Recently I have been thinking about the path to authoritarianism, and how we may be on a track as a country to a despot controlling everything from social media, to the movements of people inside cities, or the ability of people to purchase firearms.
The thing that has really inspired these thoughts is my reflection on the famous poem by Martin Niemöller First they came for:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
I can see the parallels of this in our current environment. It is as simple as replacing the people they have gone after. Instead of communists it was international college students that spoke out against the genocide that Isreal is commiting against the Palestinians. Instead of the socialists it is the trans children playing sports. Instead of the trade unionists it is the hard working immigrants who are chasing the very dream that the ancestors of our current presidential administration were able to pursue.
Every time that freedom is taken away there are countless people who can step in to stop it. It is hard to resist as a singular person to a political machine that seems to have the power to eliminate due process. It is easy to pretend that somewhere someone else is the one who should be resisting. Those of us who are able to currently resist without fearing deportation are the people who are most needed to resist. You never know when it will be you who is the next person that is viewed as “an enemy of freedom” simply for a single social media post. As this is always a possibility there is a need to actively prevent this from happening by resisting.
Resistance takes many forms and needs to happen at all levels. Every institution is vulnerable to a system of oppression taking hold. Churches, schools, select boards, and state legislatures are all places where passivity in the face of oppression enables the very people to take more control, to take more rights, and to take the freedom that make the USA the greatest country in the history of the world.
We cannot count on the judiciary or congress to be checks on the power of the executive and it’s tyranical intentions. The corporations and billionaires have them in their pockets. Politicians in Washington do not care about their constituents. The people of this country are now being misled by the very corporations that have paid for lax regulations on them, and tax breaks only for the wealthy in Washington. The few legacy media news sources that were independent increasingly are being purchased by this same group of people.
While NPR, PBS, and Pew research may attempt to remain as non-partisan and thorough as possible it will become even harder for them to document the atrocities committed throughout the country and world at large as their funding gets cut further and further. A larger risk could come in government agencies such as the FCC and IRS hunting for reasons to take away their broadcast rights, or from the corrupt politicians suing them under false pretenses, simply to waste the resources fo these organizations on defending themselves from these frivolous lawsuits. Even worse than the loss of resources to lawyers in these eventual fights is the danger of the judiciary that has already given more power to the presidency siding with the people suing. This will cause the only institutions that aren’t under the sway of the billionaire class to be forced to pay more damages. The end result be that these bastions of fact are unable to cover every action taken that threatens freedom.
I have hope that the American experiment can continue. I have hope that the people will resist. I have hope that we are not already past the point where democracy is only used when convenient by a tyrant. Hope will only turn into reality if we all stand together, not in support of hurting the most vulnerable among us, but united by the goal of freedom for all.
