All That’s Solid . . . (Part 2) We are Being Herded into a Brutish New World

Worse: Some of us are being rounded-up.

If you have been getting the feeling that you and the rest of the people you know and identify with are being uprooted and herded into a brutish new world, you would not be wrong.

We are, in fact, being herded. Some of us, immigrants and others targeted for even more efficient disposition, are being rounded-up.

We are being rustled and penned-up by an upstart but freakishly deranged collection of corrupt and damaged people who have very malevolent ideas about what values and beliefs should be required of all of us at the pinnacle of Western civilization.

They intend to return our country to something closer to a mythical “Wild West,” of white men in cowboy hats making their own rules and settling disputes in the streets.

Back in the day, when there existed some such Wild West areas, The New York Tribune described them in this way:

“There is no law, no restraint in this seething cauldron of vice and depravity.”

I have titled this series of posts with the aphorism, “All that is solid melts into air.” Sometimes this occurs as the result of natural causes. Sometimes what is solid is melted in a”seething cauldron of vice and depravity.”

I think that describes Donald Trump very well.

I ended my first post in this series with the truism: “What goes up, must come down.” This cycle of continually building things up and bringing things down defines both the gravity and the precarity of our human condition; and right now, most of us are feeling a grave sense of precarity.

It’s become abundantly clear that Trump and the Project 2025 Muskreants aren’t just working to turn the White House back into a cauldron of vice and depravity. They are working feverishly on a much more ambitious goal: to unwind the world as we know it and to ‘re-great’ it as a totalitarian plutocratic dream-state: an autocratic and monochromatic dynasty.

Their all-out blitzkrieg has been effective in shocking those of us who follow politics closely and who understand how government works. It’s all about mass intimidation through seemingly indiscriminate individual persecution and institutional destruction.

But this reactionary assault is already making significant mistakes. Their assault on our institutions and hundreds of thousands of decent, dedicated civil servants is creating havoc, distress, and anger in communities across the country. The casual and ofttimes gleeful cruelty of their summary cancelling of people’s dreams and livelihoods is making headlines and creating problems for legislators and other officials in even the reddist of districts.

Eyes are being opened. Lessons are being learned.

One lesson being learned by we liberals/never-Trumpers is that we can no longer take for granted that we will always live in a liberal democracy. Liberty remains a privilege, rather than a right. We are learning again why so many millions of people over the last two centuries have had to fight and die for that privilege.

Liberal democracy is America‘s field of dreams. As we build it, people come. And then they pitch-in to enlarge it, attracting more freedom-seekers — but just as importantly, working to ensure this quest as an example for others to adopt or emulate.

But, at critical points, we have been diverted or delayed from this world-historical project.

Some people, some dark forces, look at such a big, fertile landscape and decide they must take it and make it their own. In the first centuries of America’s existence, many envisioned not the dreams of liberty, but the continuation of dominion over others. Decade after decade we are inevitably challenged by the claims and presumptions of those who would crush our dreams.

And here we are challenged once again by such depraved ambitions.

Because of the swiftness and brutality of the current assault, the landscape for liberty is looking especially rocky, if not nightmarish. Before we can progress farther, we will have a lot of work to do.

First, we need to defend our turf: what we have built of a liberal democratic republic. We have to fend-off and beat back the very dangerous hoard of bullies, bigots, bandits, and billionaires that Donald Trump has been able to assemble to stop and reverse our progress.

Having brought democracy this far, we cannot allow it to be torn-up or plowed asunder by such vile actors.

We can, in fact stop the carnage; but not without a crucial ingredient: the support of many more of our fellow Americans.

The Cavalry R Us

At this early stage, it’s the lawyers who are on the front lines challenging the legality and constitutionality of the assault. But as the lawyers resist with the law, we must prepare to resist with ‘The People.’ We must, all of us, be as Paul Revere, and spread the word: 

“The Brutish are coming!” In fact, most impactfully, we need to point to the increasingly apparent fact that, “The Brutish are here, in our communities, indiscriminately attacking decent citizens and eliminating essential resources and services who/that are pillars of our communities.

And then we must fill the ranks of the cavalry and the modern minutemen and women; and ‘arm’ ourselves to come to the rescue of our American dream.

All of us must engage with our networks and spheres of influence and connections. Allies are all around us. They are the regular folks who just want to live in a friendly, healthy community. We must be in conversations with these folks as much as possible — bringing important news and winning the hearts and minds of those who may not yet realize that their freedoms and wellbeing are in grave danger. And, for so many who do realize the dangers but don’t know where to turn or what to do, we need to help plug them into supportive and proactive resources and efforts.

I attended a really inspiring conference over the weekend, the Principles First Summit. It is described in the media as a ‘center-right’ coalition of mainly ‘Reagan Republicans’ who now define themselves as anti-Trump and politically homeless.

But wow! There were a couple of thousand allies in that assembly from all across the country who despise Donald Trump and all of the chaos he has unleashed on our polity and our psyches. Every time Trump was mentioned, they booed. Every time a panelist or other participant offered encouragement and ally-ship, people stood and clapped.

And then the Proud Boys showed up to strut their pardoned stuff in the faces of Mike Fanone and other Capitol Defenders speaking at the conference, and when word spread of their presence, audience members were asking where to go to confront them.

A subsequent bomb threat forced us all to evacuate the ballroom and two floors of the JW Marriott Hotel for a couple of hours yesterday while police and secret service swept the entire area.

But when the all-clear was given to resume the conference in the middle of Sunday afternoon when many attendees and panelists were scheduled to catch flights and trains home, participants flooded back in with a clearly unanimous conviction that these vile and depraved cauldron-minders would be given no quarter. We would not be intimidated or deterred.

In the grand scheme of things, this one instance of spontaneous, collective resolve may not seem to be of great significance. But what it showed me was that there are millions more such decent Americans all across the country, many and possibly most of whom are not died-in-the-wool Democrats, who will refuse to abide the militant and cultish fanaticism that Trump has attracted to his Putin-wannabe ambitions.

And as I write this, Trump has provided indisputable evidence of his Putin-aligned agenda when he instructed our U.N. Ambassador to oppose a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Our country, the supposed land of the free and home of the brave, joined with Russia, North Korea, Iran, Hungary, Haiti, Nicaragua, Niger, and a number of other fanatical dictatorial regimes to oppose the resolution.

What a disgrace. What an ominous embrace of tyranny and butchery.

So, Americans, writ large, are going to get what’s going on. It’s already happening. And to ensure that it is, we — all of us — must in some way stand up and show-up — for our families, our communities, and/or ourselves. There are myriad ways to do so. Many Substack newsletters cover this ground, including, “Chop Wood; Carry Water.” There are many other resources for resisting the melting of all that’s solid in our developing democracy and I will share some further opportunities in my next post: All that’s Solid . . . Part 3.

That sense of being herded that I referred to at the beginning of this post happens when people sense the threat of predators or other malevolent actors. It’s both alarming and disorienting. One begins to feel a loss of agency. One starts to become a little sheepish or a bit cowed. And before you know it there dawns the ominous feeling that the landscape is changing and we’re being herded into a world not of our choosing.

Fright strikes and then perhaps it’s just instincts that kick-in.

Fight or Flight? Or is it already too late . . . ?

To paraphrase Nelson Mandela,

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave person is not one who does not feel afraid, but is one who forges ahead and conquers that fear.

So do yourself and everyone you care about a solid:

Choose to be heard and not to be herded.