Having engaged in a political shouting match with two people I’ve known and respected, I thought it best to express my views in the Spy and seek out their response(s) civilly and in this larger online community.
My concern is the authoritarian direction Trump is pulling all of us, I wonder if all Trump’s radical acts are what they voted for and if they’d vote again for Donald J. Trump and his accomplices.
Trump could not hope to perpetrate all these unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, dishonest, criminal and obscene acts without the complicity of the ‘Yes” men and women in his cabinet, the Project 2025 managers, Republicans in both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court.
Those people, IMHO, have graduated from being his supporters. They are now his accomplices and need to be recognized as such. The only real question is how many of those Republican voters who pulled the lever for Trump in 2024 will vote to maintain his stranglehold on Congress by reelecting all those weasels later this year, including Andy Harris.
Some Republicans I know think Trump’s actions are heroic and worthy of their full support. No problem with an arbitrary military strike to take Maduro from Venezuela. Now we have Venezuela to run, but we still don’t have affordable health insurance. Soon we’ll have Cuba, but we still don’t have the unredacted Epstein Files.
Looks like Greenland will be taken very soon as well, but the cost of living continues to rise in excess of salaries and Trump’s approval ratings are lower than ever. So, we’ll invoke the Monroe Doctrine and take over countries that don’t do what we want. So now, Putin and Jinping can take over Ukraine and Taiwan (and wherever else they choose) and the United States is no better than those authoritarian thugs. And there goes the free democratic world. Donald Trump and his Republican cult are abandoning democracy worldwide. Did you vote for abandoning Ukraine, NATO and leadership of the free world when you voted for Trump? Trump said: “We need Greenland. … It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” Yet, Trump is turning his back on Ukraine which is being invaded and attacked by Putin and also NATO which has been our ally in defending ourselves from Russian aggression since the immediate aftermath of WWII.
Trump, et al, are also abandoning the hundreds of thousands of Americans who sacrificed their lives and limbs to defeat fascism. So too are the average Republican cultists who continue to vote for Trump’s accomplices – like Andy Harris. One local person with whom I spoke took offense at the implication that he was supporting fascism in his support of Trump because he is a veteran of the US Armed Forces. He apparently forgot that Trump refers to American military veterans as “suckers”. In this case, maybe Trump has a point. Those free men who sacrificed so much to defeat fascism did so to prevent fascism in the USA. You know, the idea of armed, masked agents picking up people in the streets and hauling them away to prison camps without due process. As a reminder, the US Constitution states, directly, that no person (not just “citizens”) shall be deprived of their liberty without due process. You know, thousands of arrests of people without criminal records. You know, trying to put political opponents on trial for “crimes” like accusing Trump of illegally attempting to overturn the free and fair election of 2020 or reminding US military that they have a responsibility not to illegal orders, per their oaths to defend the US Constitution.
Trump has declared ANTIFA a terrorist organization, making anyone who opposes fascism officially a terrorist, whether or not they actively participated in any government opposition demonstration. Looks like fascism is the official policy of the Trump Administration. I suppose they’ll get around to arresting George Soros before long, if Trump’s approval rating sinks much lower.
I am utterly opposed to these actions and this president. I want to know on what basis you support these actions by Trump. I’ll wait a reasonable time for your response, but I demand a response from the people who called me out.
Mickey Terrone
Oxford
David Stevens says
Congressman Harris
This is the 5th anniversary of the attempt by Trump to overturn the 2020 election by sending 1000’s of supporters to the Capital resulting in 150 police being assaulted and millions in damage to the Capital.
The victims who suffered the worst violence were the police officers protecting the Capitol. Patrick McCaughey, one of the rioters, pinned a Metropolitan Police officer, Daniel Hodges, with a stolen riot shield. Steven Cappuccio, another attacker, used Officer Hodges’ own baton to beat him, leaving him to scream through bloodied teeth. David Dempsey discharged a stream of pepper spray that burned the lungs, throat, eyes and face of Detective Phuson Nguyen. Julian Khater shot pepper spray into the face of the Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who suffered a series of strokes hours later and died.
On the first day of the new administration Trump pardoned these felons.
On this day I expect you to condemn what happened that day. The lawlessness has marked the first year of this administration and Republicans in Congress sit by and offer no resistance. The country won’t recover until Republicans as well as Democrats openly resist how the current authoritarian is trampling on the Constitution and the rule of law. If you don’t speak up you won’t deserve the important office you now old.
Keith Alan Watts says
I want to thank Mickey Terrone for sharing such a thoughtful and impassioned letter. Reading it, I was struck by the clarity and moral urgency with which Mr. Terrone addresses the challenges facing our democracy. I deeply appreciate the willingness to engage, to question, and to hold our leaders—and ourselves—accountable.
