I thought it would take more than three days for President Donald Trump to begin the process of turning the US into a police state. On January 25, Trump delivers a devastating blow to affirmative action and DEI in his first days in office. Federal workers are now expected to report coworkers who have hidden or masked the State Department’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, beginning with those working under Marco Rubio. If they don’t within ten days, there can be unidentified negative repercussions.
Shooting? Perhaps. Trump is committed to reducing the number of federal employees. Prison? That wouldn’t surprise me. People who violently attempted to overthrow a free and fair election are being released in this new upside-down world, so it’s not outlandish to think that the government will imprison those who refuse to report colleagues for attempting to level the playing field. Citizens are required to inform one another under totalitarian governments. That hasn’t involved the US government up to this point. Immigrants come here to avoid this kind of injustice.
It’s unclear what will replace the federal organizations and agencies that Trump and his associates are destroying. Trump supporters might discover that the outcome differs from their expectations, but it might be too late by then. Sadly, the rest of us will have to deal with the fallout as well.
Portland’s Erika Giles
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