Champions of Democracy
Now that the Trump administration is openly pursing an enemies list, is dismantling democracy at an astounding pace and is disappearing people to an El Salvador gulag without due process while ignoring court orders, it’s time to recognize Americans who have consistently and courageously fought against the lies, illegal actions and abuses of power during this time in American history. Some did it while also making us laugh as we struggled to make sense of how The Land of the Free turned into the Western Kremlin. Here are a few leaders of the resistance during these dark times:
Adam Schiff
Sen. Adam Schiff. During Trump’s Feb. 2020 impeachment, then-Congressman Adam Schiff gave a fiery speech to conclulde the Senate Impeachment Trial. “We must say enough — enough!” Schiff implored. “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again. He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is. Truth matters little to him. What’s right matters even less, and decency matters not at all,” Schiff said. The senator continues to be a voice of reason, conscience and leadership during these unprecedented times.
Rachel Maddow
Author, podcaster, storyteller, journalist and MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow has been a voice of enlightenment since she started hosting a radio show with Chuck D on Air America in the early 2000s. Today, she writes books, chronicles how America’s embrace of the far-right has historical precedent, and dives deep into the dark consequences of Trump’s authoritarian policies for American democracy. Listening to Maddow (who has a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford) simply makes a person smarter. “American fascism is a real thing. It’s recurrent.” Maddow told Steven Colbert. “Right now, it’s in the White House, and it’s never been there before. But we know how to fight against fascists. And it depends on the American people loving liberty and loving democracy and knowing that what the founders gave us is something that we’re not going to squander. We’re not going to be the generation that loses it.”
Anne Applebaum
A Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2003 book “Gulag,” Applebaum is a former Washington Post columnist and editorial board member. In 2020, she became a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she has written eye-opening stories about Trump’s authoritarianism and extreme corruption, including “Kleptocracy, Inc.: Under Trump, conflicts of interest are just part of the system,” and “America’s Future Is Hungary: MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished.”
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel tried for years to put a spotlight on the ludicrous grifting, deranged statements, continuous lies and outright lawless actions of Don the Con — to no avail, since 77 million Americans cast their vote for tyranny. But at the very least, Kimmel made those of us who were paying attention to the fall of democracy feel less crazy. In fact dozens of American comedians — from Kimmel to Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, John Oliver and many others overwhelmingly put the spotlight on Trump’s outrageous actions for a decade.
Prescient quotes about democracy:
“American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free.” — Paul Krugman on the 5th anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“There is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 6, 1941.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” — Robert F. Kennedy’s 1966 “Ripple of Hope” speech in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
“We must say enough — enough! He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again. He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is. Truth matters little to him. What’s right matters even less, and decency matters not at all.” — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in February 2020, urging the Senate to remove Donald Trump from office. Trump is the only U.S. President to have been twice impeached — once for withholding military aide from Ukraine until they consented to announce they would investigate Joe Biden’s (Trump’s political rival’s) son, and a second time for gathering MAGA supporters in Washington D.C. on January 6 and telling them to “fight” before they stormed the U.S. Capitol, disrupting the certification of the 2020 presidential election. On the eve of winning re-election in 2024, Trump continued to lie and say the 2020 election was rigged.
“The best time to save democracy is before it’s lost.” — Ken Burns
“You have to be more active in a democracy. You have to push against the forces. I’ve gotten way more involved in my local school board election, my local politics, in my little village, the congressional race where I live. It’s shocking when you see how few people vote and how many people scream. Basic civics feels important.” — Sarah Botstein, co-director with Ken Burns of the documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust quoted in The Washington Post.
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” — John F. Kennedy
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four.” — Gloria Steinem
“The internet did everything to our parents that they said it would do to us,” — David Hogg, A March For Our Lives founder and survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. (Marjorie Taylor Green famously harassed Hogg, chasing him down a street, calling him a “coward” and accusing him of being paid by George Soros).
“Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.” — John Locke, 1690
“Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed — Let it be that great strong land of love; Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme; That any man be crushed by one above.” — Langston Hughes from “Let America be America Again” July 1936
“Apathy isn’t it. We can do something.” — John Lennon
“Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government — except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” — Winston Churchill, Nov. 11, 1947
“The day when I feel most proud to be an American is not the Fourth of July, but Election Day. The right to vote is perhaps the most critical right in a democracy, the means by which we can create the kind of society that truly represents America. A woman who had been the victim of FBI harassment and who had sacrificed twenty years fighting for her First Amendment rights once said to me, ‘It is up to us to create a government that is close to our heart’s desire. Because,’she added, ‘If you don’t do it, somebody else will.’ One only has to look at the lengths to which people went to deny others the right to vote to understand that we should never take its importance for granted, nor forget that it is an opportunity as well as an obligation.” — Caroline Kennedy from “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love” (Hyperion, 2003).
“The divisions that exist in this country aren’t going away any time soon, but the information we get, the stories we tell ourselves can, as Lincoln said, encourage the better angels of our nature. It can also encourage the worst. And a healthy democracy depends on our better angels being encouraged.” — Barack Obama, from his remarks “Disinformation Is a Threat to Our Democracy,” at Stanford.
“There is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.” —Amanda Gorman’s Poem at Joe Biden’s Inauguration. The National Youth Poet Laureate read “The Hill We Climb,” which she wrote after witnessing the January 6th siege on the U.S. Capitol.
Democracy in Pop Culture:
“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.’ You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.” — Andrew Shepherd from Aaron Sorkin’s “The American President”
“Ironic, isn’t it Smithers. This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet, if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That’s democracy for you! — Mr. Burns, The Simpsons.
Who said it: Donald Trump or Mr. Burns from ‘The Simpsons’ ?
For the historical record:
“America didn’t stop being America last night, and we didn’t stop being Americans, and here’s the thing about Americans: Our darkest days have always—always—been followed by our finest hours.” — Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his 15-year-old daughter after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Sorkin’s letter, published in Vanity Fair, predicts a lot of what happened in the next four years, and reflects the fear and frustration of many Americans who saw where we were headed.
