We Have Discovered How Craven and Cowardly Our Leaders Are
My Rant
I just read an article about the self censorship of many Trump critics.
The article referred to it as “muzzling”.
Some of these critics might have something of an excuse. University presidents are afraid of losing funding and business owners are worried about tariffs. But this self censorship has serious consequences for our democracy. As the article put it “More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.”
The article goes on to say that both Republicans and Democrats “who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day” have gone quiet.
Steven Levitsky, the co-author of book “How Democracies Die” put it this way. “When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism.”
Yeah. I know.
Trump Admits to Being an Authoritarian.
He brags about ruling by Presidential Decree
It’s probably easy for me to talk because I’m not an influential big shot. I write a little blog that maybe a few people might read. I show up at protests around North Carolina. I wear hoodies and t shirts that say things like “Immigrants Make America Great” and write anti-Trump messages in chalk on my driveway. But there’s nothing I can do that’s really going to threaten Trump. He and Musk are not going to come after me, or even know who I am.
But I still have to say it. If you are clamming up you are failing in your duty as an American who can be part of the movement to stand against Trump’s authoritarianism.
Dear Senator
If you are a member of Congress and can’t stand up because you’re afraid for your career, then fuck you.
If you are a member of Congress who can’t stand up because you’re afraid for the safety of your family, then I am more sympathetic. You just need to resign.
Among those people is Senator Thom Tillis, one of my Republican senators from North Carolina. He made some noises about being displeased with Trump for nominating Hegseth as Defense Secretary, then he voted for Hegsex anyway. (Whoops, Freudian slip, sorry). He also claims to be a supporter of Ukraine, but I haven’t seen him do much on that. Frankly, I think the guy is a useless tit-willow and wish he would resign. Then Governor Stein can appoint former Governor Cooper to actually do the job of being a senator.
Senator Tillis Is A Trumpee Titwillow
On his betrayal of a Hegseth witness
Many others are no better. Another senator even took down a picture of himself shaking hands with Zelenskyy a few days after meeting that courageous president and promising his support.
What a dick.
Yeah, Wicker you fuck, I mean you.
I guess Marc Elias speaks for me when he said “It is totally reasonable to be worried. But for a Republican senator to say they are so worried that they’re going to betray their oath of office is such cowardice. Why are you in office?”
Gutless State University- Home of the Mighty Pussies
Will We Pass the Trump Vagina Test?
University presidents seem to have shut up for fear Dr Trumpenfuhrer will cut their funding. In the article Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, claimed to understand their silence and said “Don’t wrestle with a pig. You’ll just get muddy and annoy the pig.”
Cute, clever, and gutless. Trump is a kind of pig, but you can lay off wrestling with a pig if it will stay in the pen. But you’d better wrestle with it if it’s threatening to invade the house, shit all over the carpets, and try to eat the cats.
If you don’t have the guts to do that, then sell the farm to someone who does. In other words, resign.
Not everyone has proven to be a gutless wonder. Witness the president of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth, who has defended DEI at his school. He is quoted in the article as saying “This is the greatest pressure put on intellectual life since the McCarthy era. And I think it’ll be seen in the future, as that time was seen, as a time when people either stood up for their values or ran in fear of the federal government.”
In other words, university presidents. You know those books about cowards during the McCarthy Era? Now those books are about you.
The fear is understandable
I understand the apprehension. In my own little way I faced something similar, though there were no death threats involved. I once put up a Pride flag in my classroom and my Superintendent made me take it down. I knuckled under because I was afraid to lose my job. On the other hand a few months later I founded the first Gay-Straight Alliance Club in the county schools.
I Once Put Up A Gay Pride Flag In My Classroom
Rural NC tends not to be very LGBTQ+ Friendly
So I guess my advice is that I understand leaders having to be smart. You might have to operate in a way different than you would if you were not dealing with a sociopathic madman with delusions of Godhead whose followers are willing to charge up the Capitol steps and attack police.
But you aren’t allowed to just clam up completely.
It might sound corny, but your country needs you.