Social media is rife with those whom we’ve come to call “doomers”: those who have given up in the face of oppressive leaders and situations. This is distinct from preparing for the worst. When you prepare, you still believe in your future. Doomers, meanwhile, do not. They are ready to throw in the towel, ready to cast aside any chance of achieving even small wins.
Yes, the horrors of the looming Trump presidency are part of a long-lasting pattern of racial and gendered oppression. He is of a piece with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and countless other American social ills born of systemic inequality. But his being part of a pattern does not mean that we cannot resist him. He has compromised our institutions, but he has not yet destroyed them. The Republicans are a fractious lot, incapable of maintaining discipline even when they have control over the House of Representatives. There are still openings in which we can place roadblocks in front of Trump.
But if you heard doomers, you’d think that this country will turn into Hitler’s Germany the moment he takes the oath of office.
Trump is an authoritarian demagogue and a harbinger of worse things to come if his movement is permitted to survive after his demise, whether political or material. But he is not omnipotent. Do not obey in advance. The reason why totalitarian leaders were able to take control in the first place was that people obeyed in advance, and advance obedience includes dooming.