Ten reasons for modest optimism Robert Reich Feb 21 Friends, If you are experiencing rage and despair about what is happening in America and the world right now because of the Trump-Vance-Musk regime, you are hardly alone. A groundswell of opposition is growing — not as loud and boisterous as the resistance to Tump 1.0, but just as, if not more, committed to ending the scourge. Here’s a partial summary — 10 reasons for modest optimism. 1. Boycotts are taking hold. Americans are changing shopping habits in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with Trump. Millions are pledging to halt discretionary spending for 24 hours on February 28 in protest against major retailers — chiefly Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy — for scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in response to Trump. Four out of 10 Americans have already shifted their spending over the last few months to be more consistent with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. (Far more Democrats — 50 percent — are changing their spending habits compared with Republicans — 41 percent.) Calls to boycott Tesla apparently are having an effect. After a disappointing 2024, Tesla sales declined further in January. In California, a key market for Tesla, nearly 12 percent fewer Teslas were registered in January 2025 than in January 2024. An analysis by Electrek points to even more trouble for Tesla in Europe, where Tesla sales have dropped in every market. X users are shifting over to Bluesky at a rapid rate, even as Musk adds more advertisers to his ongoing lawsuit against those that have justifiably boycotted X after he turned it into a cesspool of lies and hate (this week, he added Lego, Nestle, Tyson Foods, and Shell). 2. International resistance is rising. Canada has helped lead the way: A grassroots boycott of American products and tourism is underway there. Prime Minister Trudeau has in effect become a “wartime prime minister” as he stands up to Trump’s bullying. Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, is urging Canada to join with leaders in Denmark, Panama, and Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to fight back against Trump’s threats. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is standing up to Trump. She has defended not just Mexico but also the sovereignty of Latin American countries Trump has threatened and insulted. In the wake of JD Vance’s offensive speech at the Munich security conference last week, European democracies are standing together — condemning his speech and making it clear they will support Ukraine and never capitulate to Putin, as Trump has done. 3. Independent and alternative media are growing. Trump and Musk’s “shock and awe” strategy was premised on their control of all major information outlets — not just Fox News and its right-wing imitators but the mainstream corporate media as well. It hasn’t worked. The New York Times has done sharp and accurate reporting on what’s happening. Even the non-editorial side of The Wall Street Journal has shown some gumption. The biggest news, though, is the increasing role now being played by independent and alternative media. Subscriptions have surged at Democracy Now, The American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and, of course, this and other Substacks. As a result, although Trump and Musk continue to flood the zone with lies, Americans aren’t as readily falling for their scams. 4. Musk’s popularity is plunging. Elon Musk is underwater in public opinion, according to polls published Wednesday. Surveys by Quinnipiac University and Pew Research Center — coming just after Trump and Musk were interviewed together by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, with Trump calling Musk a “great guy” who “really cares for the country” — show a growing majority of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Musk. In Pew’s findings, 54 percent report disliking Musk compared to 42 percent with a positive view; 36 percent report a very unfavorable view of Musk. Quinnipiac’s results show 55 percent believe Musk has too big a role in the government. 5. Musk’s Doge is losing credibility. On Monday, DOGE listed government contracts it has canceled, claiming that they amount to some $16 billion in savings — itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half were attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — but that contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation. In addition, Musk and Trump say tens of millions of “dead people” may be receiving fraudulent Social Security payments from the government. The table Musk shared on social media over the weekend showed about 20 million people in the Social Security Administration’s database over the age of 100 and with no known death. But as the agency’s inspector general found in 2023, “almost none” of them were receiving payments; most had died before the advent of electronic records. These kinds of rudimentary errors are destroying DOGE’s credibility and causing even more to question allowing Musk’s muskrats unfettered access to personal data on Americans. 6. The federal courts are hitting back. So far, at least 74 lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys general, nonprofits, and unions against the Trump regime. And at least 17 judges — including several appointed by Republicans — already have issued orders blocking or temporarily halting actions by the Trump regime. The blocking orders include Trump initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship, suspend or cut off domestic and foreign U.S. spending, shrink the federal workforce, oust independent agency heads, and roll back legal protections and medical care for transgender adults and youths. In other cases, the Trump regime has agreed to a pause to give judges time to rule, another way that legal fights are forcing a slowdown. 