Aseem Rastogi, Chair of Indivisible Rhode Island

From the February 8th Emergency Rally to End Musk’s Government Takeover

“Since November 6, when we woke up between 3 and 5 a.m., just knowing something was off, we’ve lived in a state of generational panic.”

“Let’s go back in time, if we can, for a moment. The year is 1972. My mother was living in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was born and raised. Just to the west of Kenya is a country called Uganda. My mother was 15 when Idi Amin launched his coup against the Ugandan government. He was uneducated, bumbling, and acted on impulse. He drove away the others, in this case, people who looked like me, known as "The Asians" - deporting them as the ‘enemy within.’ Other countries, including Britain, supported this, as they thought communism was coming and feared its rise in Africa.

“My mother was 15 years old—an ‘Asian’ living one country over. When the deportees and victims of a violent coup boarded the trains, many of them after only one day to get their belongings together and leave their homes forever, traveled into Kenya, my mother and her mother, as well as the other women in their neighborhood, met the trains with food, blankets, water, and clothes. They did not know these people, but they understood the common suffering and took care of their community - regardless of the differences in their nationalities.

“They understood the gravity of the situation - a fool in charge, surrounded by sycophants, with a plan to undermine every institution in the country for his and his friends’ gain. He sold off businesses that had been abandoned due to the exodus and the jailing of the enemy to senior army officers - traitors - who squandered it, along with Uganda’s economy.

“There was no true opposition. There was no opposition party. And where there was, he could not think of any other option but to slaughter them.

“I say all that to say this. The lessons of the past inform the actions of the future. I am a proud first-generation American, the first United States citizen in my family, and a product of the American dream. I grew up in the shadow of Washington D.C., the seat of a government that was a beacon to the free world - that is now under attack, much like it was on January 6th, but now it’s digital and in the shadows.

“We understand the gravity of the results of Election Day nationwide. The election of Donald Trump and subsequent enriching of oligarchs within our country, coupled with the violent rhetoric and action coming from this administration, can only be described as a mirror to my mother’s experience in East Africa 50 years ago. A MAGA majority in both chambers of Congress has no interest in governance, only being the chorus behind the chaos. When the rich wage war, it is the poor who die.

“And yet, after all that - the gravest threat to any of us is an unelected, unqualified, and as Tim Walz called him, ‘dipshit’ in Elon Musk who has been given unilateral access to everything. He has vowed to cut unilateral access to programs like Medicare, Social Security, and global security programs and to steal our tax and financial data to do who knows what. The gravest threat is the vanity project that is becoming a trillionaire at the expense of everyday, hard-working people who benefit and, in some cases, rely on federal programs. That’s why they are there. The gravest threat is the expansion of an empire of riches on the backs of taxpayer money while our infrastructure crumbles and our children and neighbors go hungry.

“And now, our federal employees - who make this country run in the background apolitically - are fighting for their careers. As recently as yesterday, there were first-hand reports of trackers being installed on computers and AI monitoring chats for any possible opposition language. Federal employees are being delivered pizzas as a way to say, "Hey, Elon knows where you live."

“The only difference between this moment and my mother’s firsthand experience of seeing the effects of violent, petulant dictatorship is the will of the people to organize and fight back and the existence of co-equal branches of government filled with people who have the will and determination to be the sand in the gears, to be the actual opposition.

“We’ve made phone calls, visited offices, and sent emails. Some progress has been made, namely the 30-hour opposition to Russ Vought’s nomination and subsequent confirmation. Our Senators were on the floor for those 30 hours, and we are thankful for that. It was a start.

“The purpose today, however, is to make the unequivocal demand that our Senators use every tool available to them to halt this unlawful, unconstitutional administration. To be the public opposition we, as Rhode Islanders, deserve.

“Let me be clear—our federal delegation will know we support them in this fight. As evidenced by the turnout here today, we have their backs to go full steam ahead in bringing the full might of the opposition to the front lines. They need to lead from the front and influence their peers to step up and stop the madness. Capitulation, norming, and negotiation with those intent on tearing up the Constitution are neutral in the face of violence and oppression.

“Neutrality always favors the oppressor.”

[Transcription is edited for clarity.]