Category: Commentary

Trump loves power, so he tells us that we have problems, and only he can save us from them, but that his opponents stop him from doing so. It may seem counterintuitive that a strongman would admit any kind of inability in the face of opposition. If he is so strong then why can’t he do this or that important thing? The strongman is supposed to appear capable and unrestrained. Surely then a president professing inability is not a strongman… right? But in fact, such claims of inability are deliberate tactics, especially for strongmen still consolidating power, and they should frighten us. The claim of inability is followed by its chilling next step: “…so I need more power.” The United States government is not perfect, but it is also not inherently broken. It has not been broken historically, though Trump is breaking it deliberately. Our government’s political flaws are real, and people have legitimate complaints about these flaws and their

This post is written solely in my role as a private individual. It is not written for and does not reflect the views of my employer or any agency of the US Government. The president does not love peace, because peace does not serve him. President Trump loves power, its possession and its exercise. Indeed, in a backward arrangement he often exercises power in order to possess it, taking a questionable action first, and implicitly daring anyone to challenge or stop him. To his lawless view, authority is based not on the Constitution, nor any statute, but on what he can get away with. He exercises the power he desires, not the power he possesses, seeking to make it a fait accompli, a thing already done that he hopes will not be challenged, or will be difficult to challenge, because any challenge comes after the fact. When he is not stopped, in his mind, the power is his. We should

This post is written solely in my role as a private individual. It is not written for and does not reflect the views of my employer or any agency of the US Government. Foreword The president does not love truth. Indeed, the administration he has built does not believe in objective truth in the way that normal people do. The administration posits repeatedly that truth is subjective, that it is formed by what those in power can enforce, by what can be claimed loudest and repeated often enough in social media, by what can sneak through court using bad-faith arguments strewn across myriad attempts. Truth, to this administration, is unknowable. To hear their claims, there are always alternative facts, differing viewpoints, biased agendas. Unbiased, honest, reliable truth is alien to them. The administration’s dialog does not allow for the possibility of objective truth, nor those who seek it, nor especially those who find it. To their view, truth must be

As the Trump regime works to impose itself in our daily lives, it is sometimes suggested that one action or another might be designed to provoke us in some way, so the government has an excuse to escalate even further. I recently heard this said again about ICE patrols storming American cities. The images of masked enforcers grabbing people off our streets are disturbing and it is no wonder people worry about what will come next and how to respond. At the same time, we celebrate moments when Americans stand up for their rights and make it clear we will not go quietly. We have seen it here in Washington, where restaurants successfully demanded warrants and stopped ICE agents at the door, and in places like Worcester, Massachusetts, where a crowd formed to contest an arrest and forced the city to assert its boundaries. Understandably, these dramatic scenes have raised the question again, are we being provoked? The problem with