ARE WE IN THE MIDST OF A CULTURAL REVOLUTION?

Since the 1960s, the U.S. has become a more inclusive country. This necessarily meant that white men lost some part of their privileged positions in education, employment and entertainment. By the 2000s, in the wake of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, anti-racism books were on the best sellers list, major corporations were examining their hiring and promotion policies, and educational institutions were beginning to address structural racism. The backlash has been intense. Using his “Project 2025” blueprint, following his election, President Trump and company have been more than eager to rewind the clock to before the various civil rights movements, back even to before the Fourteenth Amendment that added “Birthright Citizenship” to the Constitution in 1868. The intensity of the administration’s attack on dominant values and structural elements of our society has convinced analysts and observers that its objective is to dramatically reshape our cultural norms – in fact to create a cultural revolution. The term “Cultural Revolution” is most closely associated with China’s Proletarian Revolution, spearheaded by Mao Zedong between 1966 and 1976, and Iran’s Cultural Revolution from 1980 to 1987 – two radical movements that upended institutions, targeted intellectuals and reshaped society to fit ideological purity tests. These revolutions led to the purging of educators, the rewriting of history, and the persecution of those who refused to conform. President Trump is currently involved in executing a cultural revolution as thoroughgoing in its ambitions and potential destructiveness as what Mao unleashed in China during the mid-1960s. During its revolution, China purged its intellectuals, universities were gutted, professors were publicly humiliated, research was shut down, and expertise was replaced with ideological loyalty. Similar patterns are emerging in the U.S. Although from a different ideological angle, we are beginning to observe a resurgence of ideological purges in education. Books are banned in dozens of states, from works on race and civil rights to literature about LGBTQ+ experiences. Universities are being defunded, and research grants are disappearing. Professors are targeted for their political beliefs. Teachers are being dismissed or intimidated for teaching so-called “divisive” subjects like systemic racism, gender studies and the history of oppression. Words like diversity, equity and climate change are erased from curricula. Entire academic fields are under attack for being “woke.” And the Department of Education is likely to be axed. Educators now face losing their jobs for acknowledging historical truths that some find uncomfortable. Federal employees have been directed to report colleagues engaged in D.E.I. initiatives, with warnings of “adverse consequences” for non-compliance. Team MAGA wants a “second American Revolution” that roots out all vestiges of progressivism, liberalism and secularism, which, according to Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” President Trump and his supporters borrowed some of their strategy from his good friend Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, who turned his country’s political system from being based on liberal principles into a patronage system run along illiberal lines, meaning a system where individual rights are no longer protected. Orban’s compliant legislature allowed him to concentrate power in the executive, deconstruct the Hungarian political system from the inside by stacking the courts, suppressing civil society and controlling right-wing media. The Trump administration is doing an admirable job emulating Orban’s “accomplishments.” During China’s Proletarian Revolution between 1 and 2 million people lost their lives. We are certainly not there. However, many thousands have already unceremoniously lost their livelihood and we are only a little more than four months into this process. Sit tight! Theo Wierdsma

WILL POPE LEO ADDRESS A PERENNIAL QUESTION?

