To the editor:
A year ago I would have never thought our country would be where it is today (I know, naive). In the past, I raised many skeptical eyebrows when someone made comparisons between the United States and Nazi Germany. I would have thought, “No, just no. Nazis?”
Now I can see it clearer, and I’m reminded any time I choose to turn on the news and see another institution threatened, defunded or delegitimized.
In a way, I want to think I’m fear mongering, that I’m blowing things out of proportion, being paranoid, that I’m an out of touch bleeding heart. I’d certainly feel more at ease if that were the case. I try to step outside and look at things objectively, to be level headed, not such an alarmist, but I’m yet limber enough to master the mental gymnastics this reworking of reality requires of me. I don’t have it in me to partake in the systematic crushing of my own humanity that must take place in order to offer my own sliver of legitimacy to the Trump administration. I can’t consider double speak which links my freedoms with massive human rights violations. How can anyone, ANYONE, live with themselves and righteously advocate for the snuffing out of another human without due process? How can one not look a few ticks down the timeline and realize the implications of such a stance?
I could muffle and ignore for only so long, and now I’m at a loss, one not quite beyond words, apparently, but certainly one that lacks any sense of a path forward. Beyond the subversive acts of not spending money, of being kind to others, of practicing stillness in a productivity and consumption obsessed culture, of engaging with creativity, I’m not sure what I can accomplish. It’s become a daily chore to not obsess over my ineptitude in the face of the daunting MAGA monolith that continues to rise from our cultural desert, but one that’s necessary to retain my own humanity.
All of our ills are blamed on the other, or an evil within (U.S born citizen deportations coming soon!) and the elected multitudes of spineless underlings nod in ascent bearing grins shielding their shame and the fear that their trickling praise will one day be withheld from their liege. The bootlicking is so palpable, I can’t believe that the nightly news isn’t actually some new sketch comedy show that never ends (and will be renewed for a third term!). It’s sycophancy taken to a 21st century extreme. For Trump the goal is not to find homeostasis, but instead to grip his subjects (and surely he thinks of everyone as such) in ever roiling chaos that allows him to to be the sole radiating guiding force into and out of the abyss of his own design ad infinitum.
We’re experiencing national whiplash, the type borne from narcissists. Trump’s incessant and driving insecurity about everything, and the inevitable accompanying temper tantrum, will be familiar to many victims of abuse. You can actually see the defiant smugness, the obstinance, that would be more appropriate on the face of a teenager instead of the mottled face of our POTUS. Trump peddles in fear, subjugation, and in promoting a scarcity mindset. Trump is a man who not only thrives in adversarial relationships, but in fact cannot form a bond not based on such. Can it be coincidence that the most insecure man on the planet is also obsessed with running the joint?
Brian Bors
Athens, Ohio
