The significance of Trump’s firing last week of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics cannot be overstated. It is a move that profoundly undermines the ability of anyone participating in the investment world to know with any degree of confidence what is going on, and the result will soon be catastrophic for the U.S. economy.
It is certainly not pleasant to be watching what is happening in this country and to be reporting it in as honest and straightforward a fashion as warranted. Nobody likes bad news, much less doom and gloom in general. But we have no choice but to share what we see happening in a generally unfiltered manner. If we stand any chance at all of holding onto our cherished values and systems of democratic functioning in this nation, we have no option other than truth to guide us, and hopefully to trigger us into action.
This is unprecedented. It is wrong to equate what’s now happening with any period in the 1930s when Hitler rise to power in Germany and systematic advance of fascism and genocide were advancing. This is worse than that. It is not merely Trump, though he is the unique leader who sets the tone for legions of others, cowards though they may be, who are carrying out the march to a destiny for America that not even the word ‘fascism’ can adequately describe.
This is an end time. This is the Titanic. There is the moving around of furniture and efforts through the media to translate it all into comforting terms of relative normalcy and familiar ways of appreciating it all, but it is none of that. The forces of greed and cruelty have seized the reins of power and are determined not to let go this time.
Frankly, we may never have another honest and fair election beyond 2025. What Trump and the Republicans are doing in terms of undermining any shred of integrity of the system for allocating electoral districts in Texas, and soon elsewhere, is wildly relevant to this. Those who are complicit or governed by fear may be howling that such an analysis is too extreme, that if we just hold out, things will get better, maybe even after the midterm elections next year. Fear is the consequence of these horrible moves, and for many people, acknowledging that fear is the hardest for them to even contemplate, even when the choices are clearly evident from the standpoint of even the most basic right or wrong.
It would be the normal pollyanna point now in this essay to turn to some way to fight back, to win the day for democracy. “This is the time for the courts, or for the ‘people’ to step up and defend our system,” comes the calming assurance that all is not lost after all. But while these are brave and encouraging assertions, are they real in the face of such a determined turn to tyranny?
