Starting in 2024, the court began expanding the power of the presidency.  On July 1, it ruled that a president has immunity from both former and future official acts, however wrong they might be.  Almost a year later, the court limited the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions to block presidential policies.  In subsequent decisions, the court continually ruled in favor of presidential authority, allowing the executive to cancel monies authorized by Congress, fire governmental employees, even to the point of reducing a department’s effectiveness to act.  The most recent case was the demolition of the Department of Education.

     Most of the right-wing justices, three of them appointed by Trump, define themselves as “Originalists.”  They argue that the original Constitution should be the model for what follows after.  This belief actually goes against what the Founding Fathers wanted, since they included the power to amend as Article V of the document –- the only exceptions being that the slave trade could not be halted until 1808 and that no state should be deprived of having two Senators.  The current “Originalists” overturned Roe v. Wade in part on the grounds that the right to privacy did not exist in the original Constitution.  Neither did votes for women, although of course slavery did.  The irony or wrong-headedness of these rulings seems to have escaped them.

     What these recent decisions have done is create what some have called an “Imperial Presidency.”  I would call it a “Monarchial Presidency.”  The entire Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence, was written to free Americans from a monarchy.  Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution states that “the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government” –- that is, a government that is not a monarchy.  The current Supreme Court has failed to do that.

     A common symbol for the separation of powers in the U.S. government is that of a three-legged stool.  One leg for the executive, one for the legislature, and one for the courts.  We now have a “one-legged stool,” since the spineless Republican-dominated Congress has done everything the president wants and so has the Supreme Court.  A “one-legged stool” will not hold –- instead it represents authoritarianism.  Only popular demonstrations and rebellions can overthrow that.  There’s a reason that the recent June 14th march was called “No Kings.”  5,000,000 Americans marched then; I hope even more will join together on this Labor Day in September..

These two methods are how I’ve been coping.  Both are necessary for me to keep functioning during these hard times.

     First, protest.  This is valuable both personally and communally.  Personally, because it feels great to be doing something to combat Trump’s growing authoritarianism; communally because it’s wonderful to be taking action among like-minded people.

     The largest demonstration I’ve been to so far was “Hands Off” on April 5th.  Here in New York, so many people gathered that I couldn’t get into Bryant Park where it began.  We all marched down Fifth Avenue to 20th Street and whenever I looked forward or backward I saw an unbroken sea of people.  Many carried the “Hands Off” signs that had been handed out; other posters were individual and creative.  Among my favorites were “The Elephant in the Womb,” “Don’t Call Trump A Cunt – He’s Not Warm Enough or Deep Enough,” and “God Must Love Gays or He Wouldn’t Have Made Us So Cute.”  Everyone was friendly and helpful and of course we all were on the same side.

     I’ve been to two smaller demos this spring.  Both were downtown in Foley Square and both attracted a lot of participants.  The first was to champion academic freedom, as Trump had recently attacked both Columbia, which caved, and Harvard, which didn’t.  (I joked to friends that I never thought I’d be on the same side as Harvard.)  Participants were either young college students or old faculty as it was held during working hours when many middle-aged people were employed.  The second went from 5 to 7 p.m. and many more people attended.  They were not only of all ages, but also all ethnicities.  There were excellent speakers and for the first time, I heard AOC live –- she was terrific!

     My next protest, which I hope you will join, is No Kings Day on Saturday, June 14th.  This is Trump’s birthday and he’s planning to have a military parade to honor him in Washington which will cost millions of dollars.  There are hundreds of demonstrations against this folly planned throughout the nation.  You can easily find one by typing its title into your computer.

     For me, balancing these political actions requires escapism.  I need just to be frivolous for a while.  My two favorite methods are reading and television.  I read mysteries (which always turn out to be solved) and rom-coms, which display humor and love in equal doses.  On tv I adore “The Great British Baking Show,” which has nothing to do with my actual life.  They tried to do this program in the U.S., but Americans are too competitive;  in Britain, the bakers are so nice to each other.  I also loved “Madame Secretary,” which stars an empathetic female Secretary of State who (spoiler alert) eventually becomes President.  I also watch tv mysteries as well as Antiques Roadshow, which for me is the perfect soporific: I never take a sleeping pill; I just watch this show.  So this is how I cope and I hope these tactics help you as well.     

     For my longtime subscribers, my apologies for not having written a blog recently.  I was busy crafting a book proposal for Verso to publish my memoir, A Broad View of History: My Feminist Life.  This was quite difficult, as they wanted each chapter condensed to a short paragraph.  I kept remembering an adage of Benjamin Franklin’s that I used to tell my classes: “If I had more time I would have written you a shorter letter.”  The first publisher I sent my proposal to was, of course, the Feminist Press, but their portal asked for books by young, non-binary, women of color, so three strikes for me.  If you have any other suggestions of where I should send it, please let me know.  Thank you.