MAHA: Making America Horrible Again

by Marybeth O’Mara

October 8, 2025

So much is going on. So much pain and suffering.
I sit in Chicago, which, as of today, is “hosting” ICE and CBP agents, who have now been joined by several hundred members of the Texas National Guard. Gov. JB Pritzker has done an amazing job resisting the administration through courageous public statements and lawsuits, and he is pointed and (necessarily) repetitive about WHY he believes the Trump administration is doing this—to desensitize Americans, especially in blue states, to the presence of federal officers on our streets, in order to have them at the ready to intervene during our next federal election in 2026.

My husband and son have begun protesting at the ICE facility in Broadview, joining many others as ICE continues its provocations against people exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly. These protests in Broadview have been going on for many years, as the ICE facility is one of just a few in the Chicago area that has served as a temporary detention facility for detained migrants being moved elsewhere. They have definitely gotten more heated recently, failing to cooperate with and defying the City of Broadview’s municipal government, who has been a model for how to handle this sort of invasion in a small suburban community, one whose economic life is tied to the federal presence in their town. Watch Luke’s first-person account here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17UJY99RtE/

And the federal government is shut down with no end in sight. The president is talking openly about not reinstating (or even paying for missed time!) furloughed federal workers, in violation of explicit federal law. Law? Who dat?

But the thing that has been on my mind for awhile is the reversal of US scientific dominance, especially in medical developments, under RFK, Jr. I watched his hearing before the Senate last month, and was shocked at what he said and the manner in which he said it—lying, sarcastic, and dismissive. Not long afterwards, he appeared with Trump and Dr. Oz at a White House press announcement about new “evidence” on causes of autism. The one they’ve landed on? Acetaminophen (which I can pronounce much more easily than Trump.) The demonization of women in physical distress during pregnancy is implied by telling women to “tough it out” rather than seeking relief at the risk of giving your child autism. This adds to the list of things that women might do during pregnancy that could be held against them and used by officials as pretense for prosecution.

But Bobby’s take on vaccines is the one I am most anguished about. I am barely old enough to remember a time before readily available vaccines, but I know they were celebrated in my house as I was growing up. My father contracted polio during the last big wave of the disease before the Salk vaccine was approved in 1955, when he was 20 years old, in the summer between his sophomore and junior years of college. My dad was paralyzed in his legs and one arm, spent a long time in an iron lung and at the Chicago Rehab Institute, and was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I never knew him out of his chair. We had a family friend who had a baby who was severely disabled because his mom was infected with Rubella during pregnancy. Both of these men died at much younger ages than they would have if they’d been vaccinated. My dad died at 52, when my youngest siblings were still in high school, and his longevity was certainly impaired by the decades he spent unable to walk or work out. We have a generation of parents who have no personal memory of the risks of these preventable catastrophic diseases, and are cavalier about the costs of the loss of protection. American lifespans went UP with the introduction of mandatory vaccines. Requiring vaccines for school children ensures that herd immunity can be achieved, which can drop precipitously as parents opt to not vaccinate their own children.

How does this make sense to people ostensibly committed to reducing government spending? Vaccines have been one of the most effective and cheapest health interventions in history, saving tens of millions of lives and improving quality of live for tens of millions more who did not have to contend with long-term effects of the illnesses their vaccinations prevented. The costs of treating and caring for people who get sick with preventable disease will be profound.

In addition to vaccines, the administration is also cutting funding for cancer prevention and treatment research.

According to this article, dozens and dozens of studies have been defunded, forcing scientists to seek alternative funding (after decades of the primacy of federal government funding.) This partnership between researchers and the federal government has left few options for funding continuing research in the US, so increasing numbers of researchers are seeking positions abroad. But, given the assumed (and earned) dominance of the US in this discipline, it will take awhile for another clear leader to emerge.

In yet another example, this administration is forcing people to cobble together their own solutions instead of relying on a common sense of common good to improve our health and safety.

Okay, so now what?

While there are nearly daily protests these days, the next major nationwide protest is another No Kings protest in Grant Park on October 18, which I plan to participate in.

After months of frustrated searching, I have finally found a resource for all forms of action at the Chicago Activism Hub, which maintains proposed near-daily protests, trainings, and art exhibitions connected to a large variety of causes. If you are in the Chicago area, check it out.

A final thought:

I have decided not to protest at the Broadview ICE facility, because I am worried that there will be more violence than there has been so far, and I cannot effectively run away. I don’t want to slow down or distract other protesters who may need to care for me. I do plan to march downtown, because I think that it is much less likely to get violent and require a quick getaway. I did, however, ask my eye doctor at a recent routine visit, how best to handle pepper spray or tear gas in the eyes. He recommended eye wash or saline solution that you can buy at the drug store. The saline solutions I found come only in small bottles intended for nasal use, but eye wash is available in larger (16 Oz) bottles that would be easy to throw in your protest backpack! Pack some—with your mask, change of clothes, and hat!