HenryBriggsColumn

I’m almost done – with you. You’re like a herd of cats without a leader, rushing around here and there, getting into little spats with each other, whining and complaining and getting…NOWHERE!

Like the rest of us, you’re scared of Trump and his fascist followers. You’re angry at Congressional Republicans who don’t have the balls to say no to a wannabe dictator and his enforcer.  You’re looking at the potential end of the greatest democracy in history.

And instead of making an effort to stop him, you’re doing…NOTHING!

And you know what? You’re the only group who can, actually, stop him by doing…SOMETHING!

Because you’re all too wrapped up in your own egos and insecurities to think clearly, I’m going to give you ten things to do.

So, pay attention, take notes.

1) Speak out and speak up. All of you. Everywhere. All the time.

2) For every press conference, rally, or announcement that Trump, Musk, his Cabinet, or Blond Bullshitter Leavitt has, you have a press conference, rally, or announcement.

3) Don’t wait for a presidential candidate to appear from the cackling gaggle of Democratic leaders, just use them all. God knows there’ll be enough rallies, press conferences, announcements to occupy different leaders each time. 

4) Do you think people don’t know a lie when they see it? Do you think we’re all that stupid! Stop using words like “untruth”, “falsehood,” “misdirection,” “misrepresent,” or dozens of other ways of not calling a lie a lie. Call them what they are…LIES!

5) Every time Trump, Musk, or others lie to the American public (about Ukraine, Russia, any Gulf, or whatever), counter with… THE TRUTH!

6) For every wall of lies put up by the Republicans, blow it up, pound it to smithereens, explode it with…THE TRUTH!

7) It’s not that complicated. You don’t have to spend six months arguing and fighting to elect a spokesperson. You have dozens of great ones now:  Buttigieg, Newsom, Warren, Sanders, Murphy, Whitman, Jeffries, Waltz, to name just a few. There are many; use them all to tell… THE TRUTH!

8) Don’t wait to chose a single message all of you can coalesce around. That’s not the message that matters right now. The message that matters now is Trump’s lies. You already have a single message…THE TRUTH!

9) Support the Media, because without them there is only Trump’s Lies. Write to The New York Time and other Mainstream Media. Post on social media. Use lawn signs. Speak up at cocktail parties. Find an opportunity to counter every lie with…THE TRUTH.

10) And then, when you’ve tamped down all their lies, when the playing field has been made fair again, when you’ve thwarted PLAN 2025, when democracy has returned, get together and pick a leader from your long list of capable leaders, someone who cherishes our democracy, who isn’t a narcissist, who values integrity, and tells…THE TRUTH!

And do it all now, because we don’t have time for a second chance.

It wasn’t talking about emptying Gaza of Palestinians and turning it into another Trump resort.

It wasn’t threatening tiny Panama with the Putinesque move of restoring American sovereignty over a canal it built and gave to Panama in the last century.  

Nor was it freezing, without warning, trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, and shuttering USAID, causing havoc, pain, and death, to helpless people across the world. 

It wasn’t shutting entire sections of the US government without notice, causing chaos and confusion.

It wasn’t wreaking retribution on the FBI by firing FBI leaders and investigators who worked the January 6th Insurrection.

It wasn’t his firing of Inspectors General across the Federal Government for no reason, undercutting trust in the entire government.

It wasn’t his placing an ex-Fox “News” bullshitter, retired mid-level Army officer, sexual bully, and alcohol abuser, in charge of the biggest military of the world. 

It wasn’t placing a fellow narcissist, a tech oligarch without even bottom rung security clearance or any government experience because he’s never been elected to anything, in charge of destroying parts of government, the latest of which is the Education Department which oversees 49.6 million students.

And it wasn’t for using parts of the Constitution to take down other parts of the Constitution, which is clever and unexpected. But that’s not new. Hitler used a similar approach in 1933 when he took down the German democracy in less than 2 months.

The impossible? He pissed off the Canadians! 

Not possible! You say. 

Our kind, polite, even-tempered neighbors to the North…pissed?! They haven’t been pissed since we invaded Sandwich, Ontario during the War of 1812. These are people who open the door for each other and help change flat tires. They invade our border by the thousands in the winter and flood Florida and other points South, and are so pleasant, even DeSantis doesn’t complain.  

But Trump finally pissed them off.

How? For months, Trump had been musing about Canada becoming the 51st state, which wasn’t polite or kind. Then, on Saturday, Feb. 1, he announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

That tore it. On Monday, Feb 3, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced, “We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink,” a contract worth $68 million dollars to Co-American Dictator Elon Musk.

”Ontario won’t do business with people hell bent on destroying our economy,” said Ford. ” Trump’s team “wants to destroy families’ incomes, destroy businesses. He wants to take food off the table of hardworking people, and I’m not going to tolerate it.”

And now angry Canadians are booing the US National Anthem at games and emptying store shelves of American products from Vancouver to Toronto, leaving signs that say “Buy Canadian Instead.” (See what I mean about polite?)

Therein lies some much needed advice from our civilized grownups to the North. 

No-one has to accept Rubio’s, Hegseth’s, and Miller’s orders or those of any other subalterns of the American Dictator. Instead we can ignore, refuse, or even ridicule them. As citizens we can demonstrate in the streets.  We can contact our Representatives and Senators over and over again and tell them to get some real cojones and stop this destruction of American democracy.  We can join the political system and encourage neighbors and friends to make themselves heard and seen.

