HORRIBLE PATHETIC LITTLE MEN

A shout out to Representative Nanette Barragán, commenting after the president blamed the D.C. plane disaster on minorities, trans, the physically disabled -- and of course Joe Biden; she labeled Donald Trump “a horrible pathetic little man.” In fact Trump during his first term misadventure tried mightily to cut the funding of both the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board but was resisted by Congress, and most FAA employees date back to his first term or earlier. He did nothing to advance the technological upgrades and additional employment both agencies so desperately need. He assuredly bears as much responsibility for the recent tragedy as anyone else he can throw malicious false dirt upon. Of one thing we can be assured: it is not in the cards to expect aviation to become any safer under Trump II.

More broadly, it is increasingly clear that the government is being run by Elon Musk and not Donald Trump. Musk, only a U.S. citizen since 2002 and still apparently holding Canadian and South African citizenship concurrently, of course could never legally become President; it is unlikely he could even win election to any meaningful public office at all. Moira Donegan in The Guardian aptly calls him

“a narcissist and a nerd . . . [who] is not a cabinet member and has not been subjected to a Senate confirmation process. But he now reportedly has an office in the West Wing, along with one in the Eisenhower executive office building across the street. . . . . He has seized control of the treasury, and specifically the treasury’s payment system, granting himself a personal line-item veto on all government spending. He also has gained access to reams of private and sensitive data and has reportedly downloaded much of it on to private servers. He can access bank accounts, medical histories, income and debt records. ”

According to a White House official “DOGE is part of the White House” and checks in with them “every day . . . as needed” but wouldn’t explain the nature of the briefings or who’s in charge of them. There are even rumors that some of Trump’s favored people could be chopped by the Musk machine, up to and including his Chief of Staff. Will Musk back off if a lower court judge orders him to? Will the higher courts appointed by Trump protect us?

Meanwhile Trump announces absurd policies like colonizing Gaza with Trump resorts, buying Greenland which is not for sale, annexing Canada; he actually proposed that “[w]e should use some of [Musk;s staff people] in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient.” Trump continues to joke (?) about a third term. He devotes his presidential powers to dictating which pronouns may be used on government stationery and websites, and humiliating trans and gay people. Is there any federal agency that now dares hire a non-white applicant without fear of being labeled “woke” or “DEI”? In perhaps his most constructive policy advance, “I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work.” Plastic straws forever; now we can all sleep more easily.

Clearly the idea of restructuring government is well beyond Trump’s ken. He contents himself instead with removing security details from Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, John Boltin, Mark Milley and Mark Esper -- all people who served him well until falling into disfavor -- and Anthony Fauci, a dedicated public servant physician who served many presidents of both parties until falling out of favor because of the chaos of the Covid epidemic. Is Trump in what passes for his heart perhaps hoping Iran will carry out threats to assassinate one or more of them to teach them a lesson. Sadly, with Trump’s Congressional acolytes piling over each other to heap praise on him, his “shameless sadism incite[s] others to celebrate this version of manhood.” (Judith Butler, also writing in The Guardian.)

MAGA and its supporters have morphed into the Proud Boys under the umbrella of Musk’s Nazi salute.

These horrible, pathetic little men never miss an opportunity to demonstrate their moral, intellectual and ethical shortcomings, or to heap insult on top of slur; they respect no one and have no self-restraint. If I may quote Jamelle Bouie, one of my favorite opinion writers of the NY Times, at length:

“Donald Trump does not care about merit. If he cared about merit, then Pete Hegseth — a former Fox News host who has been accused of having a history of alcohol abuse and professional malfeasance — would not be secretary of defense. If he cared about merit, then JD Vance — with even less experience than one of his least experienced predecessors, Dan Quayle — would not be vice president of the United States. And if he cared about merit, then neither Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nor Kash Patel would be a hair’s breadth away from serving as secretary of health and human services or director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” So why does he preach about the need for merit in government jobs? Simply, confirming once again his core bigotry, it’s his thinly disguised code for discriminating against women and non-whites. (“Don't fall for Trump’s DEI dodge”, NY Times, February 1, 2025)

Trump & Company seem bent on destruction. Destroying those who dared oppose him. Destroying his political opponents. Destroying established American institutions. Even at the risk of destroying the nation. He builds nothing -- never really has -- and adds no value to anything he touches. Donegan concludes Musk and Trump are “such stupid and unserious people” who have “destroyed the constitutional order.” Whether she is correct that the carnage is permanently irreparable only time will tell, but at the pace things have developed, that time may indeed by short.

