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Lets face it: were now in a different country. You know, the one where, if you happen to live in a city with a Democratic mayor (as I do), then watch out. Sooner or later, youre likely to see not just ICE agents but armed National Guard troops on the streets. Memphis happens to be the latest target of Donald Trumps militarized wrath. (No matter that the city has experienced decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years.) And I have no doubt that, if my own city, New York, were to elect gasp! Zohran Mamdani as its mayor in November, we would see those troops right here (if not, in fact, on election day or before).
Yes, Donald Trump and crew have already gone after colleges and universities in a big-time fashion and, in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the president is not only going after any opposition to him (we just have to beat the hell [out of] radical left lunatics), including the Democratic Party, but the media, too. After all, he sued the New York Times for yes! $15 billion (a suit only recently rejected by a judge). And as Brian Stelter and Hanna Park reported at CNN, The 85-page suit reads at times like a pro-Trump op-ed, with page after page of gushing praise for the president and repeated references to lawsuits he has filed against other media outlets.
In short, if you dont happen to be a Trumpist and its worth noting that, these days, there seem (if you believe the latest polls) to be ever less of them were living in an increasingly ominous world on an ever more ominous planet in the unbelievable era of yes, who else? Donald J. Trump. Once upon a time, who would have believed it? (Not me, thats for sure.) The question, of course, is what can be done about the disaster now clearly underway in this country of ours. And with that in mind, let TomDispatch regular Nan Levinson offer a few thoughts on what it means to find yourself in opposition to You Know Who in 2025 on a failing, flailing planet. Tom
Alliance, Defiance, Noncompliance
A Strategy for Controlling an Out-of-Control Government
By Nan Levinson
On July 17th, I joined a group of Vermonters for a Good Trouble Lives On action in a village near where we were staying that month. Over the past 161 straight days, a small but determined contingent of mostly White, mostly grey-haired, mostly too-polite-to-make-much-trouble residents had been gathering at noon to protest Donald Trumps policies on a little triangle of land where two streets meet in the village center. Their number had swelled to several dozen on that very hot day, a significant turnout for a community of fewer than 1,000 people. The majority of those driving past us flashed their lights, waved, or nodded in support, including the driver of a giant Pepsi delivery truck. (Since signs asked drivers-by not to honk because the noise upset the neighbors, honkers, I was told, were the opposition.) A young organizer tried to start a chant of protest, but the majority made it clear that they preferred to stand quietly, and she gave up.
It was civil, respectful, and earnest very Vermont and, as it should have been, lots of fun. In the midst of it, I found myself thinking about a conversation several days earlier with a woman Ill call Laura, whom Ive come to know over the summers weve spent in Vermont. Shed stopped by to say hello and chat. And though we usually steer clear of national politics, recognizing, I think, that our views on the subject dont align particularly well, this time we ventured carefully into talk about Trumps America the second time around.
She told me that she didnt see much difference. The stock market was still strong, and her groceries didnt cost her much more when she went to shop.
She probably stands to benefit (as do I) from some of the revisions in tax legislation misnamed Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill. She claimed not to pay much attention to political news and shes hardly alone there. Peoples lives are overburdened enough or they simply find the news too upsetting. News about that bill was hard to miss, however.
I told her about the Turkish graduate student at Tufts University (where I had taught journalism) who was nabbed on a street in my neighborhood in March by ICE agents, apparently guilty of nothing more than co-writing an op-ed on Palestine for the college newspaper, which no one reads, including the students there. Laura recognized my distress. ICE was preying on Vermonters then, too. Still, its predatory policies seemed far away from the serenity of our shared afternoon.
Laura is an older woman, highly educated, actively devout, intelligent, resourceful, good-humored, and a long-time resident of a community that struggles to balance its relative wealth with the neediness of surrounding communities. Although she lands on the side of the comfortable, most of her wealth seems to be in land on which taxes keep rising to the limit of what she can afford. Shes deeply invested in local politics when it comes to housing and taxes in her area and particularly the tensions between longstanding Vermonters and newer arrivals. The newcomers We call them the stroller mafia, she told me pushed through new taxes aimed at curbing short-term rentals to tourists that limit the already-scarce housing available to residents. It was a laudable goal, but bad news for many longtime residents, including some of Lauras friends who rely on the income from renting out extra rooms in the big houses they bought long ago.
Vermont, for people who have never been there, is cows, multicolored leaves, and Bernie Sanders. Its politics do lean notably progressive, but 10% of Vermonters still live in poverty. The state also suffered devastating floods in two of the last three summers, and it struggles to pay for adequate education and health care for its inhabitants. In other words, its like all too many other states, just smaller and with more maple syrup.
I like and respect Laura. Still, while I was patting myself on the back for finding common ground with someone I had classified as on the other side that generous and high-minded territory were supposed to seek out in these uncommon and ungenerous times I had to acknowledge that civility only gets you so far. I struggle to believe that a shared gripe or a joke about the absurdities of American politics brings us closer to agreeing on tax policy or a viable safety net for poor Americans or the humane treatment of immigrants, because common ground is not common cause and thats what matters now.
Its not important, maybe not even desirable, that Laura and I agree on everything. Still, in these grim Trumpian times, until reasonable, caring people like her start to reckon with the draconian policies raining down on our heads, as well as on the heads of people without papers and on neighboring Vermonters who stand to lose their healthcare and more in the years to come, I fear that the policies coming out of Washington will only get endlessly meaner and more destructive.
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