COMMENTARY: It's Getting Darker in America
When it comes to liberty and freedom, Donald Trump seems intent on blowing out those flames.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Under Donald Trump, America has entered a dark age from which the light of true liberty may never shine again
During the past seven months Trump has attacked, intimidated and threatened everyone from journalists to lawyers to college leaders while blaming every president before him (with the possible exception of George Washington) for what he perceives as America’s problems and weaknesses.
He has taken control of the Kennedy Center in an effort to recreate his own vision of the arts and hounded the Smithsonian with accusations that this bastion of Americana has lied about our history.
Last week Trump had the FBI ransack the home of John Bolton, his former security advisor, under the pretense that the Maryland resident was hiding classified information. The fact that Bolton has recently strongly criticized the president, of course, had nothing to do with the raid.
With the Mexican border now secure and Alligator Alcatraz, a prison camp for illegal (primarily Hispanic) aliens set up in the Florida Everglades, Trump seems to have turned his wrath on black Americans.
That the president was heading in this direction appeared evident as far back as mid-January when he all but blamed the hiring of African American air-traffic controllers for that month’s fatal airline/helicopter collision over the Potomac.
Now Trump has armed military personnel on the streets of Washington, D.C., and further threatens to do the same in Chicago, New York and Baltimore (troops have been in Los Angeles for months). All have black mayors and a substantial black population. Soon, every major city in the United States may be patrolled by armed National Guard troops.
Even more troubling were Trump’s recent remarks about slavery “not being so bad” during his criticism of Smithsonian exhibits. If the man thinks there is justification for one human being owning another, he has no place in American government. Yes, some slaves had it better than others, but just to know you can be bought and sold like hogs and cattle and disciplined by any means possible is inhuman.
Trump almost seems like he would like to bring back slavery and if he proposed that idea, I suspect he would have enough Republican votes in Congress to pull it off (the GOP, in an effort to gain even more power, has re-districted Texas to gain five more seats in the House).
But Trump, who rules by executive order, probably would not need Congress to bring back slavery. Remember that Abraham Lincoln outlawed the practice with one simple decree, the Emancipation Proclamation. Trump, who has been given the almost unlimited power by his Republican Congress, could reverse Lincoln’s order with one stroke of the pen.
Trump is fast becoming the poster boy for white supremacy and seems intent on promoting violence between the races. Despite his racist actions, we have a black woman running for governor in Virginia who seems to be one of his most ardent followers. Figure that one out.
As I have said before, the NAACP seems afraid to react, although some leaders did finally start speaking out over the weekend.
The really scary part is that the American people are starting to adjust to Trump’s high-handed rule and his blatant disregard for the law and the Constitution, which only serves to further embolden the man. They are accepting his dictatorship as the norm, much as the German public did in the mid and late 1930s.
As long as he brings down the hammer on someone else, his actions are fine. But a hammer that can ring your neighbor’s bell may one day ring yours.
No one seems immune to Trump’s wrath and some journalists are becoming hesitant to criticize his actions. Like Abrego Garcia, reporters and columnists could very well disappear in the middle of a dark night and end up as alligator bait in Florida or abandoned in some third world country or worse. But somebody has to have the courage to stand up and speak out.
We are quickly losing the freedom of the press.
How can people adore a man who has publicly stated that he hates Democrats, who make up about 49 percent of his constituents, and that he wouldn’t mind seeing us get into a war so there would not be a presidential election in 2028 (look the speeches up on YouTube).
He is seeking a Nobel Peace Prize while aligning himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin and, as most dictators do, wants to rename every public institution in his honor.
Where we are going with all this is uncertain, but one thing is sure: the light of liberty is fast dimming in this once great country.
The dark ages are quickly getting darker.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”
Again, so right, and yet so damn, damn wrong.
This is not merely one addled 78 year old man who seemed like the poster child for tertiary syphilis before he became President the first time.
I am not a Dwayne Yancey fan. While certainly knowledgeable, the former editor of the Roanoke Times had and has an ability to steer toward equivalency, no matter how overwhelming the evidence otherwise. that would put Mr Davis here to shame. I never will forget, when, one day, he came out and boldly stated that Trump's "border emergency" (you remember that one don't you, where we made a big show with barbed wire and machine guns to stop a migrant caravan (which was probably paid for by Republicans just for the theatre of it?), anyway, he came out and clearly stated it was a bunch of hoohah. Which it was.
Only problem was. It was two days AFTER the election when he made his statement. What good was it then?
Still, as much as I despise his determination to remain in the invertebrate class of news editors, despite all of the benefits found in having a spine, I have to admit that his Cardinal News newsletter is among the most informative I've found from the diaspora of Lee Enterprise reporters that has resulted from their gutting of a free press in this state.
This morning, Cardinal News came out with an article about how Todd Gilbert, the former Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates, had resigned because, in an unprecedented move, the Republican administration was micromanaging his personnel and forcing one of his attorneys, who had been appointed by Biden, out of office.
Now please understand, I doubt DJT could spell Southwest Virginia, much less find it without help, nor know, nor care, who works there. Take it as a given that he had help taking this action.
None of the absolutely horrible things Mr Johnston mentions, and the many he didn't - likely due to the sheer volume (what did Stalin say? A death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic...), this systemic and deliberate destruction of our country's civil liberties, Constitution, rule of law, finances, honor, intelligence, economy, and finances happens or has happened' merely because of one "man" (take that last word with a grain of salt).
Every time Mr Johnston says Trump above, replace it with Republicans. The fault lies with a party, a people, a klan, a cult.
Where are Robb Wittman's statements or votes in Congress against this? Why is Ben Cline not standing up for principle? Glenn Youngkin for Virginian's jobs and honor? Tara Durant, Deuntay Diggs? Sheriff David Decatur? The MAGA hatted idiot across the street from you?
They are all declared Republicans. They knew what they were doing when they chose him a second time as their party's leader. They know what they are choosing as they remain silent. No one is forcing them to remain in such a party, and yet they remain.
None of this happens without them, none of this ends without them.
It's time we hold them accountable and demand from them an explanation for these atrocities, these attacks on decency and everything that made this country great. They have done more damage through their support of it, whether passive or active, in the last 10 years than a host of Russian invaders could do.
So let's quit with this fantasy that it is merely one stupidly sick and malicious old man. It's not. It's the ones who propped him up as king and continue to keep him there without question.
It's time to ask them why. We deserve better. We should demand better. Not of him, but of them.