There
are reasons why influential or knowledgeable
Americans are staying silent as the worsening
fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and
Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most
of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice.
Start
with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They
despise Trump as he does them. Rich and
comfortable George W. Bush is very proud of his
Administration’s funding of AIDS medicines
saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump,
driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved
immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate
harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa
and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S.
assistance (including programs to lessen the
health toll on people afflicted by tuberculosis
and malaria).
Not
a peep from George W. Bush, preoccupied with his
landscape painting and perhaps occasional pangs
of guilt from his butchery in Iraq. His signal
program is going down in flames and he keeps his
mouth shut, as he has largely done since the
upstart loudmouth Trump ended the Bush family’s
power over the Republican Party.
Then
there are the Clintons and Obama. They are very
rich, and have no political aspirations. Yet,
though horrified by what they see Trump doing to
the government and its domestic social safety
net services they once ruled, mum’s the word.
What
are these politicians afraid of as they watch
the overthrow of our government and the oncoming
police state? Trump, after all, was not elected
to become a dictator—declaring war on the
American people with his firings and smashing of
critical “people’s programs” that benefit
liberals and conservatives, red state and blue
state residents alike.
Do
they fear being discomforted by Trump/Musk
unleashing hate and threats against them, and
getting tarred by Trump’s tirades and violent
incitations? No excuses. Regard for our country
must take precedence to help galvanize their own
constituencies to resist tyranny and fight for
Democracy.
What
about Kamala Harris — the hapless loser to Trump
in November’s presidential election? She must
think she has something to say on behalf of the
75 million people who voted for her or against
Trump. Silence! She is perfect bait for Trump’s
intimidation tactics. She is afraid to tangle
with Trump despite his declining polls, rising
inflation, the falling stock market and
anti-people budget slashing which is harming her
supporters and Trump voters’ economic wellbeing,
health and safety.
This
phenomenon of going dark is widespread.
Regulators and prosecutors who were either fired
or quit in advance have not risen to defend
their own agencies and departments, if only to
elevate the morale of those civil servants
remaining behind and under siege.
Why
aren’t we hearing from Gary Gensler, former head
of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), now being dismantled, especially since
the SEC is dropping his cases against alleged
cryptocurrency crooks?
Why
aren’t we hearing much more (she wrote one
op-ed) from Samantha Power, the former head of
the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) under Biden, whose life-saving agency is
literally being illegally closed down, but for
pending court challenges?
Why
aren’t we hearing from Michael Regan, head of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
under Biden about saboteur Lee Zeldin, Trump’s
head of EPA, who is now giving green lights to
lethal polluters and other environmental
destructions?
These
and many other former government officials all
have their own circles – in some cases, millions
of people – who need to hear from them.
They
can take some courage of the seven former I.R.S.
Commissioners — from Republican and Democratic
Administrations — who condemned slicing the
I.R.S staff in half and aiding and abetting big
time tax evasion by the undertaxed super-rich
and giant corporations. I am told that they
would be eager to testify, should the Democrats
in Congress have the energy to hold unofficial
hearings as
ranking members of the Senate Finance and House
Ways and Means Committees.
Banding
together is one way of reducing the fear factor.
After Trump purged the career military at the
Pentagon to put his own “yes men” at the top,
five former Secretaries of Defense, who served
under both Democratic and Republican presidents,
sent a
letter to Congress denouncing Trump’s firing of
senior military officers and requesting
“immediate” House and Senate hearings to “assess
the national security implications of Mr.
Trump’s dismissals.” Not a chance by the GOP
majority there. But they could ask the Democrats
to hold UNOFFICIAL HEARINGS as ranking members
of the Armed Services Committees!
Illinois
Governor JB Pritzker can be one of the prime
witnesses at these hearings – he has no fear of
speaking his mind against the Trumpsters.
On
March 6, 2025, the Washington Bureau Chief of
the New
York Times,
Elisabeth Bumiller, put her rare byline on an
urgent report titled, “‘People Are Going
Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics
Muzzle Themselves.”
She
writes: “The silence grows louder every day.
Fired federal workers who are worried about
losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name.
University presidents [one exception is Wesleyan
University President Michael Roth] fearing that
millions of dollars in federal funding could
disappear are holding their fire. Chief
executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt
their businesses are on mute.”
To
be sure, government employees and other unions
are speaking out and suing in federal court. So
are national citizen groups like Public Citizen
and the Center for Constitutional Rights, though
hampered in alerting large audiences by
newspapers like the Times rarely
reporting their initiatives.
Yes,
Ms. Bumiller, pay attention to that aspect of
your responsibility. Moreover, the Times’ editorial
page (op-ed and editorials) are not adequately
reflecting the urgency of her reporting. Nor are
her reporters covering the informed
outspokenness and actions of civic
organizations.
Don’t
self-censoring people know that they are helping
the Trumpian dread, threat and fear machine get
worse? Study Germany and Italy in the nineteen
thirties.
The Trump/Musk lawless,
cruel,
arrogant, dictatorial regime is in our
White House.
Their police state infrastructure is in
place. Silence is complicity!
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