The Witness Chronicles, 3/24/25
The clumsy dictator and his minions
We Are Living Under a Dictator. Don’t Kid Yourself.
If you are in power, you must step up now
The world, for Americans, and a lot of our allies, changed two months ago. Our lives changed two months ago. And it is going to suck, seriously.
Americans across the country and the political spectrum are scared and angry and it is going to get worse. But equally frustrating is our lack of ability to stand up to the slaughter in DC, Musk, and Trump, as they randomly disassemble the government, ruining lives in the process.
We will find a way to resist but that has to start at the top, with our elected officials and the power structure in DC, at least those who still respect the Constitution and the rule of law. But we are not seeing any meaningful opposition from those who should be leading the charge against these blatantly illegal acts.
A few lights stand out but the majorities on both sides are largely silent, seemingly depending on the courts to hold off the onslaught. The courts are standing up but any enforcement of their decisions, absent a real, uncompromised Justice Department, falls on Congress. Yet they seem paralyzed with fear or blindly loyal to the criminal who sits in the White House surrounded by other criminals.
Frustration is the exact description of what I am hearing from voters and that frustration is not solely aimed at the President. It is with those we elected to make and enforce the laws that keep our country from dissolving into chaos and corruption. We write, we call, we show up at town meetings and some of us protest, but these calls fall on deaf ears, or so it seems.
The media are complicit in this, waffling in its watchdog role and trying to act as if any of this is legal, logical, or makes sense. It doesn’t and it’s time for those in power, those with a platform, to speak out and even more important, to act.
It takes time for a resistance to build momentum and find its way to an effective opposition. Musk and Trump know this and it explains why they are moving so fast and so recklessly to take things apart. It appears their goal is to cause so much damage in so short a time that undoing it will be nearly impossible.
In the meantime they will ransack the wreckage for themselves and that corruption will be hidden in the confusion.
It pains me to write these words over and over again but at least it feels like I am doing my little part. I have no big constituency to rally, which is why it is so frustrating that those who do are doing nothing. Don’t tell me they are working behind the scenes or simply protecting their families as thugs on the right threaten them. Complacency empowers those same thugs and they will threaten more people until our voice is silenced.
I think the pure selfishness and cowardice we are seeing is a big part of the anger we are seeing from our fellow citizens. Being a congressperson is a privelege that must be earned by doing the hard stuff when it is required, not a gift given by the voters. We expect representation and we are not getting it.
Today, yet another outrageous display of incompetence as Trump lackey Mike Walz apparently included Jeffrey Rosenberg, the Editor of The Atlantic and moderator of Washington Week on PBS, on a chat thread that included classified war plans for an attack on Yemen that took place just hours after Rosenberg saw the plans.
He did the right thing and did not release the classified information but he did reveal the leak. This kind of classified info could endanger the lives of American servicemen and the plan was added to the list by Hegseth, the Defense Secretary. And, to top it all off, they were using a chat app, Signal, that is not approved and could be easily hacked.
Everything about this serves as a clear demonstration of how incompetent and careless these people are. I can only assume our enemies, like Putin, are working day and night to take advantage of that carelessness.
Trump of course claimed to have no knowledge of the leak and used it as an opportunity to insult The Atlantic, claiming they are on the verge of failure. Except they are owned by Lauren Jobs, Steve’s widow and a liberal billionaire. One of the good ones.
We have seen this past week how unsure this overconfident President is. When faced by a hard no from a judge, he claimed he had not ordered the deportations the judge tried to block, then blamed Marco Rubio, his cowardly Secretary of State for the order, which Trump himself is on video signing.
Trying to pass blame when caught is a childish reaction, one most of us learn early on is a bad idea. But bullies like Trump, who are essentially cowards, never outgrow their worst childhood moments. It is his weakness and it can be exploited, but that requires standing up and proverbially punching him in the face.
Sometimes that is the only way to stop a bully and we are at that point. But the average voter is not able to take that action, not yet. But those in power are and they need to do something they seem to have forgotten. They need to lead.
When they do, they will find they have an army of citizens behind them. We are waiting but we will not wait forever.
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Thank you,
Martin Edic
Thank you for your words. I agree that most of our leaders are not speaking out and stepping up forcefully enough. I do appreciate Bernie and AOC's tour, and other town halls, especially where the Democrats are holding them in Republican districts because the R's are afraid of their constituents. My Senator, Patty Murray, and Representative, Pramila Jayapal, are speaking out. What is really lacking is a coalition among the Democrats, to lead us all in protesting and doing everything we can against the destruction and illegal actions of the Trump/Musk administration.