What would I like to see happen -- right now! First, stop temporizing, stop playing go along to get along. STAND UP. Kudos to Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) for announcing on February 6^th that she will vote “no” on all of Trump’s remaining Cabinet nominees in protest against the sweeping and disruptive actions in the first few weeks of his administration. “Until Donald Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk stop their relentless spree of illegal power grabs that are inflicting pain on the middle class and damaging our national security, I’ll be voting no on all remaining top-level cabinet nominees,” her statement said. Props too to Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) who is relentless in exposing the fraud that is Musk/Trump illegality. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), both of whom will almost certainly face MAGA primary challenges, have expressed serious reservations about the Musk rampage (yet still voted to approve Trump cabinet appointees).

Here are a few of my ideas for a vision of more liberal resistance:

First, every Monday morning all forty-five Democratic Senators should file yet one more a collective legal action against both Trump and Musk to itemize and set aside each of the prior week’s illegal actions interfering with Congress’ constitutional authority and then talk about nothing else with the press for at least 48 hours. This should garner more attention and perhaps carry more weight than the separate lawsuits brought by unions and citizens’ groups.

Then every Tuesday every progressive Democratic member of Congress should sign on to a new appropriation add-on bill in Congress to INCREASE the funding of each governmental agency Trump has moved to dismantle, starting with USAID but including the IRS with a bill aimed to collect more taxes from rich tax dodgers. (To be clear, I think we can easily redraft our tax laws to distinguish between legal tax planning and outrageous tax evasion.)

Every Wednesday -- local climate permitting -- I would like to see every federal employee in the United States whose job has been impacted by Musk (or Trump) to pack a bag lunch and meet up in a major public square or park in their city, town or village, but mainly in Washington D.C. Get hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating weekly as a sign of liberal unity. No large numbers of political signs needed, no Hatch Act violation, just huge social gatherings, outpourings of people breaking bread together with no doubt as to their meaning. The optics would be amazing.

I think enough has transpired already that every Thursday morning a Bill of Impeachment should be introduced in the House itemizing each of the illegal acts of the prior week and in the Senate a bill to designed to restore our rights and reverse the effect of at least one of the Supreme Court decisions which copied from the MAGA playbook, and talk about nothing else with the press until the end of the week’s news cycle Friday afternoon. Impeachment won’t go anywhere at least until after the 2026 elections, and maybe never, given the subservient Republicans in both Houses but still would make a necessary statement.

House Republicans appear to be struggling to avoid a government shutdown in late March when all the money runs out, squabbling amongst themselves. Maybe it’s time for us to stand by and let that happen. I know this has clearly harmful and costly potential, but what other more effective weapons do we have to halt the Musk-Trump hurricane? If so many thousands of workers have already been furloughed, maybe temporarily laying off some more won’t be that terrible.

More broadly, take a page from MAGA and at least threaten to primary every Democrat who votes the go along to get along ticket. Recruit candidates in every district where the incumbent temporizes about support for a truly liberal agenda or urges incrementalism or wait and see what happens. It is of course too much to expect that primary opponents will succeed in replacing the incumbent; the goal, rather, is to push our people into a good direction, using the clearly effective MAGA strategy only in this case as a power for liberal movement. A primary candidate only need be someone unafraid to speak out in public and with enough energy -- and a few contributors -- to give a speech a week to a service organization or political rally in the district; if you don’t have that energy, help to fund someone who does and is willing.

If you are so inclined, now is a good time to write something to express your anger and frustration. A note to a friend who might be like minded but not yet politically active. A letter to the editor. An e-mail to your local Democratic Party chair urging more outspoken resistance, maybe with an offer to increase your own participation when the party rediscovers its roots. Here are some websites of groups working to preserve this democracy: ACLU (aclu.org), Democracy Forward (democracyforward.org), Public Citizen (citizen.org); Indivisible (indivisible.org) makes it simple to address issue letters or e-mails to your representatives. Give some thought what other suggestions you might have to increase our presence and counter the MAGA revolution. I hope you will think seriously of people to whom you might forward this to invite them to join our little group. And as always please comment freely and disagree if you wish.

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a litigation attorney with emphasis on medical-legal issues, pro tem judge, law writer and lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz. He can be contacted at liberalmind@werchick.com.