“These are times that try men’s souls.” With these words, Thomas Paine began the first of 16 pamphlets, written between 1776 and 1783, urging the American people to make sacrifices necessary to secure their independence from Britain. He wrote, “The nearer any disease approaches a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance make their advances together, and it is only the last push, in which one or the other takes the lead.” We have been building toward a New American Crisis at least since the 1970s. We are now at that point of crisis where our actions, or inactions, will determine the future of this still great nation, for better or worse.
In a four-minute video posted hours after the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot, instead of calling for national unity against political violence, President Trump said years of attacks from the left, comparing activists like Kirk to Nazis, were “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” Trump defended the violent actions of those on the right as expressing concerns about crime, while condemning those on the left as “vicious” and “horrible.” Stephen Miller, the current White House deputy chief of staff, labeled left-wing political organizations a "vast domestic terror movement." In August, he had called the Democratic Party a "domestic, extremist organization.”
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel was suspended indefinitely by ABC after mocking Trump’s flippant on-camera response to Kirk’s death. The suspension came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr made a pointed warning: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” CBS had previously canceled Stephen Colbert’s show just days after he had criticized the network’s settlement of a lawsuit filed by Trump over its editing of a “60 Minutes” interview. Trump has said, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired… I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.” Carr also launched an investigation into CBS and opened probes into public broadcasting networks after Trump persuaded Congress to defund them.
These blatant attempts to stifle free speech are but a continuation of an authoritarian pattern of governance that was suppressed during the first Trump administration but has been unleashed during the second. As summarized by the American Civil Liberties Union: “Through civil war and depression, world wars and social upheavals, through the peaceful transfer of power across generations and parties, Americans have been able to count on the Constitution being there. Today, we are facing a new type of threat. There is now a coordinated assault on the constitutional architecture that has sustained American democracy. This assault should alarm anyone who values constitutional governance and the personal freedoms we so often take for granted.”
“Military forces now police civilians. Members of Congress are arrested for doing their jobs. The president's top adviser declares the opposition party illegitimate. Judges and lawyers face threats for upholding the law. This is the systematic dismantling of constitutional governance."
"The Constitution has survived 238 years because we, the people, have fought for it when it was threatened. Today, the danger is not from foreign invasion or civil war, but instead the methodical dismantling of constitutional governance by a president sworn to uphold it. At a moment when we are seeing political violence escalating — claiming lives and threatening the very free discourse our Constitution protects — we must choose peaceful democratic engagement over dehumanization and violence. The power ultimately lies with the people, and as a country, we must decide whether we will defend our Constitution or let it fall.”
Trump's latest online rant is against his Attorney General failing to prosecute some of his political rivals. "Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.” "They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT." The investigator who assigned to the task had just been fired, or quit, after finding no cause to bring charges against his political enemies.
In the words of Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value... Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.”
Once again, we are confronted by the threat of tyranny. In simple terms, tyranny is a cruel and unfair rule where a single leader or a small group has absolute power and uses it in a harsh, oppressive, or unjust way, often disregarding the rights and well-being of the people they govern. Trump is using the same tactics as current authoritarian rulers, including Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary, and Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. With Trump, however, everything seems to be about him personally; who or what has offended him in the past, and what will give him more power and control over others in the future. Trump’s aspirations seem to go beyond authoritarianism to tyranny. But he will not succeed.
Thomas Paine wrote the American Crisis series during the American Revolution to boost the morale of the Continental Army and inspire the public to support the fight for independence. Written to be understood by the common people, his essays inspired the troops and leaders, including George Washington, to continue fighting despite a series of lost battles and the hardships and challenges ahead in defending the American cause. Paine's work emphasized the value of freedom and liberty, the importance of perseverance, and the idea that the harder the conflict, the more glorious and rewarding the triumph.
Thomas Paine's second Crisis pamphlet was a direct message to the British general William Howell. He wrote, “When I put all the circumstances together which ought to be taken, I laugh at your notion of conquering America. Because you lived in a little country, where an army might run over the whole in a few days, and where a single company of soldiers might put a multitude to the rout.” Paine pointed out that, unlike countries in Europe, the United States was a confederation of 13 states spread across a vast area from Georgia to Maine, with their own state militias. There was no way the British army could occupy the entire country. Simply taking over a few cities or winning a few major battles would do little to determine the outcome of the war.
The same is true today. Trump was given control of the federal government, but has taken control of law enforcement in Washington, DC, is using the military for forced deportation, and has threatened to deploy military troops to patrol the streets of other major cities. However, there is no way Trump can take control of the United States by military force, even if Congress and the Supreme Court allow him to do so.
U.S. military troops take an oath to uphold the Constitution, not blindly obey orders, even those of the Commander in Chief. Governors of 50 states, spread across and beyond the continent, command National Guard Units. The president can federalize National Guard units, but it’s unlikely that Guard members will act in defiance of the will of their Governors and their friends and neighbors, as well as their constitutional oath. In Trump’s attempt to control the people of America by military force, he will sow the seeds of his ultimate defeat.
In his attempts to amass personal wealth, Trump will destroy trust and confidence in the integrity of the U.S. economy, which will weaken the corporate oligarchy that worked so diligently for decades to bring someone like him to power. Once the American people realize they have been deceived and manipulated to serve the interests of the corporate oligarchs, the days of the oligarchy will also be numbered. There is no way of knowing the precise means, but the end is inevitable. We the people of the United States of America still have the power to defeat oligarchy as well as tyranny and to preserve our democratic republic.
Thomas Paine also stressed the advantages for the American colonies in breaking free from the tyrannical rule of King George. He wrote that the only enemies the American colonies had were the enemies of Great Britain, and their only obstacle to future peace and prosperity was its tyrannical rule. The same is true today. The only enemies of the American people are enemies made by the current and past exploitative, oppressive, imperial governments. The only obstacle to future peace and prosperity is the economic grip of corporate servitude, which we have the power, if the will, to break.
Trump is but the culmination of decades, even centuries, of governments that have failed to fulfill their constitutional mandate to prioritize the common good of the people, the many, over the individual economic interests of the few. Once the tyrant has been overthrown and the corporate oligarchy has been dismantled, the American people will have an opportunity to restructure and recreate a government that will secure the God-given rights of all to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that will ensure justice as well as liberty for all, including those of future generations.
Yes, these are times that will try our souls. But within crises, there are always opportunities to create something fundamentally better. In confronting this crisis, we will find the opportunity to restructure our government to embrace our diverse political views without compromising the core values upon which the nation was founded. The vast majority of Americans share a set of core values, including honesty, fairness, responsibility, compassion, and respect, as well as liberty and justice for all. Upon this consensus and out of this crisis, we can find ways to resume this still great nation’s progress toward a “more perfect union.”
John Ikerd
Sources:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_American_Crisis https://truthsocial.com/@realDon.../posts/115182892535295750
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../trump-administration-says...
https://www.aclu.org/.../how-trumps-attacks-on-democracy...
https://truthsocial.com/@realDon.../posts/115239044548033727