You decide it’s best to stay small and not talk openly about your work. Being quiet allows you to have some intimate conversations you might miss if you are more open. Plus, you see many friends burning out by constantly “doing more” to halt the ongoing Trump pronouncements. You resist that tendency. You do your small part and feel good about it.
Through your research, you are able to get some changes made here and there. Due to your research, your town rewrote its ordinances to plant more trees and (at least temporarily) halt expansion of some factories. The EPA, one of the most recognized and appreciated divisions of the government, is underfunded but able to continue to do their work. When a climate-change-fueled fire burns through your city, you are able to provide real-time tracking and data that’s vital for people’s health and safety.
Over the next year, you see small political changes around you. But it feels like barely a dent amidst the national scene. Despite lower poll numbers, Trump continues filling the government with his loyalists. The courts eventually approve his Schedule F reclassification — 50,000 government workers are now being systematically replaced by Trump loyalists. Bureaucratic fights rage across many institutions. Trump installs judges across the country who gerrymander election maps in multiple states to give Republicans long-term power. But your heart tears as you see the language of fear and violence growing: immigrant communities terrified by right-wing militia patrols, increased violence against peaceful protestors, attacks on emissions standards, and exaggerated calls for political arrests.