We can explain to those who somehow missed Civics 101, that Fascism didn’t die with Hitler – it just went underground for awhile – and remind them that Democracy dies in silence as much as in darkness.

There are pluses to getting old.  I get social security money every month and I don’t have to do a thing to earn it.  Plus I have savings which I did earn, but that was years ago. So now, I just “Spend baby, spend!” OK. Not really. I’m actually very frugal. (should any of my kids be reading this). I live in a house I bought from the mortgage company after I bought it from the owner. So when I need to bail to some kind of old people’s place, I can sell the house and say “Bye! Bye!” to snow-shoveling, grass-cutting, and greedy Trick-or-Treaters. 

Against the wishes of my kids, I can spoil the grandkids, endlessly.

I can have the irresponsibilities of a teenager without the grades. As an old person I can drink when I want, ogle my girlfriend, and tell the same stories over and over and over and…  

I don’t have to be good at…anything: golf, house cleaning, cooking, buying Christmas and birthday presents, remembering names,… answering the door… 

Well, I do have to pay my bills and be nice to my neighbors (hey guys, if you’re reading this, don’t read this).

Old is fun, for sure. 

But so is young, because young includes so many choices.

It means I can drive too fast. I can hang out at the local tavern and yell at Eagles and Phillies games. I can teach my kids discipline, integrity, hard work, fortitude, intelligence, etc… or just: “Do as I say and not as I do”.

I can try new things, like writing a local column or serving on my town council and, as long as I have a highly skilled editor and a brilliant town manager, avoid major stumbles.

I can go to every one of my kids games and performances and applaud until my hands hurt. I can, without admitting to a scintilla of bias, defend my kids against every stupid, arrogant teacher who wields grades like a hockey stick, and never, ever admit to  liking helicopters.

I can have a career as a producer-director of Live television and not utter a single “Fuck! Wrong camera!”, especially multiple times a show. As a young producer, I can develop an award winning TV show aimed at old people – and not have viewers, including the crew, shake their heads in disbelief.

That’s the dilemma: old is fun, but young is fun, too. 

Hmmm…

I think I’ll go with young. Because if something becomes old or boring, the young can always try something new…

…like… Hey! Getting old!

See, if getting old becomes boring or frustrating, I can always go back to being young! 

Right?  

In the early 70’s, I produced and directed a daily talk show for the ABC station in Baltimore that reached into Washington DC. Like many talks shows of that era, we delighted in poking the Nixon Administration. On one occasion, after exposing an FBI screw-up, we received a call from the White House asking for copy of the show. The tone and timing of the call spoke volumes. As calls from the White House weren’t common I went upstairs to the executive offices and asked the VP what to do. He raised his eyebrows for a second or two, then told me to call back, tell them a copy of the show would cost $5000 and that a machine to play it on would cost over $100,000 (this was before VHS, DVD’s, or thumb drives). I called the White House and left the message, saying we’d make the copy once we heard back. We never heard back.

46 years later, when Trump first got elected, I worried. I was never a fan of Hillary Clinton, but Trump’s lies, narcissism, and ignorance seemed far scarier. When the Washington Post ran the slogan “Democracy dies in Darkness” in every paper, I was encouraged. The media will keep Trump in check, I thought. But, over the next four years, as Trump continued, unabated, the Washington Post’s reporting on his 30,000 lies had dwindling impact. Everyone became inured to it.

Now, 54 years later, as I watch Trump assembling his Cabinet of Sycophants, some of whom know even less about their area than Trump does, I see a horizon filling with darkness. 

Just one recent example: Trump sued ABC for allowing George Stephanopoulos to call him a “rapist” on the air. He has since threatened to revoke licenses of broadcasters he deems too critical of him. He also appointed Brendan Carr to chair the outfit in charge of broadcast licenses, the Federal Communications Commission. Carr wrote the FCC chapter of Project 2025 and has criticized NBC and CBS for supporting Kamala Harris. Which may explain ABC’s $15 million dollar capitulation to Trump before the suit got to court.  

Freedom of the Press, meet Freedom of the Lawsuit, wielded by the most powerful man in the country.  

Which leaves us with the other two pillars designed to check presidential power and, when necessary, stop it: Congress and The Supreme Court. 

We all know where the Supreme Court stands. Which leaves us with Congress. Oops!  

But wait!…The Senate, with “advice and consent”, has to approve many Presidential Appointments. And it has a history of standing up to Presidents (remember McCain’s tie-breaking thumbs-down vote that saved ObamaCare?).

Maybe, when the White House calls, 51 Senators will not just snicker at the incompetence of Trump appointees, but actually have the courage to advise against some of them. Maybe that courage will inspire the Mainstream Media to, not just take back the mantle of keeping the public informed with real, verifiable, double-sourced facts, but stand up to Presidential power and autocracy. Morning, noon, and night. Every day, every week, every month.

Just as the authors of the Constitution intended.

First they came for the Supreme Court and we didn’t speak out because we were not jurists.

Then they came for the Media and we did not speak out because we were not journalists.

Then they came for the Justice Department and we did not speak out because we were not lawyers.

Then they came for the Defense Department and we did not speak out because we were not in the military.

Then they came for the Department of Health and we did not speak up because we were not doctors.

Then they came for Congress and we didn’t speak out because we were not politicians.

Then they came for us and there was no one to warn us, to defend us, to heal us, or to represent us.