Tomorrow is too late by Sherman Yellen

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

When I was a boy in the nineteen thirties this street chant was well known. Since I never saw a pair of flaming trousers on anyone, and there were always notable liars, it was more rhyme than reason. But lying was not just a schoolyard chant, it was an international threat. A threat then as it is today.

Prior to WW2, and the German invasion of Poland, there was the Munich agreement in which a re-armed Germany demanded the territory of the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia that had a large German-speaking population.

At Munich, Britain’s naïve PM Chamberlain got an international agreement that Hitler should have the Sudetenland in exchange for Germany making no further demands for land in Europe. Hitler lied and Chamberlain chose to believe. One of the skills of a demonic liar is to make others believe his lies. Never an excuse for a lie. Never an apology for one. Chamberlain said it was ‘Peace for our time.’ Hitler said he had ‘No more territorial demands to make in Europe.’ And of course, he invaded Poland soon after and WW2 began. Hitler was lying, and only those who could not accept the hard truth believed him.

The claims of the Trump administration for Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada, are a 2025 duplication of the world’s Sudetenland fiasco. The day that Trump in his full madness orders our troops stationed in Greenland to take over the government is the day when every pretense that we are a democracy burns like those lying pants.

We can no longer search for anodyne words when we discuss Trump and his behavior. It is American fascism, with a smattering of the old Nazi Germany, aided and abetted by Elon Musk and his billions, a man who has attempted to smuggle the lost Apartheid of South Africa to his adopted country. Imagine what would happen if we actually took Greenland by force. We would stand next to North Korea and Russia as the pariahs of the world. And we would be in conflict with the very NATO we had founded to protect democracy.

It is easy to see the signs of fascism in such matters as the MAGA attack upon Trans people. It is the bullying of those who can least defend themselves. Read Blacks, read Jews, read Native Americans, read any minority group, Gays, Muslims, who can be victimized — the attack upon a minority is a great source of pleasure for those with a deformed moral sense such as Trump. It is beyond bullying. The attack upon one minority is an attack upon all of us.

Fascism is found in the shipping of men to a black hole of a prison elsewhere, without recourse to any legal hearing. It can be a death sentence for the innocent. Fascism can be seen in the cowardice of the GOP and the cruelty of Trump’s appointments. And fascism breeds in silence. The public silence. Fear starts with silence and ends in tragedy.

Fascism shows its ugly face in the appropriation of the cultural institutions of our country, starting with the Kennedy Center and moving on to the Smithsonian — an attempt to erase any great humanist works of our past or remove any reference to slavery from our history, The right may call it “woke” but in truth, by woke they mean the history they wish to put to sleep. For the fascist DEI means “Do encourage ignorance.”

Every day fascism finds a new outlet for betraying this country. Recently it has been the Trumpian blackmail of the legal profession — oppose us and we destroy you. A few brave ones have stood up to this threat but the soft ones have dwindled into a cowardly silence — and paid the blackmail.

The great achievement of America, until recently, has been our willingness to face the worst parts of our history and remedy them through peaceful protest. education and legislation. But Trumpian fascism will only be satisfied when the country shares his abominable stupidity. Like many tyrants before him he manages to raise ignorance to the level of cruelty.

In his case ignorance is not bliss, it is a mortal sin. If we let this continue without protest and judicial action there is only the word to decline: shame, shameful, shameless.

Tomorrow is already late to fight fascism, it must start today, in every way. Fortunately, by destroying the economy, and attacking such sacred institutions as Social Security, the fascists are their own worst enemy, and we must speak up loud and clear so they are never again in a position to abuse the weak and bring disgrace upon our beloved country.

We are the ones who can extinguish the fire on those perfidious pants — and we shall do it —because we are the true majority — make that a noisy new majority — leave the silent ones in the sixties. We have the fire hose which is made up of truth and unity. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is a form of evil. And freedom exists in a two-letter word, “No!” We can chant it, we can vote it, but it will be heard. “No!” This evil will not stand.