A couple of days after the election, I was talking to a relative. I told her I was worried whether my marriage to my husband would remain legal across the United States now that Donald Trump was getting a second term in the White House.
She told me confidently that I didn’t have to worry, because “the Supreme Court is keeping things the way they are now.”
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the authors of Project 2025 indicate otherwise.
This conversation, and several others, have led me to believe that a lot of people who voted to return Donald Trump to office don’t fully realize what he and his allies have said, rather clearly, that they intend to do regarding the rights of immigrants, transgender people, women, the news media and many other groups.
Either 1) they don’t fully realize; 2) they don’t believe his administration will actually do these things; or 3) they’re happy with these things happening and/or don’t care. For my sanity’s sake, I am going to assume No. 1 is correct.
I know people are unhappy with how a lot of things are going right now. Exit polls showed the driving force behind many votes was the economy. All the “official” numbers—the gross domestic product stats, the employment rates, the stock markets—indicate that the economy is doing quite well. However, many inflation-weary Americans are feeling a different reality; look at the struggles of sit-down chain restaurants as one example of this. Trust me, I get it.
What I don’t get is … well, pretty much everything else.
Here’s an example of something voters may not realize they’ve greenlit: Late January and February of next year could be among the most chaotic months in our nation’s history as far as the federal government is concerned.
In a story published on Nov. 16, CNN reported:
In mid-September, as tech billionaire Elon Musk intensified his efforts to elect Donald Trump as president, a wave of letters arrived at the Department of Transportation, asking the agency to turn over any emails and text messages that federal workers sent about the world’s wealthiest man and his sprawling technology empire.
The requests were like thousands of others sent in the past two years by Trump-allied groups seeking to identify perceived partisans within the federal government. Some have focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, others on employees who shared “off the record” information with reporters and on emails referencing “climate change.”
It’s a massive fishing expedition that has already sent a chill through federal agencies bracing for Trump’s second term.
With Trump set to return to the White House with a promise to shrink the federal government and eliminate civil servants seen as obstacles to his agenda, the groundwork laid by these groups could serve as a road map for a mass purging of personnel.
It seems downright un-American to purge the government of employees based not on their performance, but their views on certain topics as expressed in emails or on social media … but it looks like that’s where we’re headed.
Those of us here at the Reno News & Review are dedicated to covering all of this as things unfold. This publication’s mission statement begins with: “Since 1993, the Reno News & Review has been the source of independent news, arts coverage, commentary and culture for Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Minden, Gardnerville and the Lake Tahoe area. We believe in true, honest journalism: We want to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted. We want to be a mirror for the entire greater Reno-Sparks area. We want to inform, enlighten and entertain.”
In 2025, we’re going to be focusing on the “afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted” portion by explaining and contextualizing what happens in our community as a result of the Trump administrations action’s (and inactions). If the president-elect does a mere fraction of what he’s promised, we’ll have a lot of stuff—awful, heartbreaking stuff—to cover.
Our nation is getting what it wants—what our collective “we” voted for. I am certain that the vast, vast majority of us, Trump voters included, won’t like what we eventually get. We’ll all find out soon enough. God help us.