To my friends and neighbors who are still supporting President Donald Trump: Please take some time to listen to the “On Point” program that aired on Thursday, July 23. Titled “Unidentified federal officers are scooping up protesters in Portland. Are other cities next?” it is the most realistic and sobering picture of where America is heading. In return, I’d be happy to consider listening to a program you recommend that might present an opposing point of view.
The program is largely an interview with Tim Snyder, who wrote a book called The Road to Unfreedom, mostly about Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the dangerous myths that many liberals and conservatives have about our civilization. Snyder says that authoritarianism – the view that society is best served by a strong leader who can ignore the constitution and laws when he thinks that the national interest is at stake – rarely happens due to a coup. It happens gradually when good people permit their leader to stretch the law, when government agents round up opponents without warrant, when freedom of the press and of speech and of assembly are violated – all in the interest of security.
The fact that under orders from President Trump, untrained border protection agents without badges, using unmarked vehicles, arrested and beat up peaceful protesters in a city whose local and state government did not ask for their help should come as a warning to all who value individual liberty and constitutional rights. Trump’s rationale for this was “to protect federal property.” What kind of government puts the protection of property above the protection of its people? Trump is all for protecting things: monuments, statues, Confederate flags, federal office buildings, while trampling on our basic rights.
That his is a calculated political tactic to turn our attention away from his failure to protect us from the COVID-19 pandemic and burnish his “law and order” image among his shrinking base of supporters only magnifies the reality of how dangerous this man has become to our democracy. These actions, not surprisingly, provoke only further disorder and lawlessness (the Portland protests were on the wane before he sent in his agents).
In his obsession to be re-elected by whatever means, he underscores the threat to our Constitution by refusing to agree to leave office if he is defeated. Remember when he accused Ted Cruz of “stealing” his primary victory over Trump in Iowa in 2016? If anonymous federal agents marching unmasked into our cities to “dominate” lawful protesters does not bother you, how would you justify a losing candidate who barricades himself in the White House because he cannot accept defeat?
You may have voted for Trump in 2016 out of rage at Democrats who have abandoned you to suck up to Wall Street and to pursue a “politics of identity” that left folks like you lumped into a “basket of deplorables.” Or you may believe that it is okay to have America governed by an authoritarian leader so long as he supports your values, places people in the courts who agree with you, arrests those who protest against the government, and upholds your vision of an America that maintains the status quo in the face of those protesting racial, ethnic, and gender inequality.
But please reconsider your vote this time, for the sake of our democracy, our bill of rights, and an America that “crowns thy good with brotherhood.”
(Robert L. Fried lives in Concord.)