It seems like many of us, especially Generation Z, have been living in “unprecedented times” since the moment we were born. Following a terrifyingly historic first two weeks of presidency, President Donald J. Trump has rung in his second term with shock after shock.
Between the long list of executive orders, including pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the “weaponization of the federal government,” each day brings more breaking news than the last. The bounds of the Constitution are being violated and challenged in a way they never have before.
Knowing what we are dealing with is a step in the right direction. This rapid-fire strategy used by the Trump administration is called “flooding the zone” and is a tactic used to distract constituents from hanging onto any one controversial or chaotic attempt at this radical shift in policy.
New executive orders, with little progress towards his promise of lower gas and grocery prices, became business as usual with evidently no end in sight, as these are only a handful of the radical changes the Trump administration promised to make.
So how are we to combat the need to be informed against the insane mental stress of existing in a time of increasing difficulty? Moreover, in an overwhelmingly polarized country, what are we to do within our communities to protect ourselves from the zone flooding and organize?
Civil rights and education attorney, Jagir Patel, described this tactic coupled with the unprecedented constitutional challenges this administration has taken part in, as a new and distinctive spectacle.
“The intent is to make it so that we the people, in particular people who may want to oppose such actions, are either fatigued—there’s a tiredness to it and we’d just rather look away cause that’s just easier than engaging with such news—or meant to confuse without any sense of how to address each singular action,” Patel said.
The idea is to keep us so overwhelmed that we lose our ability to organize or oppose the detrimental actions of this administration. The pillars of our livelihoods being changed with the stroke of a pen requires us to engage, replacing our focus with worry and exhaustion.
The expressed danger of these actions should be alarming. This administration is working quickly to undo much of the progress made to protect the American people, and it is nothing to take lightly. It feels as though we will be living in a 1940s American period drama by next month being that ideas and initiatives such as DEI, women and gender studies, and race and wealth integration are under constant attack.
Junior sociology major Bethany Bailey shared some habits she has adopted for herself and her community that have the potential to provide at least temporary peace of mind to those who are conflicted, frustrated, and fearful of which direction to put their focus during these times.
“Pouring into our communities whether that be by organizing, volunteering with local organizations and nonprofits, or congregating with loved ones is what will help us maintain our faith in each other and hope for a better future based on our efforts as a united front. We need each other the most right now,” Bailey said.
As easy as it is to get pulled into a cycle of anger and confusion, the direction we need to look in is the people around us.
Having worked in the White House on a range of significant civil rights and education programs, as well as teaching constitutional and administrative law at Howard, Patel asks himself: What can I control from where I am?
“It’s important to get angry and there might be avenues to communicate that to your representatives who have more control than you do to influence the policy,” he said. “But these policies are being rolled out and affecting real people, so how can I use my skills, my time [and] my resources to support those people?”
These on-the-ground practical action steps are a way for us to feel as though we have authority over some things. Although most people are not in a position to directly influence these policies as they occur, some people in power are relying on us getting lost in the flood.
As important as it is to stay aware and hold healthy apprehension for the future of our country and our neighbors, now is the time in which we are forced to come together as a community and use our remaining time, energy, skills and resources.
“It’s that balance of not losing sight of what’s good and what’s right and the work we need to do, but we need to have fun and be happy,” Patel said. “We have to build that shield.”
Relying on the foundations of community in an increasingly polarizing country is vital. That is not to say that information is not power, because it certainly is, however, when we grant ourselves permission to leave the news vortex momentarily and focus on who we can take care of right in front of us, we are already disrupting the distracting tactics being used to keep our heads spinning.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
