Americans are coming to terms with a future being taken from them | Opinion
Steven Stern, Psy.D., is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Portland.
I traveled over a recent weekend, so I had the opportunity to observe many people: in airports, hotels and restaurants, walking on the streets of a major city, and enjoying the public parks. Then I returned to Portland, where I have an office on Commercial Street, and can observe vacationers here to enjoy our beautiful city and state.
I’m not sure if what I am noticing is real or a projection of my own current state, but my sense is that most people — people of all ages, including children — look grim and unhealthy, as if there were no longer a promising future to look forward to, only the uncertain, very worrying present.
I am a psychologist and psychoanalyst by profession, so I have a lifetime of practice reading people’s physical demeanors, trying to sense the emotions behind their appearance. My strong sense is that no matter what most people are doing in the present, a subtle depression emanates from most or all of them.
My analysis of these observations is that most Americans are consciously or subconsciously aware that their future is in the process of being taken from them. I realized that this is really the Trump administration’s intention: to steal our future and dishearten us to the point that we give up in passive resignation, feeling helpless to do what would be necessary to reclaim and help shape our future.
Stealing is the right word. Trump and company, including his allies in Congress and on the Supreme Court, are literally setting out to steal: our elections and voting rights; our freedom of speech and freedom of the press; our tax monies; our educational and cultural institutions and their essential freedoms; any sense of justice and protection under the law and the feeling of safety that comes from an ethically, lawfully grounded justice system; affordable healthcare and reliable, scientifically based health information and healthcare guidance; our rights to control our own bodies and freely live our sexual identities; our efforts to preserve and protect the natural environment and the planet as a whole; and ultimately, the majority of Americans’ standards of living and any future aspirations for achieving something approaching what used to be called the American Dream.
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They have also stolen the sense of belonging from at least half the citizenry, and here I refer not only to immigrants — who have been the most stolen from. When our president announces that he hates all Democrats, for the first time in my lifetime half of all Americans are being made to feel unwelcomed, uncared about by the president of the United States, and really like enemies of the state. Much as I would want that not to affect me, it does.
And, of course, Trump and his allies are slowly seeking to steal our true history by prohibiting any recognition of our country’s historical embrace of slavery, racism and genocide.
Finally, they are seeking to steal the Constitution itself, by chipping away at it and the vision of America that it embodies.
I believe that this grand theft is not just affecting Democrats and independents; it is affecting all Americans — even the large group that is still identified with MAGA and ostensibly feeling comfortable with what Trump is doing. Somewhere “deep down” I believe even that group must sense the scale of the theft that’s underway.
At the very least, many must be worried about the threats to their own well-being, should the administration seek to dismantle or seriously compromise Medicare and Social Security. If we think of what Trump did to the Reflecting Pool, do we really trust him with our essential social welfare programs, let alone the country as a whole and its future?
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