President's Day, 2025
Plenty of people (though not enough, if I'm honest) are writing and reporting on the current situation in the US. The situation is this: there has been a coup of the American government by far-right extremists following Trump's election in November. The rule of law has been usurped, with Trump recently claiming, "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law." There is no more separation of powers, no checks and balances, with the executive branch simply ignoring both the legislative and judicial branches and acting as if it, alone, has absolute power. And, so far, no one is stopping them. Unelected and unqualified individuals managed by a billionnaire foreigner with massive conflicts of interest are being given access to the most sensitive data of the US government and its citizens, as well as free reign to gut government agencies and spending at their own whim. And all of this is only the very briefest of summaries just 4 weeks after Trump's inauguration. Buckle up.
While it's impossible to be certain what comes next, the parallels between what's happening today in the US and what happened in 1930s Germany are really frightening. And I can't help but think that Plato and Popper were far more prescient than I had previously given them credit for: the paradox of tolerance and freedom is that they lead to intolerance and tyranny.
There is so much more to say, but for now, on this President's Day, 2025, I just want to say one thing: Donald Trump is not president, and certainly not my president. If you want to give him an honorific, perhaps "dear leader" or "führer" are the ones you're looking for.