Elon Musk is right. We are at a fork in the road. Democracy, freedom, compassion and inclusion await on one path, while autocracy, oppression, hate and exclusion await us if we chose the other path.
The path that President Donald Trump and his henchman Musk have chosen is decidedly autocratic and has manifested itself as the coup now unfolding before our eyes. Yes. A coup. In the United States.
It’s a dark and dangerous path littered with potentially irrevocable damages not only to democracy but also to the health, safety, well-being and constitutional rights of every American.
Some might argue that it can’t be a coup. The streets are not swarming with armed gunmen. We have an elected president and Congress. The Constitution has not been suspended. Martial law has not been declared. Citizens haven’t been rounded up and thrown into jail. But it is a coup.
A nonelected, non-vetted “special government employee” has been let loose across the entire federal government. Workers are being fired or put on administrative leave en masse. Agencies or departments are being shuttered. Others are at high risk for the same fate. Access to millions of Americans’ sensitive personal information in Treasury Department payment systems has potentially been compromised after being viewed illegally by Musk’s minions.
As the coup plotters march on, the Republicans who control the U.S. House and Senate offer no objections. They are, by their silence, complicit in the Trump-Musk coup. Cowards refuse to challenge Trump, so fearful are they of being “primaried” out of office in the next election cycle. They were elected to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, but instead they cower in fear, approving clearly unqualified Cabinet appointees and defending the illegal and unconstitutional actions of Trump and Musk.
Do the Republicans in Congress really want to be led rather than lead? Abdicate rather than assert their constitutional authority to pass laws and assert their power of the purse?
The goal of the coup plotters is to sweep career public servants from their jobs and replace them with Trump loyalists. Gone will be any pushback on what Trump wants to do to enrich himself, oppress the middle and working classes, and try to deny humanitarian assistance to individuals and families at home and abroad.
The upheaval, fear and trepidation that Trump and Musk have inflicted on the country, the government and the people are more than scary. They’re terrifying.
But Trump is what the majority (albeit a small one) of the voters said they wanted. I cannot help but wonder whether at least some of those voters are now having buyer’s remorse.
They trusted Trump to make their lives better with promises such as lower grocery prices. He has clearly betrayed them. And he will continue to do so. Trump cannot be trusted to do anything that would benefit everyday Americans. Trump cares only about Trump. Whoever and whatever he must trample to get what he wants he will do without compunction.
The day before the presidential election last year, I told myself that tomorrow is “D-Day.” At the time, I was thinking of “Decision Day.” When the outcome of the election was clear, I came to see D-Day as the Day Democracy Died in the United States. It was a scary thought then, but even more horrifyingly frightening now.
We must resist. We must fight back. We cannot let the coup succeed. Time is running out.
Audrey Cielinski Kessler is a writer/editor, owner of The Write Hand of Ohio in Kent and board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Cleveland Pro Chapter.
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