By Terry Manning
On Sundays, when the congregation isn’t responding as energetically as he would like, my pastor likes to prompt us, “You missed your cue! You’re missing your cue!”
I’m starting to think that about a lot of people.
Especially the folks who went around trying to make life a living hell for everybody over the past 10 years to prove they were ready to die for their freedoms, to kill to stop government overreach, and to blow the whole world up to stop child sex abuse.
They have gone soft on every one of those issues for the sake of allegiance to their golden-haired idol.
Government overreach is the one that makes me scratch my head the hardest, because that’s right-wing patriots’ favorite place to plant their flags. Trump is trampling civil liberties like they’re remnants of a grassfire, and these patriots have had nothing to say.
Remember those caravans of migrants we were told were threatening the U.S.-Mexico border? In both terms, Trump sent troops to prepare for them. This year, he even seized privately owned land across three states, claiming it as a military installation. The caravans never materialized, and all was largely forgotten after he’d met the purpose of rallying his supporters.
When demonstrators in Los Angeles protested his immigration sweeps? He sent National Guard and active-duty Marines, despite the demonstrations being largely over by the time they were deployed, according to Time magazine. Anything to look tough, I guess.
Now he’s taken over the nation’s capital because of a “crime wave,” even though crime in D.C. is the lowest it’s been in decades. The catalyst for that action? A 19-year-old Trump staffer who goes by the nickname “Big Balls” got roughed up by a group of juveniles after he tried to break up an attempted carjacking.
If that story holds up, good on the young man for trying to be a good Samaritan, but even good Samaritans aren’t above repercussion for their actions. Would you try to stop a carjacking in D.C. at 3 o’clock early on a Sunday morning? I wouldn’t. Of course, I would have been home hours earlier, but … I guess that’s why my nickname isn’t “Big Balls.”
Our Karen-in-Chief will call in his version of the po-po at the drop of a hat when he doesn’t get his way. Far from the frontlines, he talks the talk, but he makes somebody else walk the walk.
That is just the most baffling example of how these would-be freedom fighters are silent as Trump puts his knee on the nation’s neck.
He does what he wants, when he wants, and to whomever he wants, and dares anyone to stop him.
After spaying and neutering Congress, he is bulldozing the courts.
He strong-arms law firms into giving him free legal aid.
He extorts the world’s best universities.
He slashed funding for the arts, healthcare, and education.
He demands Cabinet members blow smoke up his keister at every meeting. (You can find the transcripts online.)
He antagonizes countries that have been our allies and sucks up to countries that openly feud with us.
He takes high-priced gifts in exchange for his favor. He’s literally selling Trump-branded paraphernalia in the White House gift shop.
He commands states to redraw districts and cheat their citizens so he can keep the House (remember how arrogant and bold Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was when Presidents Obama or Biden asked for anything? Who replaced that jerk with Mr. Whatever-You-Say-Mr.-Trump?)
He sends masked man into our streets, snatching up people for minor or nonexistent charges and making them disappear into a network of detention centers. Remember when conservatives fanned fears of “FEMA camps?” Well, ICE has them and is planning to build more, and … not a peep.
Isn’t this heavy-handedness the stuff the Pilgrims fled? Didn’t we launch a whole revolution to get away from sanction (taxation) without having a say (representation)?
I look around and see the Confederate battle flags, the Three Percenter and QAnon window stickers, the “Don’t Tread on Me” car tags. “Patriot” this, “Freedom” that. But with Donald Trump tightening his authoritarian grip over the country, the people who wave these banners have nothing to offer in rebuke.
They are not missing their cue, but ignoring it in hopes compliance will equal safety.
They are rebels with a cause, but not a clue.
Terry E. Manning worked for 20 years as a newspaper journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
