beyond the acronyms. I won’t talk about cuts to the EPA. I’ll talk about losing the public servants who have kept our drinking water clean. I won’t talk about the NIH. I’ll talk about ending cancer research that could save a child’s life someday. They didn’t shut down the CPA, they left vulnerable consumers without protection from predatory lending and unreasonable fines and fees. 

They are undoing so much good for so many people. 

While Trump bombards us with improbable distractions, his surrogates are laying the path to authoritarian rule. He has no solutions and his only plan is to keep everyone mad and “owning the Libs.” 

While he is going on about buying Greenland, invading Panama, or annexing Canada, listen to the rest of the gang. They continue to say the quiet part out loud. Vice President Vance and Speaker Johnson have both warned the Courts to leave the Executive branch and Congress alone. They have asserted that the courts lack the power to check them, when it is actually only the courts that can.  

No matter what they say, we know and they know what the right thing to do is.

The constitutional crisis is at our door. Right, left or center, it’s time to speak out. Democracy is ours to lose.      

Cathye Williams is a local climate activist. She writes from the northern corner of Manistee County.