The Witness Chronicles, 4/11/25
My family history pre-Revolutionary War and the Trump demolition of democracy
What We Are Defending
A story of America
Bear with me, I’m not Heather Scott Richardson, the historian and political writer who I respect immensely and who writes about this insanity as ongoing history. But I have a little nugget of history of my own.
My last name, Edic, is commonly found in the southern Adirondacks of New York near Utica, NY. My grandmother lived in Utica and my great uncle was mayor for many years. The name is German but it did not start out as Edic. Though there are many references to Edic in the area with roads named after it and a town once called Edicville.
My younger brother did some research and learned something that startled all of us. The original name was Eddig and they were German religious refugees who came over around 1620 and somehow settled near the Utica area. I cannot imagine how they survived but they did.
I knew nothing about this as I grew up. My grandmother simply did not tell us anything about her husband’s family and he had died when my father was a newborn. She was Irish American, last name Dulan. Catholic. I assume the Eddigs were Catholics escaping Lutheran Germany.
I take pride in this history. 1620 is very early in our country’s history, the very beginning. I do not know if they were British sympathizers during the Revolutionary War, or revolutionaries. I would hope they defied the greatest empire the world had ever seen but I’m guessing they were far more concerned about native Americans, some friendly and some not.
No easy times then.
But the fact that we survived and thrived is a testament to the power of the American democracy. The concept of fighting for freedom and democracy is in the blood of all of us, or so we have assumed. But we now see the rise of an oligarchy that cares for none of this proud history. And a President who ridiculed our military for defending our democracy.
This is the most shameful development in our history, my history and your history, no matter how you got here. The willful destruction of a great democracy in service to the ego of a man who has never done anything meaningful or decent. It is becoming our collective shame that our fellow citizens voted for this monster.
And it is our collective duty to stop this man and his followers. We have something on our side. They are unbelievably inept and incapable of understanding the gravity of their actions, even when their own allies confront them with it, as we saw over and over again this week.
In the face of his billionaire buddies’ criticism Trump quickly folded, in part. He claims this is because countries all over the world are calling and begging him for a deal to remove the tariffs he so recklessly proclaimed. But he stuck to one tariff on our biggest trading partner, China, then doubled down again and again, while waiting for their call.
It didn’t come, they were defiant, and they raised tariffs on us in response. Both tariffs are at levels over 100%, effectively ending trade on millions of products we need at all levels of society. It’s all out financial warfare and it will destroy the world economy if kept up. That is not my opinion, it is the opinion of virtually every respected expert across the globe.
Is all this worth the awful risk it represents? Frankly, it’s not worth anything. No one gains from this except one man’s frail ego desperate for attention at any cost and a handful of racist and misogynistic fanatics seeking to build a white suprematist society.
Too dire for you? Unfortunately this is hardly an exaggeration, if anything it is an understatement. Trump claims it is his goal to bring manufacturing back to the United States. A worthy goal, except no business will plan and make new capital investments in a financial environment so unpredictable and chaotic. And if they were irresponsible enough to do so it would take years before it bore fruit and the likely outcome would be even higher prices.
China, and other countries we trade with initially had a cost advantage based on cheap labor. But as they became more successful, those labor costs rose and in response they built new advanced automated factories to retain those price advantages. In China’s totalitarian government, their businesses were given huge advantages through partnerships with that government.
We still have the advantage in innovation, particularly in tech, but China is rapidly catching up and they have the advantage of all those new manufacturing facilities.
It appears that the Trump administration is looking to emulate China’s totalitarian society by deregulating everything and placing all power in the hands of one man. But they appear to not understand the price we will pay if that were to take place. Americans would find quickly we are not suited to living under the thumb of a dictatorship run by a narcissistic psychopath.
That realization seems to be dawning on many of us as we watch markets swing up and down and how that President reacts with poorly thought out kneejerk actions, which only serve to make things worse.
This is an opportune moment for resistance as Trump and his followers squabble and many start voicing concerns about his actions. It is vital to keep the pressure on any way we can, even if our options seem limited. They will grow every day as politicians feel the pressure and elections loom. We are already seeing some peeling away from the Trump loyalty threats, though so far it’s only a few.
We are told that another Trump goal is downsizing the government by firing thousands, but those firings have been haphazard, random, and outright cruel. Again, this ideal of smaller debt free government is completely phony as Trump’s new budget adds trillions to our debt, again, to extend his massive tax cuts for billionaires.
That caused an upheaval in Congress during his last term, but DC memories appear to be very short term as they make the same mistakes over and over again. I take some small solace in that as it once again offers an opportunity to take our democracy back again. But it won’t be easy this time around.
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Thank you,
Martin Edic
Knowing who we are requires knowing our roots. Thanks for your own historical story. Perhaps that history explains my affinity for your writing. My ancestors were early arrivals also, landing in what was then New Amsterdam in the 1600's. Today, as is usually the case, I find myself reading your work and saying, "I wish I'd said that." Keep on keeping on.