The list of the king's actions are an uncanny mirror of the past six months. It's almost as though Trump actually read the Declaration of Independence, and decided to give the old king a run for his money.
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”- Martin Luther King Jr.
I wish I could share your belief in our country. Approximately half the country voted dt into office, not in spite of but because he is a "tyrannical despot." We knew who he was. I know his poll numbers are dropping, but he still has far too many admirers. It is alarming that anyone can support him. To borrow Adam Serwer's book title, "The cruelty is the point." Given that, why are his poll numbers not near zero? I have to believe that too many people are cheering for the cruelty, along with Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller. There is a new horror every day, and we seem to be powerless to stop it.
I do appreciate the powerful words of Frederick Douglass. Perhaps I should focus on those.
I get your despair. You might find hope learning how Trump happened. Because I lived through it I know where this all started. Because of that I have hope we can turn it around. All we need is a leader who’ll learn about how fascists hijacked our schools four decades ago.
Helping others learn this is how I’m celebrating today. Please let me explain.
Since 1995, when I was a fourth grade teacher who discovered fascists had taken over our school and everyone else around me was acting exactly like these representatives and senators are now acting - loyal to the administrators rather than concerned we were stealing education from society - it’s been my mission to expose this.
In 2002, I organized other teachers like me all over this country so we could stop it - 2200+ members. We’ve been crying out all these years at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org and only a handful pay attention - not the media and not the politicians from either party.
Fascists know human nature. They know fear is more powerful than love. So all they had to do was get the public to disrespect teachers so they won’t listen to them and then build power that steamrolls anyone in their way. They also figured out a way to get most people to lose faith in both parties that allowed education, our great leveler, to be stolen from us. That’s partly what paved the way for Trump.
Despite warning we were going to lose democracy for thirty years, I’ve been voiceless. That’s what fascists do. The secret for keeping fascists powerless is education. That’s why they started with our schools.
The problem is most wonderful high information people like you and your followers don’t listen to people like me once fascists build power against us. My book includes why we have school shootings and how we can end them and I can’t even get Sandy Hook, the Uvalde parents, or David Hogg to hear me. We’re a low information nation when it comes to issues like priest abuse and Harvey Weinstein - cover-ups last for decades. This education cover up may well take our nation down since even if we move past Trump we cannot have a democracy without authentic schools.
We will always have conflict. Democracy was our plan to cope with it in a thoughtful rather than violent way. We need schools to produce citizens who can be thoughtful. Those running our schools trash teachers like me who think that way.
However, their secret takeover of our schools could become our power if we spread the word since we still can take back the schools by running for school boards in groups of four on a save democracy platform. We must start an aggressive take back of our schools.
I wrote a memoir of my teaching days, A Graver Danger, so people can understand education enough to take it back. I priced it low so it will get read; its price does not reflect its worth! And even though Trump lovers give it lousy reviews because I’m against him, Project 2025, and everything that’s destroying democracy, most people and editorial reviewers have found it a must read.
It includes a plan to fix our schools once the good people get back into power. The only reason reform hasn’t worked is the power-mongers who’ve hijacked our schools haven’t wanted our schools to work other than for their own selfish needs!
The ultimate proof that it all started in our schools is this: only morons would fall for Trump, a person whose history is atrocious.
You don’t have to just take it from me, a passionate educator. Abraham Lincoln had warned, "The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."
It absolutely is! It’s all about who has the power. If you help the whistleblowing teachers gain power, we the people will gain power. We can’t ignore the fact that democracy’s foundation is a corrupt mess, incapable of sustaining a democracy, and expect to restore democracy with a leader who’s clueless about this.
We’ve just watched our Congress capitulate. That’s what scared people do. That’s what our teachers did decades ago without you knowing. That’s what our teachers’ unions did while pretending they’re for democracy. It’s time to fix what we can fix by finding a leader who will investigate this and getting on school boards no matter your age, no matter if you have children since this destruction of our democracy all started in our schools, the foundation of our democracy. It’s only a war in the sense that we must do this aggressively. We cannot count on our leaders who missed this education takeover. We must do the work.
I’m not watching parades or fireworks today. I’m spending the day figuring out how I can get more people to read my book and learn how we can return to citizenship rather than violent competition, when we live in a time in which only celebrities have a voice.
Today, of all days, it is necessary to reaffirm the principles of that declaration. Too many are suffering, and will only increase their suffering due to the felon and his sycophants denying the rights and freedoms of our Constitution. It is time to remind ourselves that it is up to us, the people, to take back our country from the tyranny of the regime in Washington. No one can save us except we, ourselves.
