America is under attack from within. There is no denying it unless you have kept your eyes shut since 20 January 2025. Our country is systematically being dismantled from the inside out, something that people will say they never saw coming, and perhaps I didn’t, either—at least not to this extent. The American people did not elect a leader in November. They did not elect a president. They elected a tyrant. There is simply no other way to say it. One simply has to watch the news to know that, if things do not change, the United States of America will be irrevocably altered at the end of this treacherous four years.
Never mind the thousands of people who have lost their jobs. Never mind the attacks on the press and the judicial system. Never mind the withdrawal from the WHO and the UN’s human rights body and the Paris accord. Never mind the adoration of Putin and the leaked war documents. Never mind the yelling, the hissy fits, the snarkiness, and the vitriol of a man who is supposed to be the leader of the free world, a position which requires (but doesn’t always get) dignity and poise and reassurance to the American people that difficult times will pass.
America knew what they would get when they went to cast their ballots in November. This is a man who repeatedly stirred up his followers on social media and on 6 January2021 incited a riot upon the Capitol building by insisting that the election had been stolen from him and our democratic system was in danger of failing (ironic, isn’t it?). He did nothing to stop it or try to rein it in and never did he say that wasn’t what he had wanted. This is a man who has been photographed numerous times in the company of known pedophiles and surrounded by underage girls. This is a man who has repeatedly shown his –isms with a disgusting amount of pride: racism, sexism, genderism (my word to make a point). This is a man who has shown time and time again that he would be perfectly content if the 1% were the only ones left in the country. This is a man who has proven through his actions that he does not care about the people he was elected to serve, that he exists only to serve himself.
And now people are afraid—people who both did and did not vote for him. People are anxious, overwhelmed, and struggling to survive in their own country. The frightening thing is not that we are not getting comfort and reassurance from the man elected to lead us, but that all our other leaders have fallen silent, save for a handful. Where is the system of checks and balances that has been the root of our country since George Washington’s day? The three branches of government exist so that no one branch can obtain too much power, and yet the Legislative and the Judicial Branches seem content to let him run free and do what he wants, although to be fair, the courts are at least making a half-hearted effort. Our Congress appears to have all been struck dumb and mute, and that is a disconcerting idea. They, our elected Senators and Representatives, have a constitutional duty to rein in the president when he oversteps, yet no one seems to be willing to speak out against the man who is making a mockery of our Executive Branch. (Elon Musk? Really?) We only have to look at history to know that this is how dictators are created (Nazi Germany, anyone?). We have only to look at history to know that political repression and fear end up in the persecution of innocent people (McCarthyism, anyone?). Where is the outrage and the condemnation for the numerous attacks on the American people and our democracy? Why have our other leaders fallen silent? What do they fear will happen if they speak out? J. Edgar Hoover held many important people in his pocket back in the day by discovering their darkest secrets and holding those secrets over the heads of leaders, celebrities, and other notables. Is that what is happening here? If so, get over it, leaders. The American public cares much more about job security, health care, the environment, the protection of rights for all people than we do about whatever skeletons you have in your closets. You have a duty to the people who elected you, and you are failing those people miserably.
According to the Declaration of Independence, the people have the right to revolt against an unjust government. In Civil Disobedience, Thomas Paine writes that “Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil.” The best government, he writes, is the one that does not intrude upon the people’s lives. However, the man currently occupying the Oval Office is doing everything he can to intrude upon the lives of the citizens in the most negative way possible. At this time, all Americans who value freedom should be protesting, and thank goodness many are. We rallied once against an overseas tyrannical king to earn our freedom. Who would have thought we would be facing that same tyranny from one of our own leaders 249 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence?
Additionally the First Amendment gives every American, including our elected leaders, the right to dissent. This includes voicing our opinions and challenging governmental overreach. This is not happening, and this is what is terrifying to the everyday citizen. If our own leaders fail us, then the country is doomed. Citizens can rally and protest and voice loudly our dismay, but Congress has the power to stop the president, to rein him in, to remind him of the boundaries that come with the Executive Branch. If only they would.
It is also quite noticeable how silent the press has become. In all the years past, the press has been quite vocal in their support or condemnation of a president’s actions, yet with this current presidency, it appears there is suddenly not any interest in what is happening. Where is the outrage? Where are your sharp tongues and pointed quills now that it really matters? Freedom of the press is the first right guaranteed under the Bill of Rights, yet our press now seems more afraid to report anything more than dry facts. It is quite obvious how careful the journalists have become in what they say and how they say it. Why? According to President John F. Kennedy, we “have nothing to fear but fear itself,” so why is the press suddenly giving in?
Celebrities known for their outspokenness against he who currently occupies the White House have fled. Journalists have fallen silent. Congress has turned a blind eye. The Judicial System has one broken wing even though the other is trying to flap. The American people are angry, scared, and feeling defeated in their own country. This country is supposed to be “the land of the free,” yet every day, one more attack is made against our freedoms. Such attacks are supposed to come from the outside world. The last time we attacked ourselves, civil war broke out. Is that where we are heading? Will our leaders continue to stand on the sidelines while the nation unravels?
America has failed itself by refusing to learn from its mistakes and the mistakes of history. That doesn’t mean we deserve the punishments we are now reaping. There is still time, but the country must commit. Our leaders must fight for their constituents. Our press must do their jobs. People must demand that democracy be protected, even if that means revolting against the current administration. Our country’s survival is at stake, and the only way to save it is to stand up and make some noise.
When a nation falls silent, that nation will fall.