With American-born Cardinal Robert Prevost's elevation to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV, elected to lead the 1.46 billion Catholics world-wide, a number of significant reemerging questions are bound to surface. The first, and presumably significant indicator of the new pope's predilection on how to guide the Church's religious and political policy was about the selection of the new pontiff's choice of by what namesake he will be known going forward. Popes are not required to change their name. However, every pontiff for the past 470 years has done so, usually choosing the name of a predecessor to both honor him and signal their intention to emulate his example. Cardinal Prevost's selection of Leo XIV was significant because it indicated that the newly elected pontiff's policies appeared to promise to stick fairly closely to those of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Historically, many observers tend to focus on the reputation of Pope Leo XIII, who was known for producing his 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum," translated as "new things," or "revolutionary change." His document addressed the social and economic conditions of the Industrial Revolution, affirming the rights of the poor and obligations for those more fortunate. Pope Leo's adopted namesakes developed impressive historical notoriety for other reasons as well. Pope Leo I - "The Great" - became known for meeting face to face with Attila the Hun in 452, and persuaded him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Emperor of the Romans - a symbolic act that significantly impacted the relationship between the papacy and the emerging Western empire. In 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther as a heretic, excluding him from participating in the sacraments and services of the Church. While this historic legacy will be much to live up to for the new pontiff, one of the contemporary issues that will again confront the new Papal administration is the perennial topic of female priests in the Church. A year or two before my mother passed, she adamantly, and perhaps proudly, pronounced that The Netherlands now had female priests - "priestesses" - running the symbolic rituals of Catholic worship celebrations. I was not terrifically surprised. After all, the Dutch Church had shown its independence for years. One of my brothers had even been appointed to a committee assigned to confirm the suitability of new bishops the Vatican proposed to select for the country. Eventually, my mother's funeral was officiated by this "priestess" who I addressed as "pastor" during my eulogy. When I discussed this turn of events with friends who identified with "Opus Dei," a conservative Apostolate in the Catholic Church, I was told that there existed no such thing as female priests. Upon reflection, it may well be that my mom's "priestess" was essentially a Deacon ordained to serve her bishop and perform multiple procedures, including assisting at Mass, baptisms, funerals, and witnessing marriages, but not intended to lead a parish or religious order focusing on sacramental celebrations. While Pope Leo XIV's predecessor Pope Francis appeared to crack open the door for LGBTQ+ people, allowing them to be baptized under the same conditions as other believers, he continued to reaffirm the "men-only" rule for the priesthood. He confirmed the veracity of the declaration issued after the "Congregation for the doctrine of the faith" was issued in 1976, which for doctrinal, theological and historic reasons, the Church did "not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination." This ruling was reinforced by Pope John Paul II in May of 1994 in his apostolic letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis." Nevertheless, a growing movement, focused on changing the Vatican's edict on women priests, seems to be very much alive. With the advent of new papal leadership, this movement appears to sense an opportunity to push for their voices to be heard. Just recently, in a podcast, they received support from Swiss Bishop Markus Buchel of Saint Gallen, who openly advocated for the inclusion of female priests, arguing that the Church has a "consecration emergency." More and more women in this movement are defying Catholic Church tradition by actually becoming priests. Many of these are not part of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, but rather subscribe to the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) organization. On July 29, 2002, a group of seven women from Germany, Austria, and the U.S. were ordained to the priesthood by a Roman Catholic bishop, Romulo Antonio Braschi, on a ship cruising the Danube. The seven women were not recognized as valid by the Vatican, and Bishop Braschi and some of the women were excommunicated. However, the movement continues to ordain women to the priesthood, and it has expanded internationally. The Vatican continues to forbid the process, citing the Bible's record that Jesus only chose male apostles and almost 2,000 years of precedent. Nevertheless, research done by the "New Yorker" and "The Nation" identified almost 200 women that have been ordained in various unauthorized ways, considering themselves legitimate priests. Unless he chooses to hide behind centuries of tradition, Pope Leo XIV will likely, at some point, be forced to address this perennial question again. Theo Wierdsma

ARE THE INMATES RUNNING THE ASYLUM?

