In his book “Prisoners of Time: Prussians, Germans and Other Humans,” Cambridge history professor Christopher Clark reminds us that popular support for Nazism came more through acquiescence and consent than via terrorizing the German populace.
President Trump has yet to terrorize anyonem unless you count the “vexatious” law firms against which he holds personal grudges, the judges he has sought to impeach or perhaps the Venezuelan men he deported without a hearing, who may or may not be members of a criminal gang. To attack lawyers for their representations is to attack the rule of law itself. Courts can’t act on their own — they act only when lawyers bring cases.
Yes, Trump’s actions are having a chilling effect on lawyers, judges and those prosecutors who sought to try and convict him for serious crimes. In a harangue at the Justice Department worthy of any authoritarian leader, he vilified his past prosecutors as “horrible people,” “scum,” “deranged” and “thugs.”
But a chilling effect doth not a police state make. One of my friends told me that the best course is to ignore the chilling effect, to let it be. He recently applied for a foreign passport just in case words look like they are becoming deeds.
Former Alabama U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wonders what it will take before we will have mass protests, writing, “Why aren’t Americans out on the streets protesting in massive numbers like we have seen people in other countries doing—Israel, Georgia, Turkey, South Korea, and others?”
Americans could take to the streets. But there are other elements that could be expressing defiance over Trump’s policies and actions: Governors, college presidents and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies could band together to express disapproval.
The media is significantly muted. Anti-Trump commentators and anchors have been fired. Criticism of the administration has been curtailed. Meritless lawsuits filed by Trump have been settled.
Where is the organized bar protesting the blacklisting of law firms which served the public interest? Trump and those in his penumbra have set off a clamor for removal of judges who disagree with him. Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Fox News have all called for the impeachment of such judges, who hold lifetime appointments.
Trump’s recent raving tirade on social media targeted District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg: “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President … I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
The president’s latest fusillade of vituperation prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to rebuke him for calling for the impeachment of judges who hand down adverse rulings. Trump’s baleful response: “He didn’t mention my name.”
Has Trump even read the Constitution? He forgot that judicial control of executive power goes to the core of our democracy. We can only hope that the U.S. courts continue to show some backbone.
Where is the Black community protesting the eradication of DEI from our national lexicon? Where are the consumers, the everyday Americans, who will pay increasingly higher prices for a dozen eggs or a tariff-burdened automobile?
Where is the opposition to the outrageous deputization of Elon Musk and his DOGE satraps to lay waste to the civil service, to the layoffs, to the weird health policies, to the draconian tariffs, to the deportations, to the attacks on judges and prosecutors and to the feckless foreign policy? There is scarcely a word of defiance from leaders in the country, governors, mayors and members of Congress.
A term creeping into our vocabulary these days is “kakistocracy,” government by the incompetent. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth never should have been confirmed. He is a security risk. Attorney General Pam Bondi never should have been confirmed once she failed to state that her duty is to the Constitution and that the Department of Justice would be independent of the president.
Bondi could investigate the Signal security breach — the grotesque incompetence of posting on an unsecure line battle plans for the strike against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. Bondi inherited an able National Security Division under her command, if they haven’t all been fired. But she is too busy with such high priority matters as releasing Jeffrey Epstein documents that conspicuously fail to name names on his “johns list”; obsequiously kissing the ring of Musk and DOGE; dismissing the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, because he’s promised to do what he has a legal duty to do; and hosting MAGA rallies at the Department of Justice. It goes without saying that Bondi will do nothing.
And where are the Democrats? Their passion for surrender is expressed by Democratic strategist James Carville: “With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a voice crying in the wilderness, lamented, “If we continue to engage in business as usual, this democracy could be gone.” One thing we do know is that Trump tends to back down when there is sustained opposition to what he is doing. Rolling over and playing dead is no option, and certainly no solution.
James D. Zirin, author and legal analyst, is a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District. He is also the host of the public television talk show and podcast Conversations with Jim Zirin.
