ANGELO LYNN

The sight of more than 100 area citizens braving sub-freezing temperatures on Middlebury’s Town Green to protest the most egregious of the incoming president’s policies, while championing the work of famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, is a fitting image of what the next four years should bring: staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s second term as president.

Local activist, author and retired pediatrician Jack Mayer aptly described the group as “the loyal opposition,” noting simply that “democracy is at risk.”

Monday’s rally was organized by “Indivisible Middlebury,” a local chapter of a national Indivisible movement created in 2016 to “resist the GOP’s agenda, elect local champions and fight for progressive policies.” Rallies by the group were held Monday throughout the country.

Without a doubt, its work in 2025 and through the mid-term elections in 2026 is more important than ever.

Even before Trump’s first day in office this past Monday, as President Biden warned in his speeches the week prior, the nation has been sliding dangerously toward an oligarchy since November’s election. In a post this Wednesday, Axios picked up that thread with these observations:

“Presidents now can routinely and preemptively pardon family and friends in case of any accusation of grift or crimes; presidents can also pardon violent criminals convicted of sedition and violence in defense of their politics; presidents and their families can start businesses — or even currencies — and profit without restriction or outcry; and they can do all this with the presumption of presidential immunity… America doesn’t have a king. But we’re dancing close to king-like power…. Thanks to the Supreme Court, presidents also enjoy the presumption of immunity for ‘official acts’ if they’re ever accused of crossing any legal lines. So, Trump and his family conceivably could make billions through deals worldwide, new businesses and new currencies, funding the family — or even a political movement — for a generation. Their only limitation is imagination. America has drifted into uncharted waters in the rule of law. Trump and future presidents can test the limits with a presumption of success.”

The next threshold, Axios pondered is this: “Now that presidential power is so broad, so deep, so uncontainable, why forfeit it? Trump or future presidents could simply run for a de facto third term — as the vice-presidential nominee, with the understanding they will take power back once elected. That’s but one of the once-unthinkable scenarios that seem more thinkable than ever.”

Just six months ago, so much of what Axios contemplates above would have seemed outrageous, even to many Republicans. That it’s a reality today should be a sobering thought to those Americans who continue to deny Trump’s erosive effects on our democracy.

Angelo Lynn