If there was any doubt that the inmates are running the asylum in our administration right now, the group chat on the Signal messaging app about the attack on Yemen should have erased it for all but the most diehard MAGA supporters. The conversation intended for our Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence and other administration principals also, accidentally, included the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, and revealed a precise attack timeline, target surveillance, and shared plans for a bombing campaign 30 minutes before the first planes took off on March 15. Secretary of Defense Hegseth subsequently insisted that no classified information was communicated. "Nobody was texting war plans: "No units, no locations, no routes, no flight plans, no sources, no methods, no classified information." Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraqi war veteran took exception: "Pete Hegseth is a f***ing liar. This so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could have gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately." As always, President Trump referred to the entire episode as a "witch hunt," and "a hoax." While this example of one of the most ignorant breaches of protocol affecting our national security should concern us, the general lack of focus on relevant, evidence-based substance underpinning policy discussions at the pinnacle of the administrative level of our governing body ought to be disturbing. Much of it might be relegated to willful ignorance, which unfortunately sometimes degenerated to stupidity. Modern-day researchers have identified several recognizable sets of actions embodying stupidity: "Confident ignorance" - involving people taking risks without having the necessary skills to deal with them. President Trump may know what he does not know, but delegated tasks to staff members like Elon Musk or trade tariff architect Pete Navarro. Neither of which appear to possess such awareness. "Absent minded failure" - meaning people knew the right thing to do but were not paying sufficient attention to avoid doing something stupid - like in "signal gate." And, finally, "Lack of control" - in which decision makers compromise their organizations by failing to accept objections from those charged with implementing the leader's preconceived plans. Such decision makers may select biased information to support their proposals, instead of considering factual data. We have seen numerous situations in which consequential decisions were reached "supported" by fallacious interpretations of available facts. Preeminent examples include: Candidate Trump's insistence that illegal immigrants from Haiti residing in Springfield, Ohio, have been eating domestic pets. He claimed this assertion to be factual since he saw it on television. President Trump's declaration that our government sent $50 million worth of condoms to the Gaza strip - a "fact" Elon Musk apparently identified as uncovered by his DOGE group of researchers. In fact, the Gaza in question is a province in Mozambique, in which we supported a fund for prevention of HIV. Mr. Musk also spread the assertion that 9 million 130 year old recipients - many even more than 150 year old - were receiving social security. This bit of "information" exhibited his total ignorance of how the Social Security Administration maintains its records. And then there remains the issue of the administration's preoccupation with colonizing Canada, Greenland and Gaza, changing the "Gulf of Mexico," which received its name during the mid 16th century, to the "Gulf of America," and proclaiming English, which is spoken fluently by 80% of the population, to be our official national language. And these represent only the tip of the iceberg. The list goes on. We can't gloss over the hot topic of the moment, tariffs, a concept the president refers to as "the most beautiful word." It remains difficult to understand how Peter Navarro, the president's point person on the subject, has become so dominant, and yet appears so ignorant about the consequences of blindly pursuing the developing policy. The global economic system that the U.S. has shaped and steered for more than 3/4 of a century was animated by a powerful guiding vision: that trade and finance would be based on cooperation and consent rather than coercion. By provoking a world-wide trade war, President Trump risks abandoning that vision of shared interests and replacing it with one that assumes that sharp economic conflicts are unavoidable. So yes! It's difficult to escape the conclusion that the inmates appear to be running the asylum. If we are to believe the results of the president's most recent physical, he is in great shape for his age. And there is nobody like Donald Trump to communicate this, and to brag about his cognitive abilities. According to him he passed that test with flying colors by repeating the phrase: "Person, woman, man, camera and T.V." Based on the administration's record thus far, we should brace ourselves for significant uncertainty going forward. Theo Wierdsma

