By Roland Hughes
I don’t even know where to begin. My entire body is hoping this is all just a bad joke or a dream. How did we get here?
We have military operations happening within our own country—not against foreign invasion, but largely against our own people. Federal agents cloaked in masks, void of personal identifiers, breaking entry into homes without judicial warrants. Too many reports of American
citizens being abducted. Assaulted physically. Assaulted emotionally. Too many children and families being utterly terrorized. Property and rights violated, and as far as I can see, largely because the person in the White House does not care for his political opposition. Vengeance. Retaliation.
What the fuck just happened, and where does it de-escalate?
As if that were not enough, we are now talking about launching military threats against longtime friends and allies such as Greenland and Denmark. With that will come an alienation of ourselves from the rest of the world. I am having a difficult time seeing where history will nod at any of this.
Has the entire world—and our country—really gone off the rails so badly that there is only one man who notices and holds the prescription and ability to right all the perceived wrongs?
We have citizens being slain in broad daylight, on and off camera, by federal agents. Within hours of these incidents, our leadership issues press releases removing any wrongdoing by the agent involved, before any form of actual investigation can occur.
How did we get here?
And it still isn’t enough. His supporters seem to blindly cheer him on as a brave leader, a president of “peace.”
Yeah… well, where is the peace? I see little to no evidence of it.
What I do see is a setup. One where, if enough backlash occurs, the situation could be used as justification to launch martial law on our nation. He’s already talking about it in relative detail.
If that’s not enough, he openly jokes and taunts cities in the United States that did not vote for him, floating the idea of using those cities as training grounds for our military. You know—to get them accustomed to attacking their own brothers and sisters and children.
Such acts do not happen suddenly. They must be conditioned. Normalized first.
All of this comes from the hands of a man who claims our government is corrupt and in need of fixing. Is this really the way to fix corruption in the ways it actually exists?
Is this what the framers of our Constitution had in mind when they cautioned against tyrannical government, while ensuring that citizens and militias would retain the ability to correct course when necessary?
Is this the corrective measure they had in mind, or does it more closely resemble the destructive transformation they warned us about?
Every one of our founding fathers was a protester—criminals under the law of the Crown, charged with treason and carrying legal bounties on their heads. History did not remember them as criminals because morality does not originate in law.
When compliance comes at the expense of moral character, liberty is already lost.
Slavery was legal.
Segregation was legal.
The internment of Japanese Americans was legal.
Apartheid was legal.
In every case, obedience was lawful—and protest was criminal.
Freedoms are not maintained by governments or by written laws. Laws follow conscience; they do not create it. Liberty survives through protest, civil disobedience, and defiance—through the willingness to sacrifice comfort, reputation, and sometimes one’s own safety so others may remain free.
Order without conscience is not peace.
It is control.
It is tyranny.
What would this world look like if we broke trust and treaty by invading Greenland? What would happen to NATO? Who would our allies be? Would it make this country more sovereign and safe, or would we be thrust into some form of isolation?
Normally our neighbors—Mexico and Canada—would support our interests. But I don’t see that being the case when military threats and invasions have already been cast in their direction as well.
President of peace?
I’m trying so very hard to see where I’m overlooking it. I don’t see peace anywhere. What I see instead is a man—and those who idolize him—simply getting what they want. A spoiled schoolyard bully without cause.
I try hard not to feed into reaction. I try hard to see where what he’s doing could possibly be right or end anywhere positive. But there is so little balance of power left. His words and actions largely go unchallenged by the balancing mechanisms built into our Constitution.
We have one man getting his way at every strike. Anyone who opposes him is labeled a traitor.
A disgusting human. Often stripped of duty, privilege, and even retirement promises the moment they step out of his shadow.
“Lick the boot or get the boot” seems to be the reality.
I still search for the part I’m missing. I still ask myself where I might be seeing only one side.
Where could the benefit of any of this possibly reveal itself?
Where could the lives of the people of our nation—and of the world—find betterment in an atmosphere of such hostility and authority?
Even if he were completely factual in everything he flags as a problem, is this really the way to solve it? Through order enforced by force?
How does that encourage confidence?
How does that encourage peace?
Without confidence, there can be no peace.
Without peace, there can be no confidence.
As if all of this were not enough, he now goes further, stating that anyone who opposes him should lose their citizenship or naturalization, regardless of where they were born. Stand up against what is happening, and that alone is enough to be banished from the only land you have ever known.
No laws need to be broken, apparently—at least not in the mind of the man who says such things. Simply disagree. Simply resist. In his mind, that is enough to label you a traitor. Maybe even a domestic terrorist.
To me, it seems the only people guilty of those charges are the ones saying it.
It amazes me that the party of God, conservatism, and limited government is the very party cheering this on—doing so in an air of obnoxious obtuseness.
It seems that our government, in general, has largely forgotten where it gains its privileges of authority.
Silence will not keep anyone safe.
“There are many who don’t know they are fascist but will find out when the time comes.”
— attribution disputed; commonly misattributed to Ernest Hemingway