ANGELO LYNN

Two weeks ago, after a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump exclaimed that he’d had a wonderful chat with his good friend, Vladimir, and that he was confident Russia’s war against Ukraine would be winding down soon. The bonus, Trump exclaimed, was that U.S. businessmen would get rich off Russia’s natural resources and the trade between the two countries that would follow.

Putin claimed no such thing, then he bombed the bejesus out of several Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, killing hundreds over the next several days. Trump, who claimed during the campaign he’d end the Russian-Ukraine war on Day 1 of his presidency, was reportedly furious with Putin, but primarily because he has been shown time and again as a patsy to Putin’s manipulations.

Putin, who must be laughing at how easy it is to mislead such a gullible president, has been playing Trump like the fool he is.

Trump threatens sanctions, posts some REALLY TOUGH WORDS on social media and then scurries off to another golf date or commencement address with West Point cadets in which he boasts about “trophy wives” (seriously?), a $45 million-$60 million military parade on his 79^th birthday, and cancelling all federal grant money to Harvard — all pet peeves or projects, because that’s who Trump is. Oh, and then back to the real business of threatening our closest allies in Europe with a 50% tariff and putting a halt to all foreign student visas — as if stopping the flow of the best and brightest students from around the world into our universities will somehow make America stronger.

If all this sounds too dumbfounding to believe, it isn’t.

Rather, it is the U.S. as ruled by Trump. He talks about levying heavy sanctions on Russia (President Biden was far tougher), but then backs down and is easily diverted to other pass times. Meanwhile, one of the worst press secretaries in recent memories, Karoline Leavitt, does her infamous blame shifting onto the previous administration: “The Russia-Ukraine war is Joe Biden’s fault,” she says matter-of-factly, as if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and Biden’s correct warning ahead of time even though others disputed it) as enough to excuse Trump’s ineptitude and morally bankrupt foreign policy.

Sadly, this is only a snippet of the damage Trump does each week.

A REASON TO PROTEST

The most troubling aspect of Trump’s chaotic way of ruling, according to New York Times columnist M. Gessen, is that it’s easy to begin accepting each degradation of individual rights or common decency until one day you wake up to find you’re living under a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

“The United States in the last four months has felt like an unremitting series of shocks: executive orders gutting civil rights and constitutional protections; a man with a chain saw trying to gut the federal government; deliberately brutal deportations; people snatched off the streets and disappeared in unmarked cars; legal attacks on universities and law firms.

“Unlike the Russian autocratic breakthrough, the transformation of American government and society hasn’t been spread out over decades or even years. It’s been everything everywhere all at once.

“And now that has become familiar. I’ve reported on many wars, and I’ve seen how they come to feel routine — to the people living through them, the people reporting on them, and the people reading about them. Wars have a limited repertoire: bombings, shellings, offensives, counteroffensives, body counts. After the initial shock, few people keep track of the shifting front line.”

Gessen warns Americans of being resigned to each outrage and affront to our values and civil rights.

“We humans are stability-seeking creatures. Getting accustomed to what used to seem unthinkable can feel like an accomplishment. And when the unthinkable recedes just a little bit, it’s easy to mistake it for proof that the dark times are ending.”

Don’t fall for it, he says.

“These comparatively small victories don’t alter the direction of our transformation— they don’t even slow it down measurably —even while they appeal to our deep need to normalize. They create the sense that there is more air to breathe and more room to act than there was yesterday.

“And so, just when we most need to act—while there is indeed room for action and some momentum to the resistance—we tend to be lulled into complacency by the sense of relief on the one hand and boredom on the other.”

Gessen’s point is more spot on that most of us care to admit. It’s easier to roll with Trump’s punches than actively resist with each outrage.

It’s all the more reason to protest, frequently and actively. Locally, Indivisible Middlebury is one of several area groups holding regular protests. They are joined by two other Indivisible chapters in and near Addison County — Northeast Addison County Indivisible (NEACI), and Brandon Indivisible. Together they have about 1,000 members, and the groups are reportedly growing fast. They are part of the national pro-democracy Indivisible movement, and importantly, are non-partisan in the sense they are not against Republican or Democratic policies, but rather against the Trump administration’s assault on our democracy. They protest Trump’s actions that are an affront to America’s individual rights and that violate the constitutional principle of separation of powers, along with dozens of other knowingly illegal actions taken by the Trump administration in a constant power grab that has often been rejected by the courts.

In a word, they protest Trump being “un-American” in the sense that he is violating the very rights that have kept individuals free from tyranny. It’s that freedom, and our belief in the rule of law, that deserves our constant attention and is worthy of consistent protest and rebellion by the people. Fittingly, the three area Indivisible groups will host a No Kings Day protest on June 14, and will be sending out news releases and fliers to let area residents know how to join in.

Hopefully, members of the MAGA crowd will see through Trump’s con soon enough and join others in defending what has truly made America great these past 250-plus years — our adherence and acceptance to laws of the land, not to a would-be Machiavellian who wants to govern as king.

Angelo Lynn