Look for the Helpers

Resistance against Trump is futile unless we build alliances with our First Responders.

Firemen rest after rescue efforts in Beauregard, AL. PBS

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” If you have ever opened a social media app after a tragedy of national proportions you probably have seen this quote superimposed over the smiling face of a cardigan-clad Mister Rogers. Over the weekend, throughout much of the interior United States, there was no shortage of scary things in the news. At least 42 people have died from tornado outbreaks stretching from Tampa Bay all the way north to the Appalachian foothills of Pennsylvania. Many more would have died had it not been for the police, fire, and EMS crews who put themselves in harm’s way to rescue fellow citizens trapped and injured by the storms. Thankfully, if you had looked for the helpers in the aftermath of this devastating weather event, they would not have been hard to find.

Saturday evening, as storms ravaged Alabama and Mississippi, I was attending a ceremony celebrating our local volunteer fire department’s 75th Anniversary. The weather was balmy and calm in Pittsburgh that night, but there were murmurs of rough weather headed our way the next day. “These tornados have been out of control. We’d never even get a Tornado Watch growing up. Now we are getting four or five Tornado Warnings a year,” one firefighter at my table commented. “Same reason why we have to get outfitted for brush fires now…climate change.” While I found his observation fascinating I didn’t press him on the issue. I didn’t ask him whether he thought climate change was manmade or how he would rate his support of a Green New Deal on a scale of 1-10. While I may be a local elected official, I rarely talk politics beyond public safety with our First Responders. When we burned maple sap at our house and set off the alarm, the firefighters didn’t ask my family our opinion on single-payer health insurance or trans rights before answering the call. They just showed up to help in case we needed to be rescued. If the first responders’ dedication to helping the community transcends partisan politics then it is only a courtesy that my efforts to help our first responders get the resources they need should also transcend partisan politics. Stability, decency, and tranquility are not possible in society unless we have commitments to care for one another that go beyond our ideological tribal allegiances.

Despite a Tornado Watch and Severe Thunderstorm Warning, we came out relatively unscathed around here on Sunday, other than a few uprooted trees and widespread power outages. While the weather in Pittsburgh is calm again, another storm is brewing in our country, a storm even more manmade than tornados turbocharged by global warming. On March 8th, Mahmoud Khalil, a green card-holding legal resident graduate student at Columbia University, was apprehended by Federal agents and taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, solely because he was a vocal participant in on-campus protests against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. On March 15th, the Trump administration detained hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of gang connections, loaded them onto planes headed to El Salvador, allowing at least one of those planes to take off after federal district judge James Boasberg issued a directive blocking the deportation flights. Supposed Hamas supporters or potential gang members are not likely to garner much sympathy from the American public, which is no doubt the reason why they were the first targeted by the Trump Administration. But for those paying attention, detention without due process of residents based on nationality and political beliefs sounds a lot like the ominous rumbling of fascism in the distance.

As the storm clouds of Constitutional Crisis build on the horizon, those seeking to build a resistance to Trump’s power grab have been looking for the helpers. They have looked to courts, only to see the Trump administration flouting the orders and directives of judges like James Boasberg. They have looked to the Democratic Party, only to see leaders like Chuck Schumer capitulate to Republicans by signing a Trump-empowering six-month spending bill rather than risk a government shutdown and more chaos on Wall Street. Some are even looking to the National Guard or sidelined generals like Mark Milley to stage some sort of military resistance to Trump. Yet, in discussions about building resistance against Trump, I have yet to see anyone look to the helpers who come to our aid in other emergencies: the First Responders.

If and when the Trump administration attempts to flex its coercive muscle against American citizens, first responders will be the connective tissue between federal authorities and the individuals in your community. Since the 1968 Democratic Convention, when student protestors were clubbed by Mayor Daley’s Chicago PD, liberals have too often regarded First Responders as instruments of the coercive state. Protests and unrest are considered the obvious answer to every social ill, with the police cast in the role of “fascist pig” villains. This instinct within the left has ebbed and flowed. Support for First Responders peaked in the short-lived nationalist unity after 9/11, only to see those sentiments sour again during the calls to “Defund the Police” during the BLM protests of summer 2020. Just as quickly, the tables would turn again in 2021 when Democratic members of Congress cowered in their offices during the January 6th insurrection, giving them a newfound appreciation for the police as an instrument of the state’s monopoly of legitimate violence. With felon Trump leading a government that pardoned the very insurrectionists who assaulted the Capitol police, there is ample opportunity to convince our First Responders that doing the bidding of this administration is not in the interests of those who truly stand for democracy and the protection of the American people.

