“Those who cannot remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana

It will not happen by bullets, bayonets, and bombs; that is unimaginative and fraught with risk.

It will not happen by threats and intimidation; those are the methods of bullies.

It will not happen by subterfuge or deception; those are the tools of the weak and fearful.

It will come about through our own acquiescence, by ignoring the signs. It will not happen overnight; it may be interrupted by brief moments of resistance from some, but it will succeed if most of us do nothing. It will happen if we are mesmerized into submission by false nostalgia for a past that never was.

First, they will attack the credibility of the media and destroy any semblance of independent oversight. 

Then they will target the courts, casting them as impediments to a return to the America of myth and legend.

Then, they will offer up an enemy, a scapegoat on which we can blame all of our troubles. An alien invasion and crime wave, more myth than fact. Using that to justify ignoring due process for those we don’t understand, counting on our never realizing we are next.

There is precedent throughout history for just such a pattern. It is a road to dictatorship wherein those doomed to be dominated drive the very process themselves.

“It is of secondary importance who the enemy is. Key is that an enemy exists at all. Without an enemy, there is no politics…” Fraenkel, Ernst; Meierhenrich, Jens. The Dual State . OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition. 

“Without a potential enemy, one against whom [the country] can be mobilized and armed, capitalism will cease to exist in Germany.”  Fraenkel, Ernst; Meierhenrich, Jens. The Dual State . OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition. 

These quotes are from the definitive book on the path to a dictatorship, “The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship” by Ernst Fraenkel. Fraenkel, a Jewish German Lawyer who represented many Jewish clients in the early days of the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party–Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi)– describes the insidious path that turned one of the most progressive, democratic, and enlightened societies into the nightmare of a full on dictatorship brought about not by destroying the courts and Reichstag, the German version of Congress, but by co-opting them, inducing their cooperation, and compelling their acquiescence in empowering the Executive.

And once it was too late, doing away with them forever.

It is not beyond the pale to substitute the United States for Germany in these concepts.

We are on the path to Presidential hegemony, where the checks and balances of the three equal elements of government are reduced to mere window dressing. We are being slowly yet inexorably herded toward a dictatorship, unless we take action.

Now Mr. Trump’s legions of supporters will cry out that a comparison to Hitler and Nazi Germany is inherently unfair.  

I agree. 

Hitler knew what he was doing and, in his mind, a racially pure Germany was a noble goal. Mr. Trump’s motivations are infinitely more self-centered, haphazard, and fraught with risk. And yet, eerily similar methods to those in 1930s Germany are in place.

Self-aggrandizement, self-congratulation, and self-promotion (both publicly and financially) are his sole motivations. This is especially troubling, given that he is the President of the United States.

Another aspect of the inaccuracy of the comparison is this simple fact. Hitler conceived and crafted the remaking of Germany himself. Hitler wrote his own book; Trump paid for someone to write his.

Mr. Trump is a tool of those who have been searching for such a “useful idiot” for decades. He is the gold, nay, platinum standard Manchurian Candidate. He is the perfect stooge, so blind as to not even realize it himself.

Mr. Trump is a weapon of Project 2025. And like any such weapon, it is completely ineffectual without a steady hand, discerning eye, and targeting intelligence to aim it. He is not just any weapon; he is not a fire-and-forget weapon, hoping for the best. He is a locked-on-target missile aimed at the heart of the Constitution.

He will strike the target and burn it to the ground. Then the real problem begins.

Listen to the man. He cannot utter a rational, cogent thought without attacking those who criticize him or who preceded him in the office. 

Read his maniacal ravings on his ironically named “Truth Social” platform. Using CAPLOCKS like a fifteen-year-old high schooler amid some hormone-fueled drama.

Look at his accomplishments in business. He bankrupted not one, but three casinos (Trump Plaza I Hotel and Casino and Trump Castle Hotel and Casino (1992) and Trump Hotel Casino and Resorts (2004)). Not to mention the three other bankruptcies (Trump Taj Mahal, Plaza Hotel, Trump Entertainment Resorts).

Who bankrupts a casino besides the Mafia? This is not the hallmark of a “really stable genius,” business or otherwise.

