(Soft) Power to The People

At this writing, Elon Musk and his Teenage Mutant Incel hackers are taking a chainsaw to essential government programs, ostensibly to “cut waste and fraud.” But like so many Tech Bros, Musk doesn’t do subtlety; Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously said, “Move fast and break things.”

What’s being broken is a major form of “soft power” that’s helped America not just do good work but create and maintain positive relationships with other countries: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

It was founded in 1961 by President Kennedy, who recognized the need for a single federal body to administer funds that would promote social and economic development around the world. Since its founding, USAID has helped reduce hunger and poverty, and control diseases like TB, Ebola, and AIDS. It’s estimated that the number of lives USAID has saved through its AIDS program alone is over 26 million – mostly children. That’s a heck of a lot of good will.

USAID also shores up strategically unstable societies and helps with humanitarian aid, such as in Ukraine.

USAID supports American farmers by purchasing $2 billion a year worth of their crops like corn, wheat, peas, and sorghum. This food goes directly to countries battling food insecurity and starvation. But as Trump and Elon take a hatchet to this program, our farmers are left in economic limbo and people are left hungry in volatile parts of the world.

It’s taken decades for USAID to carefully build relationships with partners in other countries. Those long-term relationships directly affect our national security. The various ports and facilities used overseas aren’t just practical, they serve a strategic use. If we’re no longer using them, it’s damn certain that rivals like China will just slip right in to fill that Soft Power vacuum.

The annual budget for USAID is about 893 billion, less than 1% of the entire Federal budget. For supporting our farmers, providing humanitarian and development aid, as well as strategic assets around the globe, this would seem a very good investment. Apparently, Elon and Trump, with their short-sighted, videogame worldviews, don’t see the benefits. They’ve moved quickly to hollow out essential staff and fired the Inspector General who blew the whistle on $500 million in food aid rotting on the docks as Trump froze already-approved federal funds.

Again, they’re “moving fast and breaking things.” And not in a good way.

So, what can we do to restore and protect the important “soft power” of USAID? Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) is working with 40 other Democratic Senators on a resolution to protect it. Contact him to show your support for this vital program.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.