Stanley P. Brozana Jr., 72 – Served 37 Years as Orwigsburg Police Chief
If people who follow the news weren’t dreading April 2, which Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” (with a straight face, no less), they were hoping his tariffs on imported goods wouldn’t be as bad as economists feared.
His falsehood-riddled announcement didn’t reassure the experts or Wall Street. Nor were there reports of jubilant crowds dancing in the streets.
Maybe consumers resent being drafted as cannon fodder for a senseless trade war. After all, it’s hard to love massive taxes that will inevitably trickle down as higher prices for more of the same, or the same prices for less quality, quantity and/or fewer features.
Or maybe most of us know that the only liberation to expect from the Musk-Trump, or Mump, administration is for rich and powerful egomaniacs to inflict their self-serving and destructive agenda on the rest of us.
Trump laid much of that out when he, and therefore Elon Musk, took office on Jan. 20, which he also declared “Liberation Day.” (How many of those days can our country stand?)
Back in 2018, former Trump chief strategist/felon Steve Bannon summed up a key tactic: “Flood the zone with (human excrement).”
Long before and ever since he revealed that secret sauce ingredient, the Trump team’s barrage of half-truths, outright lies and utter nonsense have been amplified on social and traditional media, whether critically or in support.
With their assaults on civil liberties like free speech and on crucial government programs and services, the Mumps have taken their toxic b.s. far beyond words.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey isn’t the only elected official who’s decided it’s time to counter all this by flooding the zone with truth and reminders of the ideals that made our country the envy of the world.
But just before Trump’s latest “Liberation Day,” Booker took the unusual step of speaking in his chamber for 25 hours straight. This beat the Senate record set by Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which Congress passed anyway.
While Thurmond wanted to stop progress, Booker is trying to save what Americans have counted on and the Mumps are trying to eviscerate: liberty, justice and equal opportunity for all; our democratic republic; our demand for truth and facts; our willingness to help those in need.
As this administration threatens anything with the slightest whiff of diversity, equity and inclusion, Booker began and ended his speech with references to the late Congressman and civil rights activist John L. Lewis.
“He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation,” said Booker, whose ancestors included both slaves and slave owners.
He addressed numerous relevant subjects, including but far from limited to health care, scientific research, foreign relations, climate change, financial safety nets and the cost of living.
To comply with Senate rules, he stood at a podium throughout his speech but got some relief when fellow Democrats asked questions.
Adam Schiff of California prefaced his with examples of how the Mumps feel entitled to go after judges, lawyers, universities and media companies for refusing to do their bidding. “How do we tell them, ‘No, you can’t’?” he asked. “’… You can’t violate the law, violate our values, violate our interests.’”
We non-MAGAs have been asking ourselves the same question, which you can’t answer with a one-sentence soundbite, so Booker and Schiff’s 19-minute back-and-forth is worth watching.
They agreed that those who haven’t succumbed to the Mump madness must not only call it out but also offer something better.
People are working but still not getting by, which leaves them open to “any demagogue who comes along and promises they alone can fix it.,” Schiff said. “And while this demagogue is not going to fix it, and indeed, he’s made their lot much worse, it is not going to fix itself.”
There’s a lot to fix, and as Booker said, there’s a dire need to “redeem the dream” with bold ideas to inspire the American people instead of fomenting hatred and divisions.
“Truth should matter to us,” Schiff said. “What’s right should matter to us. And even if it doesn’t matter to the president, it should matter to us that we (as Americans) are decent.”
Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.
Image: “The Strike in the Coal Mines”/Public Domain
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