Waiting For That Rocket

I’m reading more Stalin these days than I have the previous two years. And that’s because I actually want to write my book, but also because I want to be informed as to what to watch for. In today’s reading of Anne Applebaum’s Gulag I was struck by, “The mania for arrests and executions spread down the Party hierarchy, and throughout society. It was pushed from the top by Stalin, who used it to eliminate his enemies, create a new class of loyal leaders, terrorize the Soviet population – and fill his concentration camps.” (94)

Other than prison slave labor we don’t have concentration camps, but you have to be especially oblivious if you don’t see Herr Cheeto hiring and firing government staff to create a new class of leaders and to ensure the American public doesn’t pay attention to what is actually happening.

I don’t know what’s actually happening because there isn’t much press as to what’s happening, but I know it became okay for Converse to put forward this kind of ad. I know Robert Kennedy, as the secretary of Health and Human Services, is not 100% pro vaccine regardless of what the medical fields say about it. I know the frozen blocks of police will arrest, imprison, and kill anyone not American despite their legal status. This isn’t the only ICE killing since the agency was created nor the only way violence that has been threatened. Since then Herr Cheeto has advocated shaking up ICE, border patrol, and the Department of Homeland Security in general. Ringing so strongly of Stalin’s shakeups prior to the great purges I am terrified. Things only got worse after these kinds of actions.

I don’t know what to do. I’m more aware than many, but what do I do? I have a friend who at least every weeek if not every day is writing a letter to Susan Collins advocating for reasonability in the federal government, but nothing is changing in response. And I know he’s not the only person writing letters. Writing letters isn’t what inspired Khruschev’s Secret Speech. But what can your average lay person do to prevent a cult of personality growing that rivals Stalin’s. First off I’ll remind everyone to vote. Keeping Herr Cheeto’s allies from getting into office will be a big deterrant, but we only have the ability to vote once. I know nonprofit organizations are hurting from the cancellations Herr Cheeto has instilled and from the general American economy downswing. I’ll vote, I’ll write letters, I’ll give to nonprofits where I can, and I’ll stay aware, but there’s not much else to be done.