Trump and The Resistance

Organized resistance to Donald Trump’s brand of racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry began before Inauguration Day

Resistance is the refusal to accept or comply by way of action or argument.

By Eileen Fleming

Once upon a time in America newly elected presidents enjoyed a honeymoon.

Donald Trump will enter the White House as the most unpopular and divisive president in this nations history.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee announced on Thursday that she will not attend the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2017:

Inaugurations are celebratory events, a time to welcome the peaceful transition of power and honor the new administration. On January 20th, I will not be celebrating or honoring an incoming president who rode racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry to the White House.

Donald Trump ran one of the most divisive and prejudiced campaigns in modern history. He began his campaign by insulting Mexican immigrants, pledging to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and then spent a year and a half denigrating communities of color and normalizing bigotry. He called women ‘pigs’, stoked Islamophobia, and attacked a Gold Star family. He mocked a disabled reporter and appealed to people’s worst instincts.  I cannot in good conscience attend an inauguration that would celebrate this divisive approach to governance.

After the election, many hoped the president-elect would turn toward unifying our country. Instead he has shown us that he will utilize the same tools of division he employed on the campaign trail as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief. We need look no further than the team he is assembling to find signals that the era of Trump will be one of chaos and devastation for our communities.

The president-elect has named Steve Bannon,  a white nationalist as his chief strategist. He has nominated Senator Jeff Sessions to the office of Attorney General, despite his long career of opposition to civil and human rights. And in perhaps the most damning sign of the chaos to come, the president-elect has expedited the process to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make America sick again.

To make matters worse, after the intelligence community reported Russian interference in our election, Donald Trump frequently and forcefully defended Vladimir Putin. He insulted senior intelligence officials in order to preserve his reputation and disguise the truth. The American people will never forget that when a foreign government violated our democracy, Donald Trump chose the interests of another nation over our own.

Donald Trump has proven that his administration will normalize the most extreme fringes of the Republican Party. On Inauguration Day, I will not be celebrating. I will be organizing and preparing for resistance.

 

Film maker Michael Moore and Robert Reich, former Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, are calling for “100 Days of Resistance” to Mr. Trump.

A group of former congressional aides in mid-December posted the manifesto “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” which has gone viral.

The authors argued that Democrats should take a page from the tea-party’s playbook and focus on grassroots, local organizing to resist the Trump agenda.

The ABOUT US page states:

Every single person who worked on this guide and website is a volunteer. We’re doing this in our free time without coordination or support from our employers. Our only goal is to help the real leaders on the ground who are resisting Trump’s agenda on their home turf. We hope you will take this document and use it however you see fit.

This concerned American has downloaded the guide and on the Saturday before Trump is inaugurated, I submitted the following group registration:

Indivisible Truth for Liberty

Our mission is focused on ending Middle East foreign policies that collude in Israel’s nuclear deceptions and military occupation of Palestine. We also seek to honor all USA veterans by establishing every June 8 to be known as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY.

Our Mottos:

“Soon after I had published the pamphlet “Common Sense” [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion…The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”-Thomas Paine

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all [PEOPLE] are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among [PEOPLE], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.” -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all…and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave…a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.”-George Washington, 1796

Contact info HERE

 

-Eileen Fleming, Author, Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” is the Senior Non-Arab Correspondent and Health Reporter for TADN, ran for US HOUSE in 2012 on a Platform that included ending federal regulations on cannabis, to establish every June 8 to be known as USS LIBERTY Remembrance Day, and to end USA collusion in Israel’s nuclear deceptions and military occupation of Palestine.

 

Eileen Fleming’s contact information is HERE