We must always remember the Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment but were also creatures of their time. While their thinking and ideals should be revered, we also must account for their failings and the failings of the nation as it has evolved.
The American Project, as such, has never been perfect and has always been a work in progress. There have been advances and regressions. But the regression we have experienced in the last decade has been staggering. We would do well to reacquaint ourselves with the struggles of the past to know we can prevail. I suggest Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” as a reminder of the challenges we have faced and overcome. It is not a hagiography that is used to celebrate today, but the reality of what has been and what is today.
And one of our country's strengths has been to recognize the need to progress with that work. Once again, we are confronted with the need for "a new birth of freedom."
I think the founders had some idea of the country they wanted to create. What I have never understood about Trump & Co. is this: What is the end game? What kind of country do they want to create? Georgia in the 1880s, with poor people in peonage, white men running rampant, Black people hanging from trees? England in the 1830s, with children working in boot blacking factories, women selling themselves on the streets, old people in prisons, orphans in workhouses, poor folks in debtors' prison, immigrants rowing on Navy ships? I mean, what is the end game? America, America, God help us.
Trump simply doesn't care, as long as he looks good in his own eyes. The creatures he has unleashed on this country want to create a white male plutopia. I won't call it Christian, because their prophets are Friedman, Stigler and Hayek. True Christianity is only for the losers and suckers. It helps to keep the rabble in line. The images you provide in your post are not the objective. They're just a side effect of their struggle for power. And the Trumpists don't care, either. Perhaps even less so than Trump himself.
What thawed out from a hard winter at Valley Forge turned out to be men of steel filled with resolve. It was one bad winter. We are there again. We know what to do. Wear them down. Wear them out. Vote’m Out! Block the concentration camps. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/concentration-camping?r=3m1bs
Wonderful post. Reminds me of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. This regime has taken closer to where we started than at any other time in our history with the exception of the civil war. Those of us who value the aspirational principles contained in our Declaration of Independence have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
TY, Steven, for words to remind us freedom & liberty can & willl prevail. Just purchased new printing of Declaration & Constitution w/intro by John Meacham- this in itself worth having another copy. May God bless our Democracy & freedom with the fortitude to keep it so.. Happy B-day, America.
When she can state this we have a disaster on our hands "Sotomayor says Trump has the Supreme Court on "speed dial" whenever he wants a pass on his "lawlessness." " May she be safe .... her bravery is epic when compared to the cowards in congress... they all should be like her election is too far away and it'll be a very dirty election if we survive it...
Thank you for writing this, Steven. I feel as if we’re living in a state of suspense everyday: hoping that the worst doesn’t happen, praying for the best. My class trips when I was young brought me to the places where our forefathers were inspired by their better angels here in Philadelphia. May their spirit prevail.
What a wonderful post Steven, a true look at what July 4th should mean. We can’t forget history, because it really does repeat itself. Here we are again fighting against a (would be)king, trying to control every aspect of our lives. Here we are again fighting against a (would be) Hitler and fascism, but instead of another country, it’s America. My father, who was so proud of his service in WWII fighting against this very thing would be heartbroken at where we are today. So I fight for him and all those who believe we are better than what we are today. Happy 4th! And Steven one of the ways I fight was upgrading my subscription because you’re fighting for us too. Thank you!!
Generations ago, my paternal grandfather fought with the 9th Virginia Regiment. Continental Army. By virtue of his service, I am a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. I embrace that history with a sense of honor. My family has served since then: WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War Era. I do not want those years of service, including my own, to have been spent for naught. We are looking tyranny and treachery squarely in the eye of a traitor tyrant who is strangely coiffed with orange-painted facial skin. This is no time to sit back and relax. The enemy stands before us, thumbing their noses at our democratic republic. Our nation is at peril. We must stand tough; stand strong; stand determined. We must be the victors in this assault.
Thank you. On this very melancholy Independence Day it encompasses much of what I have been thinking and feeling. Especially, Frederick Douglass’s 4th of July Address.
The list of the king's actions are an uncanny mirror of the past six months. It's almost as though Trump actually read the Declaration of Independence, and decided to give the old king a run for his money.
I love Jill Stoner's comment, as if dt could even read the Declaration of Independence. Does he even know what it is?
It's a wall decoration for his office. He thinks it's an original. I would not be surprised if it were a knockoff printed in China.
He also, in one of those Oval Office moments captured on video, talked about it as a Civil War document. You can't make this stuff up.
