The day I knew - in my gut, if not my head - that Donald Trump was going to be president was not November 8, 2016. The day I knew was October 27, 2016. That was the day a jury of peers found all of the defendants in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge takeover not guilty.
I had covered the takeover of the refuge on January 2 of that year, when Southern Nevada’s own Ammon and Ryan Bundy led a group of militia members outside of the town of Burns in southeast Oregon into a small federal building run by the Bureau of Land Management. Over the next 41 days, I talked to people about the seeming destruction of native artifacts. I watched video of the militia driving heavy machinery onto land that supported a variety of ecosystems and of them taking down a fence put up by the BLM.
More to the point, I had talked to government types who said that it didn’t matter that the building was small and remote, it was still a federal building. And it had been taken over by a bunch of men who thought slavery was benign.
This is what we call foreshadowing.
So on that fateful day when I heard my Nevada Public Radio colleague announce the jury verdict, I pulled my car over in shock, and said out loud to nobody at all - or perhaps to the universe - “He’s gonna win.”
He, of course, was Trump. And my certainty and disbelief was based on the fact that the rule of law was simply not applied in this case. The jury of ranchers and rural residents - many of whom expressed irritation that a group of self-styled militia members from other states had brought attention to their town - nevertheless sympathized with the argument that people shouldn’t be punished for using federal land however they want without paying for it.
Obviously, they also sympathized with people protesting the issue by invading and occupying a federal building.
Anybody who paid attention to the Malheur refuge occupation in 2016 was not surprised by the January 6 insurrection. One was a rehearsal for the other.
What also angered me at the time was the press’ coverage of the takeover in Oregon.
The New York Times literally used the words “both sides” in its headline.
I cannot imagine them writing, “We Talked to Bonnie and Clyde and Federal Agents to get Both Sides of the Story”
Or, “Both Sides: An Interview with Al Capone”
I searched archives in vain for any “both sides” interviews with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
But these white, Christian men with guns, who used the word “patriot”… they got the benefit of the doubt after they broke into a federal building and sat there for five weeks.
Who Knows…
As Trump now faces his first federal indictment in a town near his home in Florida whose potential jury pool is made up largely of people who voted for him; with a judge who earlier in this case seemed to say that Trump should get special treatment… I worry that the rule of law will once again be ignored.
This documents case is as clear as clear can be. It’s not that he HAD the documents. It’s that he refused to give them back. And even engaged in hiding them and lying to the government about it. I can’t imagine he won’t be convicted of conspiracy obstruction.
But I couldn’t imagine the Bundy gang wouldn’t have gone to jail, either.
So, I am holding my breath. Till August, which I have dubbed “Fani Willis Month.” I am also heartened that Michael McDonald - a perfect example of a Southern Nevada desert invertebrate species - has taken a deal to testify against Trump in the fake electors scheme that he, as the leader of the Nevada Republican Party, took part in. In fact, lots of would-be fake electors have reportedly struck deals with Special Counsel Jack Smith.
I am not one of those people who is desperate to see Trump in an orange jumpsuit (will he just look like he’s wearing flesh-colored clothing?) heading off to jail in handcuffs. That would just be a bonus. Primarily, I want to make sure that neither he nor his supporters get power again so they can put an end to this grand experiment we call democracy.
Could Be…
My gut is telling me something different than I felt on that day in October 2016. Back then, I knew too many people who were ignorant of the white supremacist militia movement, who had never read The Turner Diaries - which is to Christian Nationalism what Mein Kampf was to Nazi Germany. I knew too many people who saw the country was screwed up and felt impotent to do anything to fix it, so they had just checked out.
That, in part, was due to leadership mistakes. Too many of us suffered because the Obama administration failed to adequately fund the recovery after the financial crisis. Except for Wall Street. But that’s another story.
The point is, when Trump was elected, we all saw a government that didn’t work for us, but worked for people with access and money, and we were either angry or hopeless.
Recently, though, I have felt that turn. I am seeing things get done. And our lives getting better because of it.
Heather Cox Richardson has been detailing the tangible results of Biden’s signature infrastructure and inflation reduction legislation in her daily Letters From An American.
On June 22, she quoted economic analyst Steven Rattner, who noted that - because of the Infrastructure Act, The Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act - “new manufacturing construction is growing fast and is on pace to be close to $190 billion this year. In the entire decade of the 2010s, it was less than $100 billion.”
Let’s repeat that: new manufacturing and construction is growing twice as fast in a year than it did in a decade in which government was loathe to help solve a problem it had created with repeal of financial regulations in the 1990s.
We’re all seeing this construction where we live. We all know people who are employed - or more steadily employed. And we all feel the hum of an economy in which people can afford to spend.
It’s even hitting Gen Z.
My daughters read my Wednesday piece about fees and said, “Oh yeah, Ticketmaster is also disclosing its fees.” Because that particular government rule change involves Taylor Swift, people my kids’ age know that the Biden administration did something.
Which introduces them to the concept that government CAN do something.
Around the Corner, Or Whistling Down the River…
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro seemed giddy the last 10 days every time he stepped up to the microphone to announce that his government - with federal funding - was doing something big.
“I’m a governor who believes we can get things done again,” Shapiro told reporters. “We’re going to change that attitude of people being surprised to folks expecting excellence from us.”
Shapiro was talking about the rebuilding of an overpass on I-95 that collapsed on June 11 when a tanker truck overturned and burned beneath it. That stretch of I-95 went through the heart of Philadelphia, and was so crucial that the entirety of eastern Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey were affected. Shapiro reached out. He negotiated with unions to work two, 12-hour shifts a day. He and his team talked to suppliers to get them to rush materials. Then 12 days later, a temporary bridge - made of recycled materials no less - had I-95 open to traffic.
In the last stretch, Shapiro even had to fight the weather gods. In order to keep his promise to have the interstate open by the weekend, the governor reached out to Pocono Raceway for drying machines, so crews could finish their work after a bit of rain.
The rebuilding was a social media hit, too, as the live cam showing the reconstruction attracted thousands of views a day.
When it was done, Shapiro told reporters: “We can get shit done in Pennsylvania.”
This was not a political act. Shapiro isn’t facing reelection anytime soon. This was a policy act. It was a gauntlet, thrown down at the feet of Ronald Reagan and his “nine most terrifying words in the English language.”
Shapiro and Biden are saying very loudly and very clearly: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” And, they’re adding: Watch us do it.
Fingers crossed that people seeing the benefits when government takes action will overwhelm the nihilism and racism that says democracy must die so a few will feel triumphant.
Here’s a bonus graph from Steven Rattner showing the effect of the CHIPS Act: