Days of Trump and Tears by Anne Lancellotti

I am sitting in an outdoor café in the south of Italy. The European edition of the NY Times covers most of the table. It dwarfs my small cup of espresso. It is August 1968. The Democratic Convention has convened in Chicago. The pages of the Times carry pictures of demonstrators outside the convention hall. They are engaged in street warfare with the Chicago police. My stomach feels queasy. It is not from the espresso.

One month before, I was in my hometown of Providence, RI, working for the Committee to Nominate George McGovern. Many of my colleagues elected to attend the convention in Chicago. I opted to travel to Italy with friends. Now, in Italy sitting with my newspaper and espresso, I regretted my decision. I should have been marching with my colleagues. Had the police pummeled them? In America?

That day, the churning in my stomach unleashed dark doubts. Even though I was against the Vietnam War, I had ingrained confidence that the USA was a champion of world democracy. I believed my country held the strongest beacon of light in a world beset by threats to personal and political freedom. You might even say that I believed in a version of American exceptionalism — a country committed to liberty, republicanism, democracy, human rights, and a free, fair economy for all.

How could you have been so naïve, one might ask? You lived through the Civil Rights Era, the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. True, I answer. But I was young. In 1968 I was 22, recently graduated from college, newly introduced to the NY Times. I had previously seen dark historical events in the country as black marks on the clean soul of American exceptionalism. My own life bore witness to the promise of that America. I was born to second-generation Italian Americans. My father was a factory worker. Our entire family paid tribute to the union responsible for his decent wages, overtime pay and medical insurance. I went to a private Catholic college on two scholarships. As I rose in educational and economic status, I felt grateful to be an American. I truly loved my country.

1968 was fifty-seven years ago. Since then, the USA has continued to be mired in wars. Its racist history has bled into the veins of our institutions. Its corporate greed has carved a wider gulf between rich and poor. Still, though I no longer believed in American exceptionalism, I believed in the Constitution. Despite alarming decisions by the Supreme Court, I believed the Constitution was the stable foundation of this country. We might waver at times, even crack, but we would never, ever fall apart. I believed this — until now.

Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Republican congress are moving the United States of America from a constitutional republic to an illiberal democracy — an authoritarian government with a weak, subservient congress and judiciary. Trump threatens news organizations that report the truth. He packs the press corps with sycophants. He guts or abolishes government agencies without congressional approval. He allows Elon Musk to engage in egregious conflicts of interest. But why shouldn’t he? Trump sees his presidency as an opportunity for enrichment at every turn, the most flagrant example being his vision of a Trump resort in the devastated Gaza Strip.

 Ruth Ben–Ghiat, in her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, writes: 

“Strongmen (authoritarians) establish forms of personalist rule, which concentrates enormous power in one individual whose own political and financial interests prevail over national ones in shaping domestic and foreign policy. Loyalty to him and his allies, rather than expertise, is the primary qualification for serving in the state bureaucracy, as is participation in his corrupt schemes.” 

What else needs to be said?

Except this. Trump has long been suspected of being a Russian asset. He continues to act as such. Why else did he humiliate Volodymyr Zelensky? Why else did he pause military aid to Ukraine? Why else did he pause intelligence about Russia to the Ukrainian government? And why else did the Secretary of Defense end offensive cyber and information operations against Russia, asserting that Russian cyber-attacks are no longer a threat?

Because of the shocking, traitorous behavior of Donald Trump, I fear losing the America I have loved my entire life. I fear the bedrock of our constitutional republic is coming apart like tectonic plates along a fault line. And yet, and yet, when a District Judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it froze billions of dollars of funding approved by Congress, I felt a glimmer of hope.

How long will this glimmer last? Not long, probably, for there is always tomorrow. In Trump-land, tomorrow usually brings more bad news.