| Image by Elaine J.E. Degale
In a May 2004 commencement address at Wellesley College, Toni Morrison describes a democracy in crisis. She declared a cautiously optimistic stance that a “burgeoning ménage à trois of political interests, corporate interests, and military interests will not prevail and literally annihilate an inhabitable, humane future”. While she acknowledged history’s role in the civic achievements we enjoy in this current generation, she also encourages the youth to push their worldviews beyond the status quo because there is a poignant liberation promised for our democracy’s future if “we are willing to identify its evasions, its distortions, its lies, and are willing to unleash its secrets”.
In his first 100 days in the White House, Donald J. Trump has issued more executive orders than any U.S. president in modern history—144 and counting. Notable scholars on fascism, like Yale Professor Jason Stanley, a child of Holocaust survivors, have fled the United States for Canada, along with other scholars who are seeing funding cuts on their college campuses. Politico reported that out of 690 postgraduate researchers who responded to a poll in the publication Nature, 548 said they were considering leaving the U.S altogether.
I understand the instinct. I, too, am currently overseas, not out of fear but out of necessity—to witness and document the unfolding consequences of what increasingly feels like a slow-motion murder of democratic ideals cloaked in populist rhetoric. For many years, scholars have come to the United States to study freely, but under the Trump administration, there have been significant hurdles placed upon individuals who are trying to conduct research that elevates the social conditions of humanity. With Trump’s outward disdain for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, America is seeing a “reverse brain drain” as scholars and researchers are either arrested for their political activism, while universities are facing the overreaching power grab devised by the Trump administration to quell the historic site of revolutions in America.
It seems all this chaos is not accidental—it’s tactical. In the language of Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, this is disaster capitalism at work. Initially conceived by economist Milton Friedman and exported throughout Latin America and the Middle East, the doctrine thrives in moments of societal disorientation. It exploits fear, foments division, and dismantles public institutions—all under the guise of “freedom” and “efficiency.” Friedman’s vision of self-regulating markets and minimal government has always tilted the scales in favor of the elite. We see that the same “free market faith” turned inward, reshaping America itself.
“However, because Trump is such a chaotic agent, it is hard to be sure exactly which side of the coin he lies on. The good news is that his decade-old pursuit of enforcing the Shock Doctrine within American shores is finally waking people up out of the race-chauvinism that dominated mainstream political thought, shifting the conversation to wealth inequality.”
This same “free market faith” that is so concerned with transforming government into a private enterprise is perhaps something I previously misunderstood. I had previously believed that Trump was defending the eminence of the American dollar. But lately, it seems Trump’s chaos machine may be betting against it. It is a dangerous game flirting with legitimizing cryptocurrency as the dollar’s successor, not just to sidestep traditional finance, but perhaps to outmaneuver China’s digital yuan. Of course, with Trump, it’s hard to know whether he’s strategizing or simply winging it with uncanny instincts for disruption. However, because Trump is such a chaotic agent, it is hard to be sure exactly which side of the coin he lies on. The good news is that his decade-old pursuit of enforcing the Shock Doctrine within American shores is finally waking people up out of the race-chauvinism that dominated mainstream political thought, shifting the conversation to wealth inequality.
In an MSNBC interview, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland said that “they want to dismantle everything from Meals on Wheels to Head Start, child nutrition programs, you name it. This is a war between the richest people in America against the middle class, the working class, and the poor. And that is the only way to understand what they are doing,” said Baskin. “This is an elite attack on the programs that democracy has built.”
Trump’s chaos isn’t random. It’s a racket. Every disaster is an opportunity when you have enough money to make the stars bend a knee. After 9/11, the U.S. launched a War on Terror that enriched defense contractors but failed to deliver the promised “freedom and democracy.” Over two decades later, Trump is back in office not just as president, but as the de facto ambassador of Saudi golf diplomacy—brokering deals between the PGA and LIV while marketing meme coins and hosting $5 million dinners at Mar-a-Lago. Satire is no longer necessary. Reality is absurd enough.
All this in just 100 days!
I’m going to say something controversial here, but perhaps the enemy isn’t the elites in their entirety; perhaps we need the richest 1% who can’t stand Trump to help us fight Trump to win our democracy back.
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Editor’s Note: The Philippine Daily Mirror welcomes Elaine J.E.. Degale as a columnist. Ms. Degale’s column, The Dreamweaver, will appear every Thursday. Her articles will be in the guest column as her handle is being prepared. Her initial column, We Are Sub-Saharan, was published on March 23, 2025.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elaine Joy Edaya Degale is a Black-Filipina writer and lecturer at community colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY) and has an Ed.M. and M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University.
She graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied International Relations and Development, and continues to support literacy and food programming efforts in Indigenous communities through her Community-Based organization, OperationMerienda.org.
