“ALL that is solid melts into air,” wrote Karl Marx. In the US today, all that was once solid is being smashed into pieces.

We are staring at the shattered remains of what was an already deeply imperfect democracy. Institutions are being dismantled, lives and livelihoods destroyed. The illusion once known as the American dream has melted into air along with the financial and psychological wellbeing of millions of working people.

The man wielding the axe is Elon Musk, the de facto US president. If there were any remaining doubts about that, they were dispelled at the first gathering of Trump’s full cabinet this week when he deferred to his billionaire puppet-master to open the meeting.

Federal employees, union members, farmers, veterans, first responders, foreign aid workers, hard-working immigrants and millions of others in communities across the US have been shocked by the rapidity with which Musk and his henchmen have upended their lives.

The numbness among progressives during the opening days of the Trump rule appears to be wearing off fast. As of last week there had been 74 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration, 33 of them related to the activities of Doge, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk. Judges had temporarily paused 18 Trump measures, but more lawsuits continue to be filed.

A new umbrella movement has been established — Democracy2025 — that includes more than 800 lawyers, advocates, and experts along with at least 350 pro-democracy organisations. It was created specifically to launch legal actions against attacks on the rights and freedoms of those arbitrarily fired or discriminated against by the Trump-Vance administration.

The Democratic delegation on Capitol Hill has turned into a kind of travelling roadshow, with House and Senate members appearing daily at outdoor protests and press conferences to denounce the chaotic and inhumane slash and burn tactics of the Trump administration.

“A demo a day keeps the fascists away,” quipped Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat and constitutional law professor who led Trump’s second impeachment inquiry around the events of the January 6, 2020 insurrection at the US Capitol.

At the SAG-AFTRA awards last week, longtime actor and activist Jane Fonda received a lifetime achievement award from her peers, and used the occasion to encourage dialogue and dissent.

“We mustn’t for a moment kid ourselves about what is happening. This is big time serious, folks,” said Fonda, who at 87 has lost none of her fire. “We must not isolate. We must stay in community, we must help the vulnerable, we must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future.”

Some of the Doge directives have been rescinded or, astonishingly, ordered ignored by leaders of several Trump departments. But the fear and uncertainty are taking their toll.

“I feel like I am being tortured every day,” said a friend who works for a federal agency where morale is low and most working hours are spent trying to figure out which activities are still legal.

Nevertheless, there is little indication that the 77.3 million people who voted for Trump regret it. Not yet. Polls show that only 5 per cent of Trump voters oppose what he is doing. Only 1 per cent “strongly” oppose it.

However, there are some significant demographics under assault where considerable Trump voters likely lurk.

Arab Americans for Trump quickly changed their name to Arab Americans for Peace as soon as Trump announced his intention to cleanse Gaza of Palestinians and turn the region into a resort that Trump said he would own.

And while more than 60 per cent of US military veterans voted for Trump in both of his presidential wins, they too are now facing cuts to vital services along with dismissals.

Veteran Albert Ostering, fired for “performance failures” after 10 years of impeccable service, remarked wryly that “if you’re going to thank me for my service, then thank me for my service,” parroting the line that is routinely directed toward members of the military.

He was speaking at yet another press conference, this time to mark the introduction of a Bill to reinstate the at least 6,000 veterans in federal jobs who were fired by Doge. Veterans make up 30 per cent of the federal workforce.

“There’s not a single vet in the Trump family going back three generations. Let’s start right there,” said one of the Bill’s co-sponsors, Ohio Democrat, Marcy Kaptur. “The people doing the firing never served a day in the military.”

Across the Capitol lawn, Democratic senators and representatives — and even one Republican — held a press conference to introduce an amended version of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act.

If left unchanged, those sickened by toxic exposure during and after the September 11 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers at New York’s World Trade Centre will face direct cuts to their care and be denied medical monitoring and treatment.

Many of those affected were first responders who spent years at the site. One of them, Thomas Hart, president of Local 94 International Union of Operating Engineers, recalled not only the physical, but also the mental trauma of that service.

“Believe me if you weren’t down there, there’s no way to describe it,” Hart recalled of the day itself. “Imagine what it’s like to pick up a little kid’s hands and put them in a body bag. The first thing that I [saw] was a pink sweater of a woman and her remains that looked like chopped meat. And I put them in a body bag. I didn’t move one complete body from down there. Not one. I live with those things in my mind every single day,” he said.

“This is about those heroes and responders getting the respect and care they require,” Hart told me later. “Each and every one of us owe it to those who responded that day.”

Instead, the Musk-Trump cabal seems to believe it’s a debt 9/11 responders, veterans and workers across the US should pay back themselves.

Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland.