And so too will Donald J Trump and his rancid administration. Future generations will look back on this White House as a time of national embarrassment, a time when the country skewed way off course and hopefully will learn to prevent this from ever happening again.
Excellent letter and insight, again. However, I truly think Booker's comment, "'Republicans in office 'are so afraid of Donald Trump that they are letting things go,'" isn't true for many as they actually WANT to change our nation into a theocratic Fascist state & have been planning it for decades.
I agree completely, especially since Reagan. I cringe when I hear excuses made for them. They are afraid. Don’t want to be primaried. BS. They want this. The only good republican is an out of office republican. Welcome to the fascistlican party.
The only thing that trickled down was bullshit. Apparently the American people have an appetite for being uninformed and lazy when it comes to real economic impact and public policy. And here we are.
Right. And the refusal of Democrats like Booker (and Obama before him) to see the GOP for what it is, instead clinging to this naive idea of bipartisanship and "appealing to their better natures" is part of the problem.
The Republicans have these days augmented their cavalry of Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear with the reinforcements of War, Famine, Pestilence and Death.
Tonight's letter is inspiring. It seems more possible now that discussions will continue and that we can salvage our democracy & in doing so, heal our nation.
Deeply grateful that you have the gift of connecting past to present, giving us a deeper perspective of current events. Thank you!
Thank you, Professor, for highlighting the historical courage that led us out of darkness and danger in the past-and the nascent turn toward critical mass that is taking shape in our beleaguered democracy today. Too few and too slowly, but I sincerely believe that We the People will prevail!
One could wonder whether after Leonard Leo was called a “sleazebag” by Shitler if Leo isn’t exploring options to get him out of office and get Vance in there to clear the way to keep power in 2028 since Vance could legally run then.
With plenty of able assistance, whom are still around and "effective" I believe he himself call it.
Roger Stone.
Since 1979 or earlier, along with Cohn, along with all the up and coming grifters and racists whom I'm certain trmurphfff knew well.
They likely did NOT want to know him, however. 👇
I'd just like to say, as an observation, all of the footage of Epstein & tmurpfff together shows highly negative body language from Epstein. He tolerates him, he's nice to him, he does not like him. Like most in rich circles; very diplomatic, until you can safely bitch about people in private.
Cohn was his mentor though and helped the Trump family beat the lawsuit from the federal government on housing discrimination, thereby giving Trump his real start.
Cohn saw him as a protégé & taught him the Bullying, Bribery & Blackmail playbook.
He sure did. What a guy.
Stone, Manafort, that son of a bitch Karl Rove. Geez, you know, I saw a doco about Rice and Shrug re election team,covering their strategies all that sort of thing. It was truly repulsive. That was in 2003 or something. Gross cynicism, pure corruption. Sheer evil. Go GOP.
Using her logic, we should simply push trump and everyone in his "administration" off a cliff to accelerate the inevitable, no? I mean, why wait, it's going to happen anyway, just the circumstances would be different.
Today this hit me as heartbreaking. The sheer number of spineless people on the Republican side of the aisles ...
"TOGETHER they could stop it!", I think.
Then I wonder, with a totally weaponized DOJ etc who would follow thru on Congressional pushback? Court decisions are ignored...
Again, Heather, you have illustrated the core of the problem and a path to correction. A protest is just a protest until enough people are involved. And then it’s a movement, a wave that cannot be resisted longer and those elected people of conscious who have sworn to uphold the Constitution will.
Brava as usual. The courts have to keep pumping their 96+% disapproval rate, and Americans must keep turning out online and on the streets. Thanks for lining up the ax-handles, now for someone to string this bow!
Where is the 2025 republican Margaret Chase Smith?? Democrats can make speeches and write op-eds all they want and I'm glad they are shouting from the rooftops but unless the Republicans stand up to this lawless regime soon American democracy is over!
Excellent letter. I hope those supposedly good senators read it and take heed. However, I personally haven't seen evidence of any such person in the Republican Party and not enough outside of it either. How can there be so many cowards ELECTED by the people? They disgust me.
Who knew there were so many American voters willing to throw our Constitution under the bus? I just saw a report where Viktor Orbán is now revered by the GOP. Un-f-n-believable!!
The GOP has been running psyops on the base for nearly a half-century to get us exactly here. This is what they want. This is what they have been working toward for decades.
I greatly appreciate your historical perspective! This is excellent. We cannot forget our history and the work we had to do (and have to do) to keep our democracy.
Thank you Heather, as always!
Sadly, it doesn't make me feel any more at ease. 🙂
And as I have been asking/wondering daily, 'Is this really what the Republicans in congress Really Want'? 'Where is the R party that I/we remember'?
The one that valued the people. That worked with, not against us all
“Here in America we have a supreme Constitution, not a supreme leader,”
“Each of us swore—swore, mind you—to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic’; [and that we would] ‘bear true faith and allegiance to [the Constitution].’
“It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
“I do not want to see the Republican party win that way,”. “While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican party, Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one-party system.”
The fact that a speech was written and orated in 1950 by a Republican Senator to Senators of their own party are being aired and orated again in 2025. It took 75 years to move from a respected nation to a nation amongst other nations that think we’re a FUCKING JOKE!
It took 75 years for the powers in the Judiciary, aka SCOTUS, to allow the slicing and dicing of a word such as ‘IT’ in an impeachment testimony that determined the innocence or conviction of a sitting president.
Now we have the rich Oligarchy mandating Politics of all three branches of Government instead of ‘For the People, By the People and Of the People’. We the People allowed this to happen because, we think and thought that ‘if it doesn’t affect me, then who cares’. RIGHT? WRONG ! ! !
Chase-Smith's words reminded me of a stupendous own-goal against our national security committed only *five* days after she spoke them, but little noted or understood at the time outside a circle of experts .
How many more self-inflicted wounds do WE commit today, but only our descendants realize?
At a math conference in Texas recently, one of the things I noticed was how small the percentage of natural born Americans was. Vast majority of "American" research mathematicians seems foreign born to me. Other sciences must be similar.
Even a couple decades ago in computer sciences grad program of a major R1 university, I was surprised to find myself (a white American male) as a near-minority in the department more populated with Chinese and Indians.
And there is nothing wrong with that. That was the strength of American academia and why so much innovation happened in the US. The smartest people from everywhere immigrated here. We're now throwing that away.
Powerful and profound words thank you Professor, the future hinges on those willing to take a stand for freedom and not cower. The felon in the White House is completely unhinged and the world is watching in disbelief as some of are too.
It didn’t ruin the party for good. They are still here aren’t they? They will never go away. They are here because of like
minded individuals- we have to convince those individuals that our way is better.
Another wonderful and enlightening text. Thank you! I hope this time it will not take 4 years from this amazing ''Letter from an American'' to make T🍊 administration loose power. You may need ASAP another Margaret Chase Smith 💪♀️ in the Republican party... I wish all Americans good luck 🙏
If you're referring to Angus King, he's an independent, so no voice of reason is coming from the Republican Party. They're either cowards or actually support this coup. Disgusting.
Comments
Apology NOT ACCEPTED!
It keeps getting in their way.
Deeply grateful that you have the gift of connecting past to present, giving us a deeper perspective of current events. Thank you!
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/06/01/excerpts-from-margaret-chase-smiths-declaration-of-conscience-speech/
Seems Exact imo!
Roger Stone.
Since 1979 or earlier, along with Cohn, along with all the up and coming grifters and racists whom I'm certain trmurphfff knew well.
They likely did NOT want to know him, however. 👇
Cohn saw him as a protégé & taught him the Bullying, Bribery & Blackmail playbook.
Stone, Manafort, that son of a bitch Karl Rove. Geez, you know, I saw a doco about Rice and Shrug re election team,covering their strategies all that sort of thing. It was truly repulsive. That was in 2003 or something. Gross cynicism, pure corruption. Sheer evil. Go GOP.
Really? Have we come out of other autocratic movements through fear of us? The courts, yes, but the people? Or did some rise to do the right thing?
"TOGETHER they could stop it!", I think.
Then I wonder, with a totally weaponized DOJ etc who would follow thru on Congressional pushback? Court decisions are ignored...
Sadly, it doesn't make me feel any more at ease. 🙂
And as I have been asking/wondering daily, 'Is this really what the Republicans in congress Really Want'? 'Where is the R party that I/we remember'?
The one that valued the people. That worked with, not against us all
Republican Party that supported McCarthy had supported the state’s Ku Klux Klan.
Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
“Each of us swore—swore, mind you—to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic’; [and that we would] ‘bear true faith and allegiance to [the Constitution].’
How many more self-inflicted wounds do WE commit today, but only our descendants realize?
Roy Cohn
Who mentored Trump to learn his playbook of
Bullying
Bribery &
Blackmail?
Roy Cohn
Who died disbarred, disgraced & despised?
Roy Cohn
Who will Trump end up like?
Roy Cohn
minded individuals- we have to convince those individuals that our way is better.