Where does he get all his money, you might ask? Through a string of unpaid debts, questionable investment schemes, and fraudulent scams, such as Trump University. And now, selling gold sneakers, cryptocurrency, and accepting a 400 million dollar aircraft from a country we designated as a sponsor of terrorism.

“I’d have to be stupid not to accept that,” he said. Really? You have to be moronic not to see the problem with accepting it.

But the real worry is how closely his actions this term have mirrored the eerily similar events of those dark days in Germany.

He questions the actions of lower court judges, in his words, activist judges, without the slightest acknowledgement that these courts, the judicial system of the United States of America, is an equal element of our tripartite form of government.

He doesn’t like the checks and balances of an independent judiciary, the First Amendment, the Free Press, or congressional oversight.

If one were keeping score (as if something this troubling were merely a contest), he has managed to neuter Congress. No Republican Senators or Representatives are willing to stand up to him.  If he is ignorant about most aspects of our form of government, he fully understands their fear of losing their positions.

Right now, our situation is one down, two to go.

With that aspect of checks and balances tamed, he can now turn his sights on the other two. Stripping media companies of credentials is just the opening volley. Next will come implied prosecutions if ever a New York Times or Washington Post were to recreate their halcyon days of the Nixon era.

In that, he is getting some able assistance from the owner of the Washington Post and other billionaires who see themselves as the architects of a brave new world. In their hands, it will soon be nothing but Newspeak whitewashing everything.

At the same time, he turns his vitriol on the judiciary. Threatening impeachment (something currently outside his purview, for the moment) and demanding that the lower courts be stripped of their authority. Actually going beyond demanding and crafting a manner in which it will happen.

Don’t believe me?

It’s right in the “Big Beautiful Bill.” I do not believe in the devil. But if there were one, he is in the details.

SEC. 70302. RESTRICTION OF FUNDS. No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), whether issued prior to, on, or subsequent to the date of enactment of this section. 

This would effectively remove the court’s authority to enforce TROs, injunctions, or contempt citations. And it would make it retroactive to all the cases they’ve already lost in court.

If you can’t win the game, change the rules. It has been the pattern of the Trump enigma for decades. If you can’t win in court under the law, you change the law or neuter the court. He chose to cut their &*^% off. That’s what this big, beautiful bill will do.

If that isn’t one giant step toward Presidential Hegemony, nothing is.

“Do you believe that a state in which the decisions of the courts can have no validity, but can be reversed and nullified by particular persons, would subsist rather than perish?” SOCRATES

And one final note on this whole smokescreen of streamlining the government. If DOGE were to eliminate the entire federal payroll, it would amount to less than 5% of the Federal Budget.  Think about that. And that’s another little-noticed aspect of his big, beautiful bill. It will add $2.6 trillion to the deficit.

Big, yes, but not so beautiful. In fact, it is downright dangerous. How is that cost-efficient? A promise more gorgeous than its realization, which should be the epitaph of this administration.

We stand at a crossroads. We can do nothing. Keep the blinders on, block our ears, silence our voices, and be led like lambs to the slaughter, or stand up, speak up, and act up.

And here’s a little balancing addendum.

1. The Democrats need to be louder, more forceful, and more in tune with the majority of Americans
2. Compassion, tolerance, and understanding are always worthwhile, but they are not always reflective of reality. We will not all get along, but we can learn to live our own lives and let others live theirs. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, we can ignore things if “it does not break my bones or pick my pocket.”
3. Bad guys need to go to jail. Help them in prison if you can, rehabilitate them, but take them off the street. Trying to understand why they are bad guys is a lofty, worthwhile, long-term goal. But it does little to mitigate the damage they do.
4. Those red and purple state seats are not worth sacrificing integrity; history will not treat you well.
5. Come the next election, put somebody up for President with the following: a pulse, an agenda based on what most Americans care about, and compassion tempered with justice. Not just soundbites and enthusiasm.
6. It is the economy, Stupid. But we are willing to sacrifice immediate needs for the betterment of our children and grandchildren.
7. Find us a candidate with the balls to tell the truth, as unpleasant as it may be, and the courage and wisdom to find a path forward.

And for goodness’ sake, preserve this nation.