Resisting a Tyrant's Deadly Madness
The idea of America is in peril
Openly gay Democratic Maine congressional candidate Jordan Wood was confronted at a town hall on March 12 by a man who repeated lies about undocumented immigrants voting in American elections. After Wood refuted his claims, the man called him a homophobic epithet and stormed out after saying, "I'm not finished with you, jackass."
Two members of Wood's campaign team followed the man to the parking lot where he told them he had guns in his car. Instead of fleeing, they spent 15 minutes listening to him and his concerns. Eventually, he apologized.
Wood writes, "That's a human being who has been fed rage by people in power who will never have to stand in that parking lot."
President Trump deliberately stokes hatred and paranoia for his own gain. He incited an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He has weaponized the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security against his opponents. Antifa and trans activists are baselessly labeled domestic terrorists.
Without strong pushback, more will suffer from the hate being stirred up by Trump and his allies as they seek to deflect attention from the administration's wrongdoing.
For example, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said, regarding the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking scandal, "Every time more documents are released ... it seems like more cans of worms are opened." Does he sound eager to hold pedophiles accountable?
The damage extends globally. Two weeks after launching an illegal war against Iran, Trump could not articulate a coherent purpose or strategy. He denied growing reports that the U.S. was responsible for a bombing that killed upwards of 160 schoolgirls and their teachers.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decimated the Pentagon office responsible for minimizing civilian deaths. He spoke of giving "no quarter, no mercy to our enemies," thus confessing a war crime. Regarding Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz, he said, "The only thing prohibiting transit in the Strait is Iran shooting at us, otherwise it's open."
That is about as lucid as Trump's comment that people killed by roadside bombs were "walking around with no legs." On March 13, Trump said the conflict with Iran will end "when I feel it in my bones." Bring back Nancy Reagan's astrologer.
Late last year, Senator Lindsey Graham cheerfully said of the Gaza conflict, "We're killing all the right people."
Trump is sticking to his vow not to sign any legislation until the SAVE Act, his voter suppression bill, passes. Congress passed a bill to increase the supply of affordable housing, but Trump said he wouldn't sign it because "No one gives a f*** about housing."
It is time to see Trump for the sociopath he is. He will not take his hat off for dead service members. He will not respect legitimate journalistic questions. He will not do or say the proper and decent thing.
He cannot be reformed, only removed. That will be hard enough.
There is some good news. Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected two subpoenas for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as thinly justified efforts to pressure him into lowering interest rates. "White replacement theory" advocate Jeremy Carl withdrew his nomination for a State Department post after rough treatment at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says, "After we've discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities ... when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face, what comes next? All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don't want to repeat history, then for God's sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it."
Trump and his pack of overgrown juvenile gamesters are racing toward a wall of resistance they are not prepared for.
Our mentally deteriorating president is dishonoring our increasing war dead and trampling on the principles for which they died. In the process, Trump is wrecking international alliances that America led in building, and neglecting needs here at home.
Generations of activists have worked to help build a better America, based on principles espoused by founders who did not live up to them.
We need not claim perfection to recognize that decades of progress to achieve those aspirations are under grave threat. As Gov. Pritzker says, we must be strong to counter the authoritarian playbook being advanced.
Richard Rosendall is a writer and activist who can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright © 2026 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.