“The sky is falling!” Henny Penny (also known as Chicken Little) announced in stunned amazement. “A piece of it fell on my head.”

“No,” informed her friends.“The sky is not falling. An acorn fell on your head.” And so, Turkey Lurkey, Goosey Loosey, Gander Lander, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Drakey Lakey, and Henny Penny went back home.

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From this children’s bedtime story, we get the phrase, “The sky is falling!” representing a mistaken belief or feeling that a certain disaster is imminent. People accuse others of being “Chicken Little” when they are believed to be inciting an unreasonable fear (fearmongering) in those around them.

This story arose recently in a bimonthly Zoom chat I have been facilitating with my family. I was talking about my fears regarding the direction our country has taken since the second inauguration of Donald Trump and whether our constitutional guardrails would hold under the firehose of assaults and attacks.

As a scholar of the rise of authoritarianism, I know the warning signs of democracies in decline. I know how history echoes if it does not precisely repeat itself.

My brilliant cousin-in-law, a professor of political science and co-host of an amazing political podcast, assured me that “the sky is not falling.” He went on to list the numerous ways that our political institutions are holding: the several legal challenges that have reversed many of the Trump administration’s draconian and, in some cases, unconstitutional executive orders and social policies.

He talked about the massive and widespread public demonstrations and town hall gatherings that are holding state and federal representatives accountable. And though the Democratic party has lost control of the executive and legislative branches as well as the majority in the Supreme Court, our country does not parallel Germany in the last century.

By the conclusion of our Zoom call, I had conceded, “Well, maybe only part of the sky is falling.”

A couple days later, I wrote him an email expressing my own take from under the sky. This, I told him, is how I answer the question: Is the sky falling under the Trump administration’s policies?

Since the sky is very wide and broad, it depends on where one is standing. This is very crucial.

The sky might very well not be falling if one is a member of a dominant social group, like white, Christian, heterosexual, cisgender, middle- and upper-class, able-bodied, born or naturalized citizens of the United States, adult middle years, college educated, and so forth.

The sky might indeed be falling, however, if one is a member of some subordinated social identity groups, like transgender, undocumented non-citizens, some communities of color, and others.

I am a relatively able bodied middle-class person with a paid-off mortgage, a doctorate degree, enough savings, and social security. If I couldn’t work today, I probably could live for another eight or nine years as long as I continued to have health insurance. Also, I am not involved in a same-sex marriage, and I work for a university where I have protections for being queer and Jewish.

I have acquired certain social privileges based on my education and choice of profession. But since they have been given to me, they can also be taken away, as the Trump administration has been attempting to do in its reversals of civil and human rights protections. But for now, I’m in relatively good shape during this Trumpian age.

I would argue, however, that the sky is falling on transgender people, undocumented non-citizens, and laid-off government workers under the Trump administration’s policies.

I could also make a case for adding to that list anyone who hopes to breathe fresh air, drink fresh water, or eat safely inspected food, as well as for anyone who wishes to travel on safely managed means of transportation; anyone who wants to send their children to quality public schools; anyone who desires quality healthcare and a public health system that provides the best information and assurances for safe and effective remedies of disease control; anyone who desires a fair tax system with a genuine graduated income tax; anyone who wishes to live in a liberal democracy rather than a tyrannical autocracy; and I could continue.

I suggest that we not consider this as a mere binary of yes the sky is falling on one pole and no the sky is not falling on the other. My argument is that it depends under which part of the sky one is standing.

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