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mike parwana's avatar

As you allude to in the reference to the Chamber of Commerce’s gathering at the Country Club, it is NOT a center/moderate organization. It is a cutthroat free-market capital organization founded to prevent workers from gaining power. Sure, they wear suits and top hats and keep a hanky to polish their monocles, but they are rarely on the side of ensuring just government powers by consent of the governed. They work to be a power behind puppet leaders.

And while it is great that David Brooks gives everything careful consideration after it is too late, many of us give consideration to the probable effects of bad policy before it advances. For that we get smeared as over-reacting, panicking.

Looking at the record, while millions of us formed an immediate opinion that the Iraq War of GWB was unjustified and irresponsible, David Brooks supported it. Perhaps we all “panicked”, but history shows we were absolutely correct, and GW Bush’s War on Terror led in a straight line to legal justification for torture (“enhanced interrogation”), abductions, black sites, Guantanamo Bay, and general subversion of the Constitution in ways that gave us the possibility of a Donald Trump for President.

Middle-of-the-Roadism is not thoughtful balance of all sides. It is, in fact, a brake on expanding justice.

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Maureen V's avatar

Your sobering statements on what Trump and his cronies and thugs have wrought upon America are spot on.

With even all that there's Pam Bondi stating that her department will come after protesters at Tesla dealerships. Or Rubio canceling the contract with Yale University's research lab that was tracking Russia's kidnapping of Ukrainian children and unilaterally deciding that foreign born persons, even those that are legally here, who criticize Trump or his MAGA movement should be arrested and deported. Or RFK, Jr. once again implying that vaccines cause autism as he promotes a brand of hamburgers. Or Noem requiring Canadians be registered when they enter if they plan to stay for more than 30 days. Or Hegseth removing references to accomplishments of women, Blacks, LGBTQ and Hispanics from DOD sites, such as Arlington National Cemetery. Or Musk's DOGE Backpack Boys canceling leases, contracts and funding for scientific research, historical sites, federal offices and buildings.

Democrats are failing in finding and taking a unified stance or even a voice to oppose these corrupt and destructive actions. Republicans stand by and obediently applaud as Trump destroys American democracy and institutions such as the Kennedy Center and altering America's history.

One sign of hope though, is that more and more loud and peaceful protests are taking place with people challenging their elected officials. But, I wonder, will it be enough to halt the dark trajectory that the Trump Administration is sending America down?

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