April Is a Revolution Month
Greetings from the eye of the storm.
Is the time right for a second American Revolution? The first broke out 250 Aprils ago in Lexington and Concord.
Let's conjure up Paul Revere's midnight ride in this dark hour.
Our ruler makes the English king, George III, look like a sweet prince. President Donald Trump's brazen revenge spree is unstoppable until citizens rise and the courts act in concert. On, Wisconsin.
Congress, just you wait for the 2026 midterms.
A new revolution won't happen on Zoom. Nonviolent resistance -- showing up en masse -- goes a long way in the town square.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, telling of travels with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, senses that spirit afoot: "If we stand together, we can save this country."
Or is it the beginning of the end?
The president has destroyed everything that sings of democracy, going further than anyone dreamed, in less than a hundred days.
Each day brings a fresh outrage and a silencing of our country's rocky journey, the story of progress to a more perfect union. The Smithsonian's collection of the enslaved experience is now under Trump's thumb.
The litany goes on: science, medicine, universities, libraries, arts, law firms, memorials, parks, climate and ocean study, national museums of art and history are facing dire fates.
Tax revenue, for the common good, is stressed. Farmers have crops all dressed up and nowhere to export.
The Justice, State and Defense departments are in shambles as career professionals lose their jobs. There's no thank-you note on the way out the door for years of service.
Even a Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, told a troubling truth. A fear of retaliation pervades the Capitol.
If that weren't enough, Trump plans a $4 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, likely at the expense of social programs for seniors. Then there are his self-inflicted tariffs, tanking an economy in good shape back in January.
The world has changed since. April is a cruel month for sure, but it brings spring anew.
True, the muscles of the body politic are a bit soft. We haven't had to defend democracy for quite a while.
Americans loved our place in the world and our liberties and privileges here at home.
We never thought this could happen here, that a president would wage war against fellow Americans in public service and other fields of society.
It's almost as if he has a criminal mind.
So Joseph McCarthy was just a warmup act. Trump learned his lessons well from McCarthy's counsel, Roy Cohn (Trump's mentor). McCarthy ruined lives during the 1950s Red Scare.
Trump never cracks a book but has a peasant cunning that fancy people dismiss. So raw is his zest for power that they (we) failed to catch how much his "divide and conquer" talk turned America into us and them.
Depend upon it, the United States is just as angry as it was in the 1850s, setting the stage for the Civil War. The super-wealthy Southern slaveholders are much like Trump's billionaire friends and Cabinet members.
Income inequality is more extreme than ever, which is kindling on the fire.
But the Revolutionary War is up our alley more than the Civil War.
Most Americans still share a common purpose and would put rebuilding trust up there with the pursuit of happiness. The mass firings of an expert workforce is not what people voted for.
To be known as a beacon of hope and liberty again, rather than for harsh deportations, would be nice.
Speaking to huge crowds on a cross-country tour, Sanders warned against oligarchy, governing by a few.
These lines come from his Senate stemwinder on Trump donors Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg:
"Those very same three people, the three richest people in America, were right there at Trump's inaugural, standing right behind the president.
"For whatever reason ... these guys want more and more and more, and they are prepared to destroy Social Security, Medicare (and) nutrition programs."
Apart from all that, Trump bragged publicly that world leaders are "kissing my a--."
That vulgar remark alone is an impeachable offense. The Constitution authors would agree. No president of the United States talks like that -- up to now.
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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.
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