It’s pretty obvious where this is headed. An entire government of billionaires, sex pests, and vindictive ideologues. I know exactly how this works, because it’s where I grew up. Bigotry defending wealth is exactly how the Big Mules ran Alabama for…well, ever.
So what does that look like? Well, for starters, you’re in trouble if you’re wrong. The constant bashing of trans people is an easy hook for them, because there are so few trans people and they don’t have the legal protections or allies that helped fight the civil rights battles of the 50s and 60s. But that’s the easy target. Other people and institutions on the hit list include gay people, especially ones who got married or want to. Women, especially ones who want control of their own bodies. Anyone who relies on Social Security or Medicare. The whole point is: the rich get richer and no one thwarts them.
So if you’re rich, it will be easy. Especially if you’re white and male. If you’re a racial minority, if you’re any sort of minority that isn’t white, if you’re a woman, if you are in any way different, it’s going to be varying degrees of bad. The problem is, in Alabama, in my lifetime, there was always at least the possibility of the Feds stepping in when things became excessive. But that’s been torched too – the Supreme Court has basically seen to that, and the incoming administration is content to act with impunity because there is no one to judge them. God’s away on business.
So how shall we then live? Well, look at Birmingham. Black folk made it. They endured. They protected their culture as best they could. They suffered and had to look over their shoulders, and they took blows on multiple fronts, but they also supported each other and their culture and communities. And those who had – like AG Gaston, who became a Black millionaire in Birmingham during the Great Depression – used their money and power on behalf of those who had neither. We need to remember this: it’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be pleasant, and a lot of people are going to hurt. We just have to protect everyone we can, never give an inch of ground, and always be on the lookout for opportunities to fight back.
This is our new normal. The kind of society I ran from for thirty years has caught up to me, at least until there’s a good plan for affordable foreign retirement in a more committed democracy. California may be Birmingham, the Bay Area the Southside, and San Francisco the Five Points South, but those are all still in Alabama. We’re all in Alabama now. I know what it’s like to live in this, and I don’t want to, but I have some sense of how. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to be constantly thinking about the alternatives.