My last piece attracted a lot of attention because it was about physical courage and worthy sacrifice. Now we need moral courage to criticize the government, as legal and social media power are turned against those who oppose the president.
Many dissenters feel hopeless and fatalistic or don’t know how or when to act. But writers never know our impact in advance. Writing is always a political act—neutrality is a political choice, too—and we cannot escape our responsibility to attest to the truth.
I lived most of my life in a political minority in a red state (Alaska). I learned to get along with people I strongly disagreed with and to make them friends. I have always accepted that the winner of an election gets to make the decisions.
But some of President Trump’s actions go beyond the legitimate use of presidential power, as he attacks the democratic system itself.
The FCC is investigating news reports he doesn’t like and threatening private companies for supporting diversity. Elon Musk, holding unprecedented government power and Americans’ personal information, is using his social media platform and business empire to destroy individuals who challenge his actions.
Trump’s early moves violated many laws and the constitution, as judges around the country have ruled. But the Supreme Court already gave him blanket criminal immunity. Now he and those around him suggest he can simply ignore court orders he disagrees with.
I was a newspaper columnist when Trump was first elected in 2016, and I quickly realized that directly challenging him wouldn’t have much impact, because his true believers would simply discount what I had to say. Instead, I began writing profiles of productive, inspiring people who were members of groups he vilified, including immigrants, minorities, and givers who supported the poor worldwide.
Some of those columns went viral. A famous Fox News host contacted me to send an anonymous financial gift to one of those I had written about. But I’m not sure if any of that made a difference. Racism and hatred have gone mainstream. Our vice president is campaigning for racist Nazi admirers in the German elections. Trans people are being denied passports.
And the opposition is muted. People are demoralized and afraid—for good reason.
We’re now at a point where our most important democratic freedom—freedom of speech and the press—is under serious threat.
Traditional media was already mortally wounded. Most Americans no longer use reliable news sources, but rely on social media and other sources in the internet cesspool, where the most outrageous, absurd, and hateful claims are the most popular and profitable.
Here I am, writing in that same polluted space, offering my puny newsletter for writers and other people interested in words. My serious, sourced pieces cannot compete.
But words, truth, and honor must not bend. If Americans decide to go down the road to autocracy, let that be a conscious choice. Reasonable, reasoned voices should loudly warn them, regardless of the cost.
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