Reactions to Trump’s new executive orders
As I continue researching for an article I plan to publish on graduate student labor, I recently came across Albert O. Hirschman’s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970). These are all reactions to an unsatisfactory relationship. Exit refers to leaving the relationship. Voice refers to attempts to improve a relationship through communication. Lastly loyalty, the rarest reaction, makes someone hesitant to leave the toxic relationship whether they choice to use their voice or not. There are some ways that exit, voice and loyalty can intertwine as well, as these actions are not mutually exclusive.
Donald Trump took office last week, signing multiple executive orders aligning with the much feared conservative Project 2025. Just a few of these executive orders included withdrawing the USA from the Paris climate agreement, rolling back transgender rights, repealing accessible medical insurance coverage and now allowing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, color, sex and gender with the repeal of Executive Order 11246. As I read more and more of Trump’s executive orders, I became more and more concerned for our future as a country and my future as a chronically ill, mixed-race, asexual, female educator in the red state of North Dakota.
While I read Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, I started thinking about how the theory applies to us Americans who are now in an unsatisfactory (or worse) relationship with Donald Trump as president. I go back to my first thought back on January 6, 2021, where I told my therapist during an intense anxiety attack sparked by the terrorism that I needed an escape plan despite not having a passport at the time. Now that I have a passport, I wonder if I’d have a chance at moving to Canada or elsewhere in the world once I have my PhD. If my education could get me elsewhere, maybe I’d feel safer. Still I wonder if Canada or other countries would even want me as an American, as a chronically ill person, as an asexual or any other pieces of me that are no longer protected from discrimination.
The other option of voice seems scary right now. If I speak up, maybe Trump’s next executive orders target people like me next, accusing me of trying to radicalize my students or openly rejecting God’s plan for women as subservient baby-making machines to further Capitalism. If Trump didn’t listen to the pleas of government officials, church leaders, or other experts in their fields, I highly doubt he’d listen to me. My voice feels worthless. I don’t think it would change the relationship in a positive way. Yet here I am sharing my concerns with readers who I hope can hear my voice and know they are not alone if they’re afraid of what Trump’s new executive orders mean for us. I hope if we are afraid together, we can build a community that cares for each other even if the president’s new laws don’t.
Loyalty once again becomes the less likely reaction with me. I am not loyal to Donald Trump, Elon Musk and whoever else is in power right now. Sometimes, I don’t even feel loyal to America as a country because what is by popular demand is not always what I agree with. I am loyal to my job to serve as a researcher in my field and teach students how to read, research, write and engage in conversation critically. I am loyal to my loved ones, helping them in whatever way I can as I know they would for me. I am loyal to my field, helping others understand dis/ability better and making the world a better place through sharing my research on dis/ability rhetoric. I am loyal to God, being merciful, honest, humble and obedient to the kind person He calls me to be. I am loyal to making the world a better place, including for animals and the environment when I have the power to do such. As far as I’ve seen, Donald Trump does not hold loyalties like these that make the world and our country a better place. Unless I see such, I cannot hold him in enough esteem to even support him let alone be loyal to him.
It’s important to note that sometimes we lack power in relationships to exercise our right to choose exit, voice or loyalty. We may be too poor to move elsewhere, too marginalized to use our voice or too alienated to feel loyalty. In this case, I feel stuck as well. I plan to do these in little ways since I can’t afford to do it in big ways. I exit by retreating to my little home while I have it. I voice my concerns in staff meetings and The Spectrum. I find ways to prove my loyalty to those whom I am loyal too. I encourage you to find little ways to exit, voice or loyalty until you can make the big move you want to make as well.