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”- Martin Luther King Jr.
I wish I could share your belief in our country. Approximately half the country voted dt into office, not in spite of but because he is a "tyrannical despot." We knew who he was. I know his poll numbers are dropping, but he still has far too many admirers. It is alarming that anyone can support him. To borrow Adam Serwer's book title, "The cruelty is the point." Given that, why are his poll numbers not near zero? I have to believe that too many people are cheering for the cruelty, along with Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller. There is a new horror every day, and we seem to be powerless to stop it.
I do appreciate the powerful words of Frederick Douglass. Perhaps I should focus on those.
I get your despair. You might find hope learning how Trump happened. Because I lived through it I know where this all started. Because of that I have hope we can turn it around. All we need is a leader who’ll learn about how fascists hijacked our schools four decades ago.
Helping others learn this is how I’m celebrating today. Please let me explain.
Since 1995, when I was a fourth grade teacher who discovered fascists had taken over our school and everyone else around me was acting exactly like these representatives and senators are now acting - loyal to the administrators rather than concerned we were stealing education from society - it’s been my mission to expose this.
In 2002, I organized other teachers like me all over this country so we could stop it - 2200+ members. We’ve been crying out all these years at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org and only a handful pay attention - not the media and not the politicians from either party.
Fascists know human nature. They know fear is more powerful than love. So all they had to do was get the public to disrespect teachers so they won’t listen to them and then build power that steamrolls anyone in their way. They also figured out a way to get most people to lose faith in both parties that allowed education, our great leveler, to be stolen from us. That’s partly what paved the way for Trump.
Despite warning we were going to lose democracy for thirty years, I’ve been voiceless. That’s what fascists do. The secret for keeping fascists powerless is education. That’s why they started with our schools.
The problem is most wonderful high information people like you and your followers don’t listen to people like me once fascists build power against us. My book includes why we have school shootings and how we can end them and I can’t even get Sandy Hook, the Uvalde parents, or David Hogg to hear me. We’re a low information nation when it comes to issues like priest abuse and Harvey Weinstein - cover-ups last for decades. This education cover up may well take our nation down since even if we move past Trump we cannot have a democracy without authentic schools.
We will always have conflict. Democracy was our plan to cope with it in a thoughtful rather than violent way. We need schools to produce citizens who can be thoughtful. Those running our schools trash teachers like me who think that way.
However, their secret takeover of our schools could become our power if we spread the word since we still can take back the schools by running for school boards in groups of four on a save democracy platform. We must start an aggressive take back of our schools.
I wrote a memoir of my teaching days, A Graver Danger, so people can understand education enough to take it back. I priced it low so it will get read; its price does not reflect its worth! And even though Trump lovers give it lousy reviews because I’m against him, Project 2025, and everything that’s destroying democracy, most people and editorial reviewers have found it a must read.
It includes a plan to fix our schools once the good people get back into power. The only reason reform hasn’t worked is the power-mongers who’ve hijacked our schools haven’t wanted our schools to work other than for their own selfish needs!
The ultimate proof that it all started in our schools is this: only morons would fall for Trump, a person whose history is atrocious.
You don’t have to just take it from me, a passionate educator. Abraham Lincoln had warned, "The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."
It absolutely is! It’s all about who has the power. If you help the whistleblowing teachers gain power, we the people will gain power. We can’t ignore the fact that democracy’s foundation is a corrupt mess, incapable of sustaining a democracy, and expect to restore democracy with a leader who’s clueless about this.
We’ve just watched our Congress capitulate. That’s what scared people do. That’s what our teachers did decades ago without you knowing. That’s what our teachers’ unions did while pretending they’re for democracy. It’s time to fix what we can fix by finding a leader who will investigate this and getting on school boards no matter your age, no matter if you have children since this destruction of our democracy all started in our schools, the foundation of our democracy. It’s only a war in the sense that we must do this aggressively. We cannot count on our leaders who missed this education takeover. We must do the work.
I’m not watching parades or fireworks today. I’m spending the day figuring out how I can get more people to read my book and learn how we can return to citizenship rather than violent competition, when we live in a time in which only celebrities have a voice.
Today, of all days, it is necessary to reaffirm the principles of that declaration. Too many are suffering, and will only increase their suffering due to the felon and his sycophants denying the rights and freedoms of our Constitution. It is time to remind ourselves that it is up to us, the people, to take back our country from the tyranny of the regime in Washington. No one can save us except we, ourselves.
