Overwhelmed Yet Taking Notes

Nearing seven months of the second Trump presidency, I’m overwhelmed with the steps this administration has already taken to pervert and dismember our democracy. Their strategy of flooding the zone is working. Every day, something egregious, at least one if not multiple actions.

Commenting on Robert Hubble’s Substack post today, a reader copied a list of Trump’s authoritarian actions published by the Caledonian-Record, a conservative newspaper in St. Johnsbury, Vermont (in the northeast corner of Vermont, not far from New Hampshire). This is the publisher’s list:

For the record, our concern about Donald Trump’s leadership is not about party loyalty; it’s about democratic norms. His record includes:

Capturing the justice system through politicized prosecutions and intimidation of judges and lawyers;

Purging and politicizing the civil service via loyalty tests, watchlists, and removals;

Overusing emergency powers to bypass Congress on trade, immigration, and security;

Manipulating elections through extreme gerrymandering, weakening voting-rights enforcement, and politicizing election machinery;

Using domestic militarization for routine policing and threatening cross-border military actions;

Pressuring universities and civil society through funding freezes, punitive settlements, and licensing leverage;

Politicizing science by deleting datasets, blocking research, and controlling grant decisions;

Undermining independent media through defunding, blacklists, and legal harassment;

Profiting from public office through conflicts of interest, foreign gifts, and opaque schemes;

Weaponizing tariffs against allies;

Undermining immigration rights, including birthright citizenship;

Attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and civil rights infrastructure;

Rolling back equal-protection enforcement;

Weakening social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and student debt relief.

We believe these are not conservative values — they are authoritarian ones. Between the loss of local journalism and the normalization of such tactics, all Americans, regardless of politics, stand to lose.

Now, if I’m asked why I don’t support the president, rather than staring like a deer in the headlights at the incredulity of the question, I can simply show this list and say, “Pick one.”

I and Thou: Bridging the Divide

I led the service at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (AUUF) on July 20, asking whether constructive conversations can help bridge the political polarization in this country.

Help is an important qualifier: I believe constructive conversations can help if we approach them with an open heart. In the words of Ghandi,

"If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him... We need not wait to see what others do".

Listen to the podcast version of my homily.

The Depravity Just Keeps Piling On

Like my mother's old pressure cooker, when the pressure builds to a certain level, the valve must release it. In this case, it was this news about the SecDef that triggered an email to Senator Britt.

Pete Hegseth’s recent post on X, sharing the CNN documentary with Pastor Doug Wilson of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and adding “All of Christ for All of Life,” is troubling:

How does the SecDef have time to post on X, given his vast responsibilities to preserve national security? Hegseth should be focused on ensuring that the U.S. defense capability will counter the threat from China. Instead, he seems focused on culture war issues like cruelly discharging trans people from the service. China’s president Xi Jinping and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin must relish every moment U.S. officials are distracted from their core responsibilities.

Also troubling is the inferred endorsement of a theology that repeals a woman’s right to vote and returns women to the household to submit to their husbands. Senator, if you can’t vote, you certainly can’t serve in the U.S. Senate. I hope you regret your vote to confirm Hegseth as SecDef.

Prices are rising. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens are being kidnapped by masked ICE goons, detained and deported without due process. Off-and-on tariffs are stalling business investment. After being interviewed by the Deputy Attorney General, Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison, suggesting a quid pro quo to preserve the president’s “innocence.” The president’s new golf resort in Scotland adds to a growing list of corrupt actions, from the meme coin to accepting a 747 from Qatar that will require close to $1 billion to serve as Air Force One. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, while innocent Palestinians are dying in Gaza with no clear path to freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.

The Republican Congress is enabling this authoritarian regime. You’ve lost all moral standing and will be judged harshly by history. Is this the legacy you want to leave for your children?