Letters to the editor

Dear Editor,

I hope I can be forgiven a moment of schadenfreude upon hearing that the current occupant’s lavish and obscenely expensive military parade on Saturday was sparsely attended. It is meager consolation for our country’s recent slide into autocracy.

Can there really be any doubt that American democracy is in danger? Taxpaying immigrants with clean records are snatched from workplaces, courtrooms, and church parking lots. A democratic senator who does identify himself as such — specious claims to the contrary notwithstanding — is seized, wrestled to the ground, and placed in handcuffs for daring to question DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the excesses of ICE during a news conference. Federal troops are deployed in Los Angeles to put down relatively small protests that are mostly peaceful and limited to a small area of the city. Democratic state legislators in Minnesota are assassinated in the wee hours by a politically motivated assailant posing as a law enforcement officer. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the next atrocity.

That the excesses of the current occupant are unpopular is evident in ongoing, well-attended — and peaceful — protests here in Socorro, in Albuquerque, in many cities throughout the US, and even abroad.

It astonishes me that anyone still believes politics doesn’t affect them or isn’t worried sick about the direction in which the United States is moving. Such acquiescence is exactly what the Trump Administration wants.

Janet Goldstein

Socorro

Dear Editor,

If you were driving through Socorro on California Street at noon Saturday, you saw a couple of hundred residents lining both sides of the street, holding signs with slogans like “No kings in America!” and “Defy Fascism”. Why were all these folks standing in the sun on a day when the temperature was pushing past the 100° mark?

Let’s start with the definition of fascism. According to Dictionary.com it is “a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism”. Let’s see… “a dictator having complete power”? Trump doesn’t even try to hide his contempt for democracy. “Forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism”? On Thursday a U.S. Senator was assaulted and handcuffed by Donald Trump’s goons for the ‘crime’ of asking one of Trump’s cabinet secretaries a question. “Regimenting all industry and commerce?” Trump is imposing crippling tariffs without constitutional authority. “Emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism?”. Trump’s regime has systematically erased the contributions of black Americans from federal websites. All this is just the beginning.

Although Trump and his officers are clearly fascist, they have not yet achieved full control over the government. What comes next? He will assert a nonexistant ‘rebellion’ and invoke the Insurrection Act and suspend the right of habeas corpus. That means he can then order the U.S. military to shoot civilians and that federal agents can drag people off the streets without justification and hold them indefinitely without a trial. Most likely the media, judges who rule against him, and trans people would be the first to disappear and never be heard from again. And then? The rest of us.

Here’s the thing about trying to prevent a fascist takeover: you only get one chance. You get no second try. Nor do your children… Nor your grandchildren…

In 1942 my father-in-law enlisted in the army, went to boot camp, and sailed in a troop ship that was torpedoed, forcing him to swim for his life. He fought through the rest of the war. If you could ask him why he did it, he’d say “To defeat fascism”. Now it’s 2025. The chance of fascism taking over the U.S. is far greater in 2025 than in 1942. If we do nothing, it almost certainly will. To forestall a fascist takeover, you don’t have to join the army and risk torpedoes and bullets. You can do it by getting a piece of cardboard and writing “I SUPPORT DEMOCRACY” and standing on the sidewalk. By writing your congressperson. By putting a DEFY FASCISM sign on your lawn.

My father-in-law almost died defending democracy. What are you willing to do?

Fred Phillips

Socorro