The bill just passed by Congress funds the equivalent of Iran’s Republican Guard. We are on the threshold of a very serious struggle.
That's an interesting analogy. I had been thinking more along the lines of the SS or the Gestapo, but I am Of A Certain Age.
We must always remember the Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment but were also creatures of their time. While their thinking and ideals should be revered, we also must account for their failings and the failings of the nation as it has evolved.
The American Project, as such, has never been perfect and has always been a work in progress. There have been advances and regressions. But the regression we have experienced in the last decade has been staggering. We would do well to reacquaint ourselves with the struggles of the past to know we can prevail. I suggest Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” as a reminder of the challenges we have faced and overcome. It is not a hagiography that is used to celebrate today, but the reality of what has been and what is today.
And one of our country's strengths has been to recognize the need to progress with that work. Once again, we are confronted with the need for "a new birth of freedom."
I think the founders had some idea of the country they wanted to create. What I have never understood about Trump & Co. is this: What is the end game? What kind of country do they want to create? Georgia in the 1880s, with poor people in peonage, white men running rampant, Black people hanging from trees? England in the 1830s, with children working in boot blacking factories, women selling themselves on the streets, old people in prisons, orphans in workhouses, poor folks in debtors' prison, immigrants rowing on Navy ships? I mean, what is the end game? America, America, God help us.
Good questions.
Trump simply doesn't care, as long as he looks good in his own eyes. The creatures he has unleashed on this country want to create a white male plutopia. I won't call it Christian, because their prophets are Friedman, Stigler and Hayek. True Christianity is only for the losers and suckers. It helps to keep the rabble in line. The images you provide in your post are not the objective. They're just a side effect of their struggle for power. And the Trumpists don't care, either. Perhaps even less so than Trump himself.
Money for him. Period.
What thawed out from a hard winter at Valley Forge turned out to be men of steel filled with resolve. It was one bad winter. We are there again. We know what to do. Wear them down. Wear them out. Vote’m Out! Block the concentration camps. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/concentration-camping?r=3m1bs
Thank you for sharing his words, Steven. I too see this time we are all living through as an opportunity for reaffirmation!
Wonderful post. Reminds me of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. This regime has taken closer to where we started than at any other time in our history with the exception of the civil war. Those of us who value the aspirational principles contained in our Declaration of Independence have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
TY, Steven, for words to remind us freedom & liberty can & willl prevail. Just purchased new printing of Declaration & Constitution w/intro by John Meacham- this in itself worth having another copy. May God bless our Democracy & freedom with the fortitude to keep it so.. Happy B-day, America.
When she can state this we have a disaster on our hands "Sotomayor says Trump has the Supreme Court on "speed dial" whenever he wants a pass on his "lawlessness." " May she be safe .... her bravery is epic when compared to the cowards in congress... they all should be like her election is too far away and it'll be a very dirty election if we survive it...
Thank you for writing this, Steven. I feel as if we’re living in a state of suspense everyday: hoping that the worst doesn’t happen, praying for the best. My class trips when I was young brought me to the places where our forefathers were inspired by their better angels here in Philadelphia. May their spirit prevail.
Thanks for sharing, Karen.
What a wonderful post Steven, a true look at what July 4th should mean. We can’t forget history, because it really does repeat itself. Here we are again fighting against a (would be)king, trying to control every aspect of our lives. Here we are again fighting against a (would be) Hitler and fascism, but instead of another country, it’s America. My father, who was so proud of his service in WWII fighting against this very thing would be heartbroken at where we are today. So I fight for him and all those who believe we are better than what we are today. Happy 4th! And Steven one of the ways I fight was upgrading my subscription because you’re fighting for us too. Thank you!!
Thank you, Karen. We have to prove that we are better than what this regime is doing to our beloved country.
Generations ago, my paternal grandfather fought with the 9th Virginia Regiment. Continental Army. By virtue of his service, I am a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. I embrace that history with a sense of honor. My family has served since then: WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War Era. I do not want those years of service, including my own, to have been spent for naught. We are looking tyranny and treachery squarely in the eye of a traitor tyrant who is strangely coiffed with orange-painted facial skin. This is no time to sit back and relax. The enemy stands before us, thumbing their noses at our democratic republic. Our nation is at peril. We must stand tough; stand strong; stand determined. We must be the victors in this assault.
Steven,
Thank you. On this very melancholy Independence Day it encompasses much of what I have been thinking and feeling. Especially, Frederick Douglass’s 4th of July Address.
Have a great day, be safe, and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
Thank you, Steve.