This is a short post.

We’re only three days into Post-Republic American, and people are still stumbling through the ruble in some state of shock, rightly focusing on the almost immediate instances of racial intolerance and individual acts of violence that are being  documented all over the internet.  And everyone is bracing for the coming civil unrest and violence on a scale not seen since the late 1960s. As the shock wears off over the weekend, that’s when the night sweats and real Terror will kick in, when—like a gambler who just lost his life’s savings–we realize how much is gone and that we can never get it back.

Or maybe people just turn inward and resolved, and Post-Republic political life will have the dynamism and energy of a one-party state like Egypt.

Regardless of all that please remember in your prayers the social safety net, particularly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Actually, don’t just pray for them, let your congress person know that you will devote your life to their defeat, if they dare to destroy these programs that have been a pillar of middle class prosperity. If Trump voters really were voting for more stable economic futures for themselves and their families, then I assume they weren’t voting to dismantle the social safety net. Maybe that’s one thing that Trump and Hillary voters can agree upon.

I doubt that Trump has thought about Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid for even five minutes and is only vaguely aware that they exist. I don’t think he gives two shits about them one way or the other.  If someone whispered in his ear that we should extend Medicare to all Americans, he’d be fine with it. But, that’s not what’s being whispered in his ear.

The right wing of the Republican Party opposed Social Security from the start. Opposed Medicare and Medicaid from the start and to this day. (Republicans in the senate and House broke almost evenly on the Medicare vote in 1965, 13 for 17 against in the Senate, 70 for and 68 against in the House.  But, that Republican Party had a large moderate and even liberal wing in the Northeastern states. It was the party of Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob Javits and that party hasn’t existed for a very long time.

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are square in Paul Ryan’s and the Right’s sites. They’ve been waiting for years for this, and the moment has arrived. Particularly if Senate Republicans eliminate the filibuster.

I want to keep this short so just three last points:

• I’ll make no long defense of these program here except to note that Social Security eliminated mass poverty among the elderly, which was a very big problem before Social Security. Thanks to Medicare, the elderly are the only segment of the population that enjoys near universal health insurance.
• The GOP won’t technically destroy these programs. They would leave something in place called “Medicare”, but it won’t be anything resembling the current program, but rather be reduced to some inadequate block grants to states, or health care tax vouchers or personal health savings accounts.
• They’ll say we can’t afford Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid anymore. That they are reforming them to save them; that we have to burn the village to save it. They’ve been saying this about Social Security since 1939 and about Medicare since 1965 and certainly since the Reagan Administration in 1980. And it’s not true. In fact, Reagan proved that lie by working with congressional democrats in 1983 on legislation that ensured Social Security’s solvency to this very day.  These programs are well-managed and stable, but they won’t be if the ruling party in our now one-party country destroys them.

So, whether you voted for Trump or are making personal decisions about what role you will play in whatever resistance movements arise, please insist that your representatives in congress don’t destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.