Opinion: Some of us won’t survive Trump. That’s not left-wing hysteria.

In the time that has passed since the painful results of Election Day, like others, I have been using social media to connect with friends and other like-minded individuals, and also just to see what was out there. One recurring theme I’ve seen is “we will survive this.”
This, however, was not just a bump in the road, nor simply a misguided wrong turn that maybe we can fix in four years.
This was America showing us her true face, for those who may not have been paying attention, or who simply did not want to believe all of what we were seeing in the mirror. I include myself in that second group. This was a stress fracture inflicted on a nation where far too many people still see “us” and “them” instead of “us,” and my growing concern is this may be a fracture that cannot be repaired.
What happened was not about what Kamala Harris did wrong, or what Joe Biden did wrong. Both of them gave their all, trying to rescue a broken nation from itself.
It is America that has failed, and we will all pay the price. That includes Trump’s supporters, as they are about to find out. It also includes much of the rest of the world, as the devastating projected impact of Trump’s stated policies — such as mass deportation and excessive tariffs, not to mention letting Russia’s Vladimir Putin do whatever he wants with Ukraine — will send shock waves far beyond our domestic situation.
I’m glad to see the sense of community and encouragement that has survived an event that most of us never imagined could happen once, let alone a second time. Mutual support and encouragement are essential. But with respect, I also think it’s time to be brutally honest about what has happened to us, and to take an honest measure of the threat we are likely facing.
The first step is to acknowledge the fact that while most of us will survive this, it’s likely some of us won’t. This isn’t hyperbole or left-wing Chicken Little hysteria; it is simply a sober assessment of what Trump has already told us he plans to do.
For those of us who do survive this, the next four years — or longer — will be something to endure, as we figure out how to make it through to the other side.  Survival will not necessarily be a reason to feel thankful during the coming storm, but constantly nervous and afraid because of the reckless uncertainty this rage-fueled administration will bring in its wake.
So it’s not whether America has the potential to repair itself. We did eventually manage to get rid of slavery, after all. But that course correction took a Civil War, which nearly destroyed the country, and after slavery had inflicted unspeakable horrors upon hundreds of thousands of enslaved people every day for more than 200 years.
See, when we talk about how we overcame certain horrific periods in history, we need to recall all the pain, suffering and wreckage that was endured for nearly unendurable periods of time before the end finally came. Joy may come in the morning, as I often heard in church, but there are times when the darkness of night puts a lengthy pause on the sunrise.
This may be one of those times. Trump’s election is a step backward that, at its worst, could cost us nearly every step of progress we ever made.
White supremacy — and the legitimization of violence to make it the law of the land — has been part of this nation since its founding. Donald Trump has openly expressed support and admiration for the purveyors of white supremacist ideology, not just in the United States but elsewhere around the world, such as his fawning relationship with Hungary’s white supremacist leader Victor Orban, who already “predicts” Trump will abandon Ukraine, and was the first European leader to congratulate him on his victory.
Opinion:Trump’s mass deportation plan for undocumented immigrants would change Michigan
We need to get real about what’s coming, and we can start with the cornerstone of Trump’s re-election strategy, namely the proposed mass deportation of illegal immigrants. According to a recent post by noted historian and political commentator Heather Cox Richardson on Substack, “…deporting up to 20 million people will be a logistical nightmare and is projected to cost from $88 billion to $315 billion a year. At the same time, much of the U.S. economy depends on undocumented immigrants, and Republican businessmen will certainly object to losing their workers.”
Such an operation would also require thousands of Americans to supplement such a massive effort by turning on their fellow Americans, alerting authorities if a neighbor was suspected of harboring an “illegal,” a “terrorist,” etc. Largely non-white communities such as Dearborn and southwest Detroit could become targeted communities, viewed as harboring “undesirables.”
Opinion:These Republicans said they would oppose a national abortion ban. Will they?
Then there is the issue of abortion rights. Although Trump and his team tried to noticeably backpedal from opposition to abortion rights during the campaign, once it became unavoidably obvious how unpopular the issue has become among the majority of Americans, he and his administration can do as they like, because he won the election.
The fact that women have already died as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade, courtesy of the justices Trump appointed, no longer represents a barrier to him becoming president, and is no longer a reason to scale back the anti-abortion rhetoric. Trump no longer has to pretend he wants to be the protector of women.
When it comes to our health, Robert Kennedy Jr., who is expected to play a key role in shaping Trump’s healthcare policies, has said he intends to eliminate the Nutrition Department at the FDA. What does this mean? From the FDA:
“FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) administers the Foods Program. CFSAN ensures the safety of the human food supply, dietary supplements, and cosmetics, as well as the proper labeling of foods and cosmetics. The Foods Program is responsible for a safe food supply and ensuring FDA regulations and guidance provide clear and reliable direction and assistance to industry, both inside and outside the United States, with a goal to obtain high rates of compliance with standards necessary to protect public health and meet consumer and stakeholder expectations.”
As for those interested in protesting against anything Trump doesn’t want you to protest, he’s talked about essentially stamping out any unwanted protests, by any means necessary.
From the ACLU: “Trump has already indicated that his administration would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to America’s cities — potentially targeting those with large BIPOC and immigrant communities — to suppress the right to protest. Trump has also indicated that his administration would attack online free expression by forcing media companies and online platforms to carry conservatives’ preferred speech.”
For those who want a deep dive into how bad this could get, make time to read Project 2025. That should provide about all the details you need. Mass deportation and the complete eradication of abortion rights are key elements of that project.
Opinion: How we can save Americaafter Nov. 5 presidential election
I still believe that the best way for us to survive as a country after the election is to eliminate the concept of “us” versus “them” and consider all of “us” Americans as simply “us,” no matter how radically we may disagree, as I wrote in my last column. Because once we give ourselves permission to write off a particular segment of the country, then it becomes easier the second time, and on and on until we no longer have a country, just a bunch of self-righteous settlements perpetually at war with one another.
I still believe that America can be an us. I’m just hoping we haven’t passed the point of no return.
Free Press contributing columnist Keith A. Owens is a local writer and co-founder of Detroit Stories Quarterly and the We Are Speaking Substack newsletter and podcast. Submit a letter to the editor atfreep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.