By Alliance President Terry Gips
Ok, things really suck right now if you care about people and our planet. The future looks dismal and so many of us are struggling to keep going amidst one assault after another from President Trump, Elon Musk and their administration.
It feels staggering and we haven’t even gotten to the Handmaid’s Tale part with their dreams for completely controlling women, their bodies and reproductive rights.
How we can be with all of this is a constant topic of discussion at the Alliance for Sustainability. We’re continuing to share perspectives we discover that can make a difference.
Enter UC Berkeley Professor and former US Secretary of Labor Dr. Robert Reich with his “10 more reasons for modest optimism.”
He reframes the unfolding disaster taking place and shows how Trump’s extreme actions can lead to their own demise as courts block them as unconstitutional and targeted groups rise up.
Here are his first five reasons with some shortening, plus our own comments.
1. Trump’s Approval Ratings Continue to Plummet
The chief reason Trump was elected was to reduce the high costs of living — especially food, housing, health care, and gas. A new Pew poll shows these costs remain uppermost in Americans’ minds. 63% identify inflation as an overriding problem, and 67% say the same about the affordability of healthcare.
That same poll shows the public turning on Trump. The percent of those disapproving of Trump’s handling of the economy has risen to 53% (versus 45% who approve). Disapproval of his actions as president has risen to the same 53% versus 45% approval, which shows how essential economic performance is to the public’s assessment of presidents these days.
The Pew poll also shows 57% of the public believes that Trump “has exceeded his presidential authority.” By making the world’s richest person his hatchet man, Trump has made more vivid the role of money in politics. Hence, a record-high 72% now say a major problem is “the role of money in politics.”
Comment:
I totally agree it’s great news that the tide of public sentiment is finally turning. I’m certain the anger will continue to grow as Trump and Musk lay off huge numbers of veterans and cut funding for NPR and public television.
However, it’s disturbing that so many Republicans still support him. And worse, it’s pathetic that Republican elected officials will privately admit concern about Trump’s actions but aren’t willing to speak up publicly as our democracy gets flushed down the toilet. We need some Profiles in Courage, not Cowardice.
2. DOGE is Running Amusk
DOGE looks more and more like a giant hoax. This week, reporters found that nearly 40% of the contracts DOGE claims to have canceled aren’t expected to save the government any money, according to the administration’s own data.
As a result, on Tuesday DOGE deleted all of the five biggest “savings” on its so-called “wall of receipts.” The scale of its errors — and the misunderstandings and poor quality control that appear to underlie them — has raised questions about the effort’s broader work, which has led to mass firings and cutbacks across the federal government.
DOGE has also had to reverse its firings. On Tuesday, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins celebrated cuts to 875 contracts that he claimed would save nearly $2 billion. But when veterans learned that those contracts covered medical services, recruited doctors, and funded cancer programs as well as burial services for veterans, the outcry was so loud that on Wednesday the VA rescinded the ordered cuts.
After hundreds of nuclear weapons workers were abruptly fired, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire them. After hundreds of scientists at the Food and Drug Administration were fired, they’re being asked to return.
On Wednesday, Musk acknowledged that DOGE “accidentally canceled” efforts by the US Agency for International Development to prevent the spread of Ebola. But Musk insisted the initiative was quickly restored.
Wrong. Current and former USAID officials say Ebola prevention efforts have been largely halted since Musk and his DOGE allies moved last month to gut the global-assistance agency and freeze its outgoing payments. The teams and contractors that would be deployed to fight an Ebola outbreak have been dismantled, they added.
DOGE staff are resigning. On Tuesday, 21 federal civil service tech workers resigned from DOGE, writing in a joint resignation letter that they were quitting rather than help Musk “dismantle critical public services.”
Finally, Musk’s conflicts of interest are bursting into the open, and it isn’t a pretty sight. The FAA is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to overhaul a communications system integral to its air traffic control system — and awarding the contract to Musk’s Starlink instead.
Why? A team of employees from SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company, has been working inside the FAA in recent days. And Musk himself has been criticizing Verizon’s platform on his social media company, X.
Senior FAA officials have refused to sign paperwork authorizing the switch to Starlink, so Musk’s team is now seeking help to secure the deal from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau. Could Musk’s financial motive be any clearer?
Comment:
It is a clear violation of Congressional law and separation of powers that Musk is summarily firing staff Congress had approved. As an economist, I feel strongly that any potential salary savings will be meaningless in the face of the outrageous costs we’ll encounter from a pandemic that could have been avoided.
Musk’s conflicts of interest are rampant and literally out of control, leading to further Musk self-aggrandizement and serious harm to competitors. For Trump to say Musk is capable of self-policing to avoid conflicts of interest is ridiculous. Yes, let the fox guard the henhouse?!
3. Tesla is in Deep Sh*t
Americans outraged by Musk’s outsized role in the Trump regime are targeting Musk’s Tesla. Many Tesla owners are feeling buyer’s remorse — their cars are vandalized or they become publicly shamed by strangers upset with the car company’s CEO. Others are putting anti-Musk bumper stickers on their cars.
A video from musician Sheryl Crow that received over 20 million views on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook features the singer waving goodbye to her Tesla Model S, as Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to Say Goodbye” plays in the background. “There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with,” Crow wrote in the caption. “So long Tesla.”