So what are the best ways for those resisting Trump’s power grab to show their support for first responders? First of all, we must not merely rely on Democratic politicians pivoting to the right with empty “Back the Blue” rhetoric or wasting our First Responders’ time with listening sessions that do little to address the strained budgets and dwindling volunteer numbers plaguing our Fire and EMS organizations. First responders are rightfully skeptical of elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, who show up mainly for photo-ops and shoutouts but do little to ease their budgets or assist in day-to-day operations. Democrats instead need to hold the line for First Responders with assurances that they will stand between them and Trump’s reckless austerity cuts jeopardizing municipal budgets across the nation. On a local level, my Township has implemented generous tax credits for all volunteer First Responders who meet rigorous service criteria. This support should be expanded at a national level. In addition, we need a Medicare for All First Responders bill that ensures all Fire and EMS volunteers are eligible for state-sponsored healthcare. While police often enjoy respectable healthcare plans, many paramedics and volunteer firefighters come to our rescue without healthcare insurance beyond compensation for injuries sustained in the line of duty. Even paid paramedics and EMTs often do not receive employer-provided healthcare as part of their compensation. Expanding Medicare to cover all First Responders and their families would serve as both a meaningful first step toward the dream of universal healthcare and a compelling incentive for younger individuals to join the dwindling ranks of the volunteer fire and EMS companies that keep us safe. Also, while most police will not directly benefit from a Medicare for All First Responders bill, they will enjoy the reassurance of knowing fully staffed fire and EMS crews will be at their assistance during emergency calls.

Most importantly, beyond legislation and politics, those who fear fascism should become personally involved in supporting their local First Responders. If there is a community Touch-A-Truck event, step away from doom-scrolling and manic posting for a moment to get to know your local police chief and officers. If your Volunteer Fire Department is having a Lenten Fish Fry go buy a sandwich and help out the fundraising effort. If your local EMS company sends a subscription mailer, cut that check to help them keep the lights on. Better yet, volunteer to actually be a member or volunteer for your local EMS company or Volunteer Fire Department. Leftists will sit around and philosophize about building a society based on mutual aid yet not even think of joining the ranks of firefighters and EMS volunteers who literally risk their lives to save their neighbors without asking for a dime in return. Left-liberals talk a lot about building community and forging social bonds outside market relations. There are not many better ways to put that talk into action than lending a hand in the volunteer efforts so central to the American emergency response system.

Sadly, many liberals will avoid assisting First Responders because doing so would force them to engage with individuals who do not pass the strict purity tests we impose upon ourselves in this era of relentless culture war. If you attend a fundraiser, you might have to sit down and eat a fish sandwich next to a guy wearing a MAGA hat. You might have to undergo volunteer fire training next to a guy wearing a Blue Lives Matter shirt, or even someone with a tattoo that might raise alarm bells with the Southern Poverty Law Center. But who knows, you might also encounter a fireman with surprising observations on climate change, or a policeman whose wife fears losing her job because of DOGE’s Department of Education cuts, or a paramedic with a child struggling with gender dysphoria. Refraining from assisting First Responders out of fear of encountering deplorable people will only make racist, white supremacist, and MAGA loyalist influence all the stronger in their ranks, and those who do not share these views all the more vulnerable. By getting involved your influence might help prevent our First Responders from being commandeered as foot soldiers enforcing Trump’s authoritarian orders. You might help ensure that your local First Responders instead serve as bulwarks of tolerance, demanding due process for those whose rights may be taken away by the Trump administration on the flimsiest of pretexts. This is not to radicalize our First Responders as anti-Trump raging liberals but to maintain their status as non-partisan helpers who come to the aid of all in need. As the storm clouds gather in the distance we must look for the helpers now so they will know our faces and stand beside us if and when a torrent of full-blown fascism hits our communities.