History is repeating itself in many ways. No need to beat around the bush, we are following the Nazi playbook as a nation almost verbatim. Sadly, the Republicans, as a party, is allowing it to happen hook, line, and sinker.
Today was another day of working to create chaos and stress for millions of people. When the Republican President put out a memo today that stated all federal grants were to be paused. No more reimbursements, no more grant funds to be released until at least February 10. The premise was around waste and DEI.
What this meant at first glance was there would be no payments for Social Security and Medicare, no payments for educating poorer students through Title I, no payments to students needing Special Education services, no SNAP, no TANF, no Veterans benefits, no Head Start, and so on, and so on.
This, of course, put the nation into a tizzy. Foundations receiving federal grants are closing their doors until funding that may or may not start again. Schools across the nation started wondering if they were going to be able to pay for teachers and other staff funded by Title I, would there need to be layoffs. Our elderly parents and grandparents started to worry how they would pay their rent and food because they are living off their Social Security, and would they be able to afford their needed medicine. Families who are the working poor worried if their Head Start daycare would be funded and would they be able to get to their minimum wage jobs, or lose their jobs because they had no childcare. People struggling and needing food stamps and health cards, and maybe living in subsidized housing, would have no food, no healthcare, and no home. Veterans benefits such as suicide prevention programs suspended.
Slowly, throughout the day, the Republican White House would drip a piece of information saying, just kidding, Social Security and Medicare are exempt. Then later, no worries, Title I and other formula grants are exempt. Later still, guess what, student nutrition programs feeding low income students is exempt. Drips throughout the day of other exemptions. But, even with those exemptions, there were still issues with accessing reimbursement portals in many states around the U.S.
What this tells me is this, they are trying to figure out what items will not be pushed back on.
It also is, to me, a harbinger of things to come. There are cuts coming. There will be people who lose their social safety net, lose their incomes, lose their daycare so they can’t work, lose housing and are on the streets. When all of this happens, there will be people to arrest for vagrancy, to then rent out to do the work of the undocumented immigrants being flown out of the country. People to arrest for theft when they try to feed their children, who can then be rented out to businesses for extremely cheap labor. So many people will be out of work it becomes an employer market, to hire people at very low wages, work them to the bone, provide just enough hours to not have to offer healthcare and benefits. How far is it until the concentration camps are needed because the jails are full?
These things are all part of Project 2025, and the Nazi playbook.
We are just getting a taste of what the transition to dictatorship is going to be like. Flood the zone until we are too tired to react and fight back, to normalize harming the less fortunate or bringing the fortunate into being unfortunate, to throw in the towel to just try to survive.
Thankfully, we still have enough strength, at least today, to resist. People spoke out all day long about the harm being caused. That, along with an injunction, for a measly three days, but at least a pause, was enjoined by a judge. But what happens at the end of the three days? When this issue makes it to the Supreme Court, what will the Court do since it has a propensity to support the Republicans and the Republican White House becoming a dictator?
That is the question, will the country fall within two weeks of the Republicans taking over the Federal government, and taking over many states across the U.S.?
The improbable is quickly becoming the possible.
What will you do personally to help stop the fall of our democracy?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 