CHANGING THE SUBJECT

It is hardly an overstatement to suggest these days that many of us are suffering from information overload. Much of that abundance focuses substantially on aspects of our current political climate, repetitively transmitted by a plethora of social media. It emerges from news media, contentious opinions expressed throughout quarrelsome discussions at family gatherings, or even introduced while engaged in unplanned casual interactions. When you hear the same topic discussed over and over again, messages lose their impact. Our brain begins to filter them out, they become background noise, and the process can lead to cognitive fatigue. Even if repackaged, our brains get tired of hearing the same information coming from multiple sources, to the point that we can no longer think of anything else to talk about. While much remains to be analyzed, dissected, discussed, and alert an audience about, intellectually little appears to remain to captivate the curious mind. I dislike the sensation of stagnation. Consequently, I felt compelled to take a temporary break from the heavy stuff, and reengage with a project I began some time ago. I recognized that there is a lot surrounding us that we should be curious about. The point is that we should reject the inclination to focus all of our sensory energy on the same subset of variables, but that we ought to instead expand our horizon. There are multiple ideas about how to do this. The one I prefer is very straightforward. Develop a list of every question that pops up in your mind, no matter how mundane, and set time aside to research the response to each entry. Many of us regularly wonder about things we are legitimately curious about, but we never satisfy our interest, even though we have a multitude of social media platforms designed exactly for that purpose available to us. This is sad, because being curious is an incredible fuel that keeps life interesting. Years ago I challenged myself to come up with a set number of questions within a limited period of time. It was amazing what we come up with when we focus. Both questions and answers will expand our knowledge. Not only that, the questions themselves could function as conversation starters and expand the variety of topics we might discuss. I am going to reproduce my initial list. Everyone could have fun developing his or her own lineup. The object is to take a break from the dominant discussion topic of the moment, diversify our mental activity and interrupt the monotony of what is thrown at us every waking hour of our day. This was my initial list: - What were the five French republics? - Isn't "Coque-au-vin" really "Poulet-au-vin"? - What are the colors of the rainbow? - Who was Saul Alinsky? - What are the names of the seven dwarfs? - Why do people in some countries drive on different sides of the road? - What is existentialism? - What is the speed of light? - What companies make up the Dow Jones? - What are the highest peaks on all continents? - What American presidents died in office? - Is there a major religion with a dominant female deity? - What is the origin of Valentine's Day? - What does the "stan" in Kazakhstan stand for? - How do we rank on the "poverty index?" - What do the letters "USA" seen on surface areas along the road stands for? - Where is Timbuktu? - Who was the Queen of Sheba? - Ho do you play Cricket? - What is the difference between white and brown eggs? - Why were Communists referred to as "pinkos?" - How long is a generation? - Why do psychics need directions to their conventions? - What is a calorie? - What is vitamin "D" good for? - What is the consistency of Wasabi? - What is a watershed? - Would blood transfusions or donations affect lowering cholesterol levels? - What ingestibles can serve as mosquito repellents? - How come that the majority of spelling bee winners appear to be ESL (English as a Second Language) graduates, or immigrants? - Could we describe the NRA as a terrorist organization? - What is discretionary energy? - What types of unemployment can we identify? - How do you prevent Alzheimer's? - How fast is a "knot"? - What makes Windex clean? - How come my window cleaner in my car never runs out of fluid, even though I never refill it? - Who modeled for Michael Angelo's "David?" - What is a stem cell? - How does a flash flood develop? - What is the calculation of "pie"? - What ethnicity was Buddha? - What is a "Bayou"? - How many stripes are there on the U.S. flag? - What is the national animal of Australia? - Why do we dream? - How does electricity work? - Why can't I remember movies that I've watched? - Who would you choose if you could be friends with a fictional character? Have some fun with this. Theo Wierdsma