One question has stayed with me through countless conversations with Trump supporters: What line is it that he would cross that you would say is a bridge too far? In all my conversations over the last several years, I have yet to hear an answer. Not one.
Let me be clear: I am not here to judge. I am here to try to understand. And what I have found is that, for many, no line has been articulated. Perhaps some feel they have backed themselves into a corner so tightly that there is no graceful exit—or that any exit would feel like surrender.
That inability—or unwillingness—to define a line is deeply concerning, because it challenges the very boundaries that safeguard our democracy. Yet within that concern lies an opportunity: an opportunity for dialogue, for reflection, and for the patient, deliberate work of finding a path forward.
Letters like Mr. Terrone’s create that space. They remind us that questioning our leaders, holding them accountable, and speaking truth to power is not only a right—it is a sacred responsibility.
And let us not forget why that responsibility exists. Across this country, in cemeteries large and small, lie the men and women of every race, creed and walk of life who made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we might live in freedom. They defended not only the soil of this nation, but the principle that we may speak, disagree, and engage without fear of imprisonment or oppression. Think of being snatched off the street by masked men with no identification just because of your skin color . . . .
Those freedoms—once lost—cannot be regained. Once the clock has been turned back, it will be too late. For all of us.
The choice before us is ours: we may close the door, retreat into silence, and let division define us—or we may reach across every aisle, every divide, and seek the common ground that binds us together. We have far more in common than we have differences. We all put our pants on, one leg at a time.
There will always be excuses, always reasons to look away, but the challenges remain—to do the hard work of listening, of engaging, of building understanding, and of protecting the freedoms that others fought to secure. For us. And our children.
Understanding does not require agreement. It requires empathy. It requires courage.
It requires a recognition that we are, each and every one of us, stewards of a democracy entrusted to us by those who came before.
Thank you, Mr. Terrone, for reminding us of the work—and the duty—that remains.
Michael Davis says
Good letter Mr. Terrone.
There is overwhelming evidence that Trump and his sycophant goons are fascists. Add to that that he is also the most corrupt President in American history and that he and his cronies gleefully promote sadism. His whole cabinet are crooks and he’s supported by the religious fascists on our Supreme Court.
Many members of my family fought in WWII – in the Pacific with the Navy and in Europe with the Army. They never felt that their sacrifices gave them immunity so they could support fascists at home. Quite the contrary, they hated the American Nazi movement that was so prominent here prior to WWII. Your acquaintance who was so offended by you should read some history – assuming that facts mean anything to him.
Jim Franke says
The Office of the President, acting on advice from the military and with the approval of the DOJ and the Supreme Court, has a historical record of sending thousands of American citizens to what FDR himself called “concentration camps,” located in remote areas. The justification was a fabricated “national security” threat.
ICE is now actively rehearsing how to do this again, preparing for the moment their Dear Leader orders them to neutralize dissenters like us—people who stand in the way of completing his authoritarian project.
Mickey, see you in Greenland. Your commentary and my reply to it should earn us early tickets.
Mickey Terrone says
Hi Jim. I’m sure you’re aware that the Trump Administration and Republican Congress have authorized $45 billion for FY2025 for new detention gulag facilities. So, there is little doubt what they will do if they can. Perhaps Baby Himmler, Stephen Miller will be in charge or Ernst Rohm (Tom Homan). That so many Republicans seem oblivious about what happened in the 1930’s in Germany is sickening. I suppose our GOP friends don’t think Trump could POSSIBLY turn on them. Not. Possibly.
William Keppen says
Spot on, but don’t hold your breath waiting for cogent responses from the people you are referring to.
Bob Kopec says
All the justices in the Supreme Court should be immediately removed, including and especially Mr.John Roberts who has been overly supportive (complicit) of Mr. Trump’s many illegal actions and violations of law & the Constitution since 1/20/2025.
Going forward, justices should be elected to 4 year terms by the general population. What is present with the murders by the Trump administration & ICE, the corruption, the many bombings of countries, the invasion of Venezuela for their oil, the proposed invasion of Greenland and the thousands of pardons for profit should have been stopped on 1/21/2025 but continues to this day.
It appears another Civil War is near.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk MD says
Thank you for your comments and the offer for written response. So far, it’s been crickets. I suspect this is also what would have happened in Germany in the late 1930’s – How many German citizens would have responded to queries about the lapses in the rule of law, or even a simple question of “to where did your neighbors disappear”. This is how the fascist playbook goes.