7. Demonstrations are on the rise. We haven’t seen anything like the January 2017 Women’s March, the day after Trump 1.0 began, but over the past weeks, demonstrations have been increasing across the country. Last Monday, on Presidents Day, demonstrators descended upon state capitol buildings. In Washington, D.C., thousands gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool, chanting “Where is Congress?” and urging members of Congress to “Do your job!” despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts. The nationwide protests are part of the 50501 Movement, which stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” One of its leaders, Potus Black, urged the crowd of protesters in Washington to stand united in order to “uphold the Constitution.” “To oppose tyranny is to stand behind democracy and remind our elected officials that we, the people, are who they’re elected to serve, not themselves. The events over the past month have been built to exhaust us, to break our wills. But we are the American people. We will not break.” I expect that in the coming weeks and months protests will grow larger and louder — and by summer perhaps a “Summer of Democracy” will sweep the nation. Acts of civil disobedience are also on the rise, as are resignations in protest against the regime. This week, former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was hauled out of a Huntington Beach City Council meeting after speaking out against Trump during public comments against plans to include a MAGA reference in the design of a library plaque. As cheers erupted from the audience, Kluwe told the council, in words that should be repeated across the land: “MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.” When he was done speaking, Kluwe said he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.” 8. Stock and bond markets are trembling. Trump has not lowered prices; in fact, inflation is rising under his control. Trump’s wild talk of 25 percent tariffs is spooking the market. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which measures the performance of 30 large-cap U.S. stocks, dropped by more than 1.40 percent. Treasury bonds also dropped after a report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected — an indication the pace of layoffs could be worsening. Transcripts of the last Fed meeting showed that officials discussed how Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, as well as strong consumer spending, could push inflation higher this year. Economic storm clouds like these should be troubling for everyone but especially for a regime that measures its success by stock and bond markets. 9. Trump is overreaching — pretending to be “king” and abandoning Ukraine for Putin. Trump’s threats of annexation, conquest, and “unleashing hell” have been exposed as farcical bluffs — and his displays this week of being “king” and siding with Putin have unleashed a new level of public ridicule. On Wednesday, following his attempt to kill a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The White House shared the quote accompanied by a computer-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover while donning a golden crown. Negative reaction was swift and overwhelming. Social media has exploded with derision. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king.” Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, said, “My oath is to the Constitution of our state and our nation. We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.” The reaction to Trump’s abandoning Ukraine and siding with Putin has been more devastating, putting congressional Republicans on the defensive. Prominent Republican senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Kennedy of Louisiana criticized Putin. Bill Kristol, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, noted that “Nato and the US commitment to Europe has kept the European peace for 80 years. It’s foolish and reckless to put that at risk. And for what? To get along with Putin?” 10. The Trump-Vance-Musk “shock and awe” plan is faltering. In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime’s efforts to overwhelm us are failing. Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed. Their plan was based on doing so much, so fast that the rest of us would give in to negativity and despair. They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear. That may have been the case initially, but we can take courage from the green shoots of rebellion now appearing across America and the world. As several of you have pointed out, successful resistance movements maintain hope and a positive vision of the future, no matter how dark the present. More than 55 years ago, I participated in the resistance to the Vietnam War — a resistance that ultimately ended the war and caused a once powerful president to resign. That resistance gave us courage we didn’t even know we had. It changed American culture, inspiring songs such as “The Times They Are A Changing,” and “Blowin’ In The Wind.” No one person led that anti-war movement. It was an amalgam of groups and leaders spanning more than six years of mobilization and organization, at all levels of society. The Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required over 18 years of organizing, demonstrating, and mobilizing. The current coup is less than five weeks old, and resistance has only begun. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime will fail. Even so, the Democracy Movement now emerging will require at least a decade, if not a generation, to rebuild and strengthen what has been destroyed, and to fix the raging inequalities, injustices, and corruption that led so many to vote for Trump for a second time. Those of you who want the leaders of the Democratic Party to step up and be heard are right, of course. But political parties do not lead. The anti-war movement and the Civil Rights Movement didn’t depend on the Democratic Party for their successes. They depended on a mass mobilization of all of us who accepted the responsibilities of being American. We will prevail because we are relearning the basic truth — that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.