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Tag: dictator

The Crumbling Constitution – the First Amendment Goes Down in Flames

One by one, the opposition voices are being silenced – Stephen Colbert, Jerry Greenfield (of Ben and Jerry’s), and now Jimmy Kimmel. NPR and PBS have been defunded. Even the highly respected Voice of America is off the air. Just like the governments in Communist China, North Korea, Hungary, and Russia, the Trump administration is moving to seize control of all the media. Trump and his minions have learned from their dictator-mentors that if the government’s voice is the only one that people hear, then that government can control not only the narrative but the citizens as well.

Unfortunately, this tactic works. Witness Russia where there is still surprisingly strong support for Putin despite the harsh economic sanctions and the failing military campaign in Ukraine. It’s because the Russian people are being told continuously by the government media that they are actually winning the war and that the West will soon bend to their will and cancel the sanctions. Hearing no other voices in opposition, especially since Putin poisoned Navalny, the Russians accept it as the truth.

The day may be coming when no one in our country will be allowed to say anything negative about the administration or its supporters regardless of the First Amendment. Further, if the Trumpists continue to follow the autocratic playbook, the government may soon begin monitoring social media for dissension or force the social media companies, some of whom are already on Trump’s side, to filter and report anything that is not fully consistent with their far-right agenda. All of this raises one question. Are we now seeing the end of freedom of speech?

The First Amendment also protects freedom of the press. But when largely right-leaning multi-billionaires own all the stations on television and radio, will the broadcast media become just mirrors of Fox News? Disney/ABC and Paramount/CBS have already “bent the knee” in order to avoid Trump’s wrath. Honest journalism, which reached its peak with the likes of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Dan Rather, and their contemporaries, seems to be completely dead. I wonder if the next season of “60 Minutes” will be filled with either irrelevant pablum or stories in praise of Trump. Likewise, newspapers and other news outlets, either willingly or under threats of lawsuits, may become simply repeaters of the government approved information, something like Pravda in the old USSR or today’s China Daily.

What about freedom of religion – also a part of the First Amendment? There is currently a strong movement by Christian Nationalists to claim that the United States was founded as a Christian-only country. But the Treaty of Tripoli, which was signed by President John Adams in 1797 (only six years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights), says the opposite. Article 11 of the treaty clearly states, “(T)he government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion…” Despite this, there are those who believe that the laws of our nation should be based solely on their particular religion’s interpretation of God’s wishes.

Finally, there are the remaining First Amendment rights – the rights to assemble peacefully and to petition the government for redress. Remember that Trump has been granted broad immunity by SCOTUS. So if peaceful anti-Trump protestors are beaten, arrested, or even shot, I won’t be surprised. Nevertheless, I intend to continue to be one of those protestors.

Is the United States of America doomed? I don’t know. But in all my 78 years, I have never seen such an effort to openly turn our country into a dictatorship. Even Nixon was eventually forced to face the consequences of his illegal activities. But when every day brings fresh assaults on our democracy, I fear for tomorrow.

“A Republic, if you can keep it.” B. Franklin

Well, that didn’t take long. Trump has been in office now for less than a year, but he has just boldly revealed his ultimate goal. On Monday (8/25/25), Trump told reporters at the Oval Office, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’” On Tuesday, he added, “Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’ — I am not a dictator, by the way.” But he also claimed to have “the right to do anything I want to do,” which is actually the very essence of dictatorship.

Despite his claim of not being a dictator, his use of the phrase “people are saying” is classic Trump. It’s one of his ways of laying the groundwork to justify his later actions. He likes to imagine in his fantasy world that many, if not most, Americans agree with him. So now he is trying to imply that a majority of Americans actually want a dictator as a leader. And, despite his protestations, it goes without saying that he thinks it should be him. He won’t call it a dictatorship though. It will be something like President for Life.

Naturally he fully expects the Republicans in Congress to go along with this plan since they all suffer from TTS (Trump Toady Syndrome). And the Supreme right-wing Court will merely say that it is a political matter outside of their jurisdiction. They have already granted him immunity from any consequences for illegal actions while in office. It seems that there is not a single Republican in any branch of our government who is willing to fulfill his or her oath to “preserve and protect” the Constitution, least of all, Trump.

In the meantime, Trump continues to subject Americans, including citizens, to unconstitutional dictatorial actions daily. He shows disdain for the laws and ignores the courts. He is building his own paramilitary force and assuming control of cities he doesn’t like. He is attacking his “enemies” with “lawfare,” coercion, and outright extortion. He is trying to assume control of the entire economy (don’t forget that he has a history of bankruptcy). He, along with his Republican toadies, are working hard to restrict voting rights (mostly of minorities but recently some voices on the Right have said that women should not be allowed to vote either). And so on and so on.

His deployment of ICE and the military into blue cities is specifically intended to provoke a reaction against the troops. No matter how minor, he will then use that reaction as an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. This will give him the authority to flood cities and states with military units. The mass arrests of Democrats will likely follow including Senators, Representatives, Governors, past Presidents, and other Democratic leaders. The concentration camps have already been built ostensibly just for the deportable immigrants, but they can hold Trump’s enemies as well. I believe that the mid-term election results will either be rigged or cancelled altogether to eliminate the possibility of any reductions in the Republicans’ powers.

So, dear Mr. Franklin, I regret to inform you that we were not able to keep the Republic you gave us. We managed for nearly 250 years to have a mostly honorable government run by mostly honorable people. There were exceptions of course, but our Founding Fathers never anticipated the level of dishonor, incompetence, and corruption that we are seeing now. The Constitution was written under the assumption that the “best of the best” would be chosen to govern, but it tells us nothing about what to do when the “worst of the worst” seize and hold the levers of power. I fear that it may already be too late to recover our democracy. Any advice from you, even posthumously, would be very much appreciated.