1 day Ago
We could write dozens of editorials objecting to the blitz of executive orders, actions and statements from Donald Trump and Elon Musk. This week, we decried the fact that Trump is betraying the brave Ukrainians who for three years have fought against an invasion by Russia’s murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin. This week, Trump and Putin’s people are bargaining over Ukraine’s future without including that battered nation or its European neighbors in the talks.
And this just days after Vice President JD Vance insulted European leaders in remarks at a Munich security conference. This administration is spitting in the faces of allies who have stood with the U.S.
since America joined World War II to help save the world for democratic ideals long championed by all U.S. leaders, of both major parties, including President Ronald Reagan.
The real question now, if you love America: What will we do about this would-be strong man’s arrogance and authoritarianism? A flood of lawsuits seeks to halt many of Trump’s early actions, taken without regard to how our laws work. Many of these claims will find their way to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which despite its conservative majority will almost certainly cancel the most obviously unconstitutional actions. It remains to be learned whether Trump will defy a Supreme Court order. If he does, it would provoke the greatest constitutional crisis in our nation’s history.
Moves to counter Trump’s assault on good government will play out in the courts, hopefully as rapidly as possible. But what can be done beyond lawsuits? Governors of blue states can and should band together to offer alternatives to the Trump blitzkrieg. We believe a third approach is also needed: A massive, multi-faceted communications campaign to present truthful information to American citizens about the false underpinnings of Trump’s vain and vindictive wrecking ball.
That campaign will have to be much tougher and more effective than the milquetoast efforts of Kamala Harris’ presidential quest. Most of the Trump/Musk decrees since Jan. 20 were not proposed or mentioned during the campaign.
Trump won on the basis of skillful lies and propaganda, aided and abetted by Fox News and $250 million of horribly exaggerated TV ads about the border and transgender people, paid for in part by Musk in the final weeks of the campaign. We do not believe American voters sought to make America cruel again. They did not vote to betray our nation’s friends and allies.
They did not vote to become imperialist aggressors. They did not vote to get more involved in foreign conflicts — such as the absurd idea of ethnically cleansing Gaza to make a Trump resort in another people’s homeland. They did not vote to destroy America’s public health safety net — endangering our people from dangerous microbes from all over the world.
They did not vote to turn our back on science or to undercut cancer and heart-disease research. And much more. If you listen to Fox News and its allied “news” outlets, you will have no idea where the truth lies.
You will not even know what’s going on. We trust the American people to do the right thing if they understand the truth. But too many citizens do not.
We need a massive, long-term, consistent campaign — on social media, in broadcast, online and print advertisements, on billboards — to tell the truth about the chaos Trump’s second term is already unleashing and its consequences for programs and policies that define a wise and caring nation. We must get messages directly to people who have been hoodwinked. This will cost billions, and part of it, undoubtedly, will have to be raised to pay for ads on Fox News and its allies, plus billboards and direct mail into every household, community and state — red or blue — in America.
This won’t be easy, but let’s get started. If they were still around, the Founding Fathers would make the first contributions. — The Republican (Springfield, Mass.
).
