Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who cares about the disturbingly fascist direction the country is taking. Well, me and at least 3 other people: R, her boyfriend, and my mum. Sometimes it feels like we're the only ones who care. But this is not the case. Other people care, and they've been showing it consistently since at least January.
The most recent demonstration of unity came yesterday, when my state's congressman held a town hall meeting to justify his decision to vote in favour of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill". No doubt he expected to take the stage and be asked predetermined questions that had been written by his office, which he would answer for a room mostly empty except for a few middle-aged Trump supporters. Instead, what he found was an auditorium packed full of the angriest people one would ever hope to meet outside of a barfight. Where the congressman expected to be able to duck in, deliver a boilerplate speech, and duck out; instead, he was forced into a face-to-face encounter with 3 dozen people who all demanded to know why he and the rest of the House Republicans decided to throw them under the bus. They absolutely ripped this now rather contrite politician a new arsehole, and you could just see it on his face, the moment he realised he wasn't getting re-elected.
There were protesters— real live actual picketers holding signs— outside the venue, as well. They held signs with messages like "Who do you work for: US or Trump?", pictures of the congressman they culled from Wikipedia with words like "Enemy of the Free World", "Fascist", and "Resign or be fired". All of this rancour and it was all coming out of what I've often accused of being the northernmost Southern state. This is a mostly rural state, where we have villages with a population of 100 that have 5 churches, where the support for Trump ran very thick during all 3 elections. While I fully expect everyone to put their heads right back up their arses when Trump has been removed from office; for the moment anyway, they're starting to see Trump for what he really is: a fascist despot. An O-level bullshitter pretending to be a political strongman. An authoritarian opportunist who'll say anything to grab the headlines for another news cycle. Even the local news, which has basically gone completely over to generative AI to write their stories now, has gone on the record showing how fed up the people in this state are with him and his tangle of toadies.
Between the concrete wall of opposition from the constituency and the misgivings that already exist in the senate in regards to HR-1: "The Big Beautiful Bill", I foresee 3 possible outcomes:
•A. the senate votes the bill down after Trump demands an immediate vote, á la 2017 American Health Care Act,
•B. the senate attempts to write their own version of the bill which Trump vetoes, effectively killing the original bill, or
•C. the senate passes the bill and Trump signs it, at which point the country implodes and the government is toppled.
Considering the extreme response most of the country has had to Trump's blatant power-grab, people aren't going to just roll over and take it like the fascist right thinks they will. In any case, I'm proud of the people in my state. We may not agree on everything, but at least we can all agree that Trump is a sack of shit and all of his followers in the government need immediate replacement.