Words fail me – but they’re all I have, or so it seems as I sit here at a table in my new apartment. They ain’t enough! Not as I read the news and feel . . . something . . . rise, politically and socially, and presume to be the American future.

Is this the rise of fascism? I use this word with uncertainty. I have never lived within its brutal purview and do not live within it now, as I write about the increasingly bizarre – and terrifying – presidency of Donald Trump. I feel no constraint as I write, no need to be cautious with my words. I feel no eyes on me, ever-assessing the loyalty of  the opinions I express. I feel no fear, only outrage, as the snarky and bumbling “supreme leader” wannabe tells us who our enemies are. Can’t someone shut this fool up?

But then I read the news and, often enough, learn there’s a further Trump transgression today, a further grab for authoritarian dominance. And I have to look deeply at this freedom I think I have and acknowledge that it’s vulnerable. If others – other Americans, other human beings – can lose it, so can I. I can become the enemy.

Brad Bannon nails it in his Sept. 10 report: “Jobs are down, prices are up and Trump is in trouble . Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.    

Bannon refers to a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that “paint an astonishingly bleak picture of the Trump economy.” He continues. “The nation created few jobs in August, and BLS added to the grim portrait by taking off the board almost a million jobs that had supposedly been created over the last year.” 

And the economy is still affected by inflation. On this, Bannon points out that 

Wednesday, October 11, 6-8pm
GRND, Ground x Grind, 1106-1108 E. Main St., Columbus, OH 43205

Signature Drive + Info Session hosted by OFUPAC x the Columbus Safety Collective Campaign (CSCC).

We’re organizing to create a nonpolice emergency response system that serves all Columbus residents — rooted in care, anti-racism, and true community safety.

This is your chance to:

An interview recently with the United Auto Worker’s (UAW) Sean Fain was a time and temperature check on the reform movement in the union that propelled his election several years ago. Before that, the long running efforts of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is known to many and continues to be active. We talked to Ken Paff of the TDU several years ago on Wade’s World and it’s clear the fire still burns.

More than fifty years ago, the reform movement that caught all of our attention was centered on the Mine Workers of America, which, even though declining, was still in the 60s and 70s, a major factor in both the labor movement and the US economy. The Miners for Democracy (MfD) rose in reaction to the assassination of Jock Yablonski and members of his family, a reformer who had lost a contested election unfairly to Tony Boyle. MfD was a rank-and-file effort that consolidated around Arnie Miller, a leader among miners campaigning to get health relief from black lung that was killing many. This was a huge campaign that attracted attention both inside and outside of the labor movement back then, even though not well-known now.