Those Who Defied Tyranny During World War II Were Their Countries' Heroes—It's Probably Our Turn Now

They Reelected Him Again— 77 Million This Time... We Have To Deal With It

When Nixon was elected president over half a century ago, I lived in New York. So did Trump. I wasn’t thrilled with Humphrey but I was a lesser-of-two-evils voter back then and, man, was Nixon evil! Though he flipped back and forth between parties, the young Donald, was a Nixon supporter. I was making plans to move abroad— which I did in 1969— while Donald was making plans to get richer. This time my departure is going to be… more permanent. My doctor says there’s a chance I’m going to survive. My gut tells me it’s time to say goodbye. (On a visit to Hamburg in 1995, our German company handed me this demo— link above— and said I could put it out in the U.S. for free. I brought it home and played it on the radio. It had the best reaction of any song I had ever played on the air— and I had been playing songs on the radio since 1966. All my A&R and marketing and promotion executives gave it the thumbs down. I doubted myself and passed on it; what a mistake, what a shame! My friend Danny Goldberg signed it; it was the biggest-selling single of all time in many countries.) Anyway… I’ve already slowed down my blogging a bit and I suspect it will slow down even more as time ticks away. I do plan to keep up the political blogging until I can’t and I’ll mix it in with the… ticking away.

Before the inauguration yesterday, Peter Baker wrote that defiance is out and deference is in. I don’t mind not having to deal emotionally with that! “[T]he Resistance of 2017,” he wrote, “has faded into the Resignation of 2025. The mood leading up to the second Trump inauguration reflects how much has changed since the first Trump inauguration. Much of the world, it seems, is bowing down to the incoming president. Technology moguls have rushed to Mar-a-Lago to pay homage. Billionaires are signing seven-figure checks and jockeying for space at the inaugural ceremony. Some corporations are pre-emptively dropping climate and diversity programs to curry favor.” I’m guessing posterity will curse them.

Baker wrote that some Democrats— particularly careerists in red districts like Jared Golden (D-ME), who is likely to run for governor as an independent— are talking about working with the newly restored Republican president on discrete issues. Some news organizations are perceived to be reorienting to show more deference. The grass roots opposition that put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Washington to protest Trump just a day after he was sworn in back in 2017 generated a fraction of that in their sequel on Saturday.”

Not showing deference: Servant of the Servants of God, Vicar of Christ, Shepard of the Universal Church, bridge builder between God and humanity, Pope Francis. Asked Sunday about Señor T’s mass deportation plans, he said “If it is true, it will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing to pay the unpaid bill. It won’t do. This is not the way to solve things.” CNN reported that “The Pope has made advocacy for migrants a key part of his papacy, insisting they should be welcomed and integrated into societies… Francis has signaled that he is ready to take a critical approach to the new Trump administration with his appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy as the next Archbishop  of Washington, DC. McElroy has described mass deportations of immigrants as ‘incompatible with Catholic doctrine.’ On Sunday, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, also criticized the deportation plans. In 2016, Francis suggested then-presidential candidate Trump was ’not Christian’ for his anti-immigration views.”

Also not showing as much deference as might be expected: top MAGAt Steve Bannon. He’s still going through the motions of kissing Trump’s ass but, he seems to have drawn the line when it comes to co-president Musk and the other wealthy oligarchs who have bought a seat at the table, the table he’s no longer welcome at. He used his podcast to make fun of the decision to move the inauguration indoors. 

“It ain't gonna be that cold,” he protested, and speculated that the decision must have come to protect the tech billionaires who were invited to sit behind Trump on the dais for the ceremony. “Just because the oligarchs are there. They're too tender, coming from Silicon Valley. Are they too soft?”

He questioned whether Trump himself had approved the move until his producer read aloud a Truth Social post in which Trump said he did.

The moment was Steve Bannon in microcosm: He's a devoted Trump supporter who sometimes differs with him. He's also an advocate of political combat, who went to prison last year rather than cooperate with a Congressional investigation of Trump's bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat. (Bannon was released in October, but still faces a criminal case in New York State on charges that he profited from donations that were solicited to help Trump build a wall at the US-Mexico border.)

As Trump prepares to retake power, Bannon is celebrating, while also debating tech billionaires over the new administration's approach to immigration. Bannon says he is part of a populist revolution, while a glance at the inauguration might suggest the opposite is happening. Monday's attendees are expected to include three of the richest and most influential men in the world: Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

Bannon calls them “oligarchs”— the same word President Biden used in his farewell address last week— and his recent social media battle with Musk shows some of the differences in Trump's coalition. Bannon is seeking crackdowns on both illegal and legal immigration, as well as confrontation with China. Musk, the South African immigrant who does much business in China, would seem to personify the “globalists” that Trump's movement rails against, but also played a significant and costly role in Trump's victory.

…There is also a strand of populist economics; Bannon says on the air that he wants to cut taxes for the working class, yet raise taxes on the wealthy. Trump and Republicans instituted tax cuts for the wealthy in his first term and he has proposed extending them in his second…Bannon insisted the billionaires who contributed millions to the inauguration are not buying influence but being used as trophies by the new president. ‘They're not there because they support Trump. They're there because the Trump movement and President Trump broke them,’ Bannon said.

…Bannon: Well, there's two sets of oligarchs. There's what we call the lords of easy money on Wall Street. And then there's the oligarchs in the apartheid state of Silicon Valley. And they're clearly oligarchs. They have concentration of wealth and power. With President Trump, I think Musk has very little power. He has some influence. But has very little power.

First off, these oligarchs are completely created by the Democratic Party and the lords of easy money. Remember, for the last four years, they had no problem at all with the oligarchs until they flipped and surrendered after we won. Elon Musk came a little earlier because he saw the writing on the wall. He's a smart guy who could actually see the true polling and saw where this was going. So he's the first man out. But Zuckerberg came and surrendered afterwards. Bezos came and surrendered afterwards. Marc Andreessen came and surrendered afterwards. They saw the game was over.

Yesterday, Timothy Snyder shared 20 lessons on tyranny from his classic 2017 book, On Tyranny. Easy for me to say, but I like the last one best. Here are all 20:

1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about -- a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union -- and take its side.

3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multiple-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.

4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.

6. Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.

7. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.

8. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.

10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

11. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate with others.

12. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

14. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.

15. Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to use of the words "extremism" and "terrorism." Be alive to the fatal notions of "emergency" and "exception." Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.

19. Be a patriot. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.

20. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.