Last weekend, thousands demonstrated outside of Tesla dealerships from Philadelphia to Seattle to register their outrage with Musk’s political power. The #TeslaTakedown campaign page on Action Network has listed 46 upcoming events at Tesla dealerships and charging stations around the country over the next week. Another organizing platform, Mobilize, includes another 32 events.
Union pension funds are getting involved. Randi Weingarten, president of the giant American Federation of Teachers, has called on the CEOs of the nation’s six largest asset management firms to review Tesla’s current valuation. “This is about safeguarding workers’ retirements,” she said in a statement. “Just this week we saw Tesla stock continue to sink faster than a Cybertruck in quicksand as European sales fell off a cliff. So, we knew we needed to act.”
Comment:
Our dollars are votes for the kind of world we want. It’s sad that Musk and Tesla have gone from being the darling of enviros and those concerned about the environment to becoming pariahs that people want nothing to deal with.
As the first trillion dollar human, losses with Tesla may not make Musk sleep poorly at night, but it is an important signal we can send to the market. Musk’s loss of prestige and revenue is a well-deserved rough justice for a true EV pioneer. It’s just sad that his employees will suffer and that it will boost the Chinese competitive position.
It seems particularly fitting because Musk has called for an end to federal EV subsidies. People are confused why he wouldn’t want the subsidy as it doesn’t seem to be in his self-interest. But the dark, nefarious truth is that Tesla is now profitable while his competitors are not. They need the subsidy and Musk doesn’t so Musk is using his inside power to cut the subsidies and literally drive his competitors out of business.
4. The Oligarchy Has Never Been More Exposed
An important aspect of the era we’re in is that a record share of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of a small group of people who are now revealing themselves to be remarkably selfish, shameless, and insensitive to the needs of America.
This is a further reason for modest optimism because as the oligarchy exposes itself for what it is, the dangers it poses to average people become more apparent — and the odds increase of a fierce public backlash to it.
On Wednesday, at the same time Elon Musk (the world’s richest person) was lecturing Trump’s Cabinet about the importance of decimating the federal workforce, Jeff Bezos (America’s second-richest) was telling staffers at The Washington Post that henceforth the Post’s opinions would focus on defending “personal liberties and free markets” and opposing viewpoints would not be published.
The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, promptly resigned, as he should.
When oligarchs talk of “personal liberties and free markets” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worsening economic insecurity and fear. When the oligarchs speak of “freedom,” what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.
All this is becoming more apparent than ever.
Comment:
Right on Robert! Name the names and call out people like Bezos who had pledged he would never interfere with the Washington Post’s editorial page. It’s sad that Bezos is doing it to suck up to Trump in order to win massive contracts with the federal government. Mark Zuckerberg is doing the same thing for the same reasons. Clearly, it’s not morals but money that makes their world go round.
5. People Are Rising Up Against Corporate Power
For all these reasons, a backlash is beginning. Popular rage that this country is now run by an oligarchy, a small group of billionaires and corporate elites, is surging.
Today’s “economic blackout” has enlisted millions of Americans who have stopped buying and thereby demonstrated our power.
Meanwhile, protests are breaking out against big predatory corporations. On the eastern shore of Maryland, a bright red Republican area, 20,000 have signed a petition demanding an investigation of Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of utility giant Exelon, for overcharging them. That’s almost 5 percent of Delmarva’s entire customer base.
The same anger is mounting in New York City at Con Edison. And in St. Joseph, Missouri, at Evergy.
When House Republicans were in their home districts last week, they were deluged with angry questions about corporate power, Elon Musk, and big money.
A few Senate Republicans even explained to their constituents that they voted to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services because he’s “hated” by Big Pharma.
Meanwhile, Bernie is back. While not running for president again, 83-year-old Bernie Sanders this week launched his “National Tour to Fight Oligarchy” — to overflow crowds in deep-red Nebraska and Iowa. Bernie is showing that even in red America, opposition to oligarchy and Trump is becoming the dominant view of a large swath of the public.
Record-breaking crowds are also appearing for other notable progressives. A record-sized group showed up to Representative Jim McGovern’s town hall. The same thing happened in Massachusetts with Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Comment:
Yes! Fortunately, people are speaking up and attending town halls. Consequently, many Republicans are cancelling theirs. And thank you Bernie for taking the time to speak out across the country against the Oligarchy.
And now there is a national 40-day boycott against Target (coinciding with Lent) because of their dropping all their DEI efforts. Their stock is already suffering.
Conclusion
What does this add up to? America is waking up, and it doesn’t like what it’s seeing in Trump and Musk.
I don’t want to sound overly optimistic. We have a huge amount of work to do. My purpose in giving you these additional reasons for modest optimism is for you to have a sense of possibility.
All is not lost. We are not doomed. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime is filled with incompetence and riddled with treachery.
If all of us maintain our courage and resolve, and do what’s necessary, we will prevail.
Comment:
Thank you Robert Reich for pulling so much together and inspiring us. You are helping me breathe and have at least modest hope. Let’s hang in there and do our part to sweep all of this away and into the history books. I do believe that the badness will bite back those that betrayed our values and Constitution. I welcome your thoughts.
Thanks for this wonderful article. This is indeed all very encouraging information as we continue to move forward past this stuff.