SILENCE COULD BE DEADLY

Although identifying parallels between the Trump administration's approach to the power of government and Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany may have been overdone, however, some elements of their respective strategies are unequivocally and appropriately comparable. During his campaign, President Trump made a point of promising some radical policies. Mass deportations of undocumented aliens, abolition of D.E.I. (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs, and simplifying gender identification were just a few. Within weeks of taking office, the Trump administration deployed 5,000 active troops and national guard members to the Southern border. Thus far, I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel carried out between 20,000 and 23,000 arrests. Its goal is to deport one million undocumented immigrants during the administration's first year. Locating, processing and deporting such a sizable target population has proven to be challenging. To handle this many migrants the administration is developing a deportation hub at Ford Bliss near El Paso, Texas, which could house up to 10,000 inmates as they go through the process. This facility is supposed to serve as a model for more internment camps on military sites across the country. For the time being, a 30,000 internee facility at Guantanamo Bay was scrapped because of the cost. Meanwhile, Republicans across the country are looking to implement a hardline immigration agenda that aligns with President Trump's vision of tougher measures in support of his core immigration policies. Much of this support focuses on helping I.C.E. identify suspected deportation candidates. Similar to a system Nazi Germany developed, which paid bounty hunters to inform on Jews hidden from the Gestapo, unscrupulous citizens are now ready to embrace the opportunity to earn some extra income. Missouri State Senator David Gregory recently introduced a Senate Bill which establishes an anonymous tip line allowing individuals to report suspected illegal immigrants. If their information leads to an arrest, the informer could receive a $1,000 reward. Mississippi is considering a similar compensation structure. Not to be outdone, Texas Governor Greg Abbott would also not rule out using bounty hunters to apprehend illegal migrants in his state. This strategy of incentivizing the search and seizure of suspected illegal immigrants without rhyme or reason promises to spread a growing apprehension among non white citizens, legitimate or not. The promise of potential rewards might become too strong for unscrupulous bounty hunters to care about evidence. Among other core elements of the administration's objectives are expeditiously implementing the abolishment of anything resembling D.E.I. (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion); delegitimizing transgender individuals struggling with gender identity issues, and reclassifying thousands of career civil service employees into a category that would eliminate their civil service protection. D.E.I. everything has been an overwhelming target from the beginning. On his first day in office, the president signed an order directing federal agencies to terminate all "equity related" contracts, grants or programs. He required federal contractors to verify that they don't promote D.E.I. Efforts to increase diversity have long been under attack by Republicans who contend the measures threaten merit-based hiring, promotion and economic opportunity for white people. The administration is eliminating the concept from the federal lexicon to an extreme degree. References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the "Enola Gay" aircraft which dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, and photographs of the first women to pass marine infantry training are among the more than 26,000 images marked for deletion as the defense department works to purge D.E.I. content and change history. One official reported that the purge could remove as many as 100,000 images and posts all together. Noticeably, all targeted historic content portray non-white, male, heterosexual representations. (To highlight the idiocy of this project: the "Enola Gay" bomber was named after Enola Gay Tibbits, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbits.) The entire project displays the administration's racist inclinations. Mr. Trump's loyalists like to suggest that they are replacing D.E.I. with meritocracy. The underlying assumption appears to be that minorities and women are less competent. Transgender people are being erased as well. Donald Trump, playing God, ordained that hence forward we will recognize only two genders: male and female. Consequently, the Defense Department announced that the estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals in our military will be removed. This scary scenario appears to be expanding unchallenged at an accelerated pace. While Trump sets the policy, many of his executioners exhibit their ignorance. Loyalty to the extreme leader appears to remain the only attribute required for survival at the pinnacle of our national government. Our tendency to not question these developments amount to legitimize what should be roundly rejected. What comes to mind is a powerful poem created at the end of World War II by the German Lutheran theologian Martin Niemoler: - First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist; - Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist; - Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew; - Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me. Niemoler initially supported the Nazi movement. He ultimately became a staunch opponent of the regime, and spent years in a concentration camp. His poem is about the silent complicity of German intellectuals and clergy following the Nazi's rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets. His words are a reference to the Holocaust. They are also, however, a warning about the ease with which such an event could occur again if we of the present allow ourselves to become ignorant of the lessons of the past. Theo Wierdsma

TRADITIONAL INTERNATIONAL ALIGNMENTS ARE SHIFTING

The initial response to the disastrous Oval Office encounter between Hungarian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump and his vice president was that the resulting confrontation became a horrendously shameful moment for our country. The sentiment expressed by many was that the objective of the U.S. team was to ambush the Ukranian leader to be lectured to and humiliated on the world stage, either on behalf of or for the benefit of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The massive reaction by a vast majority of world leaders and pundits should have been anticipated, but may have been unexpected. Washington Post Journalist Jonathan Capehart saw the staged event as "a travesty, horrendous, despicable." Republican columnist David Brooks reported that he was "nauseated, just nauseated." Republican Nebraska congressman Don Bacon suggested that what transpired was "a bad day for America's foreign policy. Trump might stand with Putin and his brutal invasion, but real Americans stand with Ukraine and its brave leader and valiant people" Prime minsters and presidents from all over, including the E.U., Great Britain, Canada and Australia, posted on social media in support of Zelensky and Ukraine. French President Emanuel Macron made clear that "There is an aggressor: Russia. There is a people under attack: Ukraine." Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed support for Ukraine as well. He posted: "This is the struggle of a democratic nation versus an authoritarian regime led by Vladimir Putin who clearly has imperialistic designs, not just on Ukraine, but throughout that region." Polish Cold War hero Lech Walesa, leader of the "Solidarity" movement during the 1980s, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and Polish president from 1990-1995, who fought USSR power, in a well planned, detailed response, voiced his horror at Trump's scolding of Zelensky. His open letter to Donald Trump, which was co-signed by 39 former Polish political prisoners, is well worth reading in its entirety. Some excerpts: "We watched the report of your conversation with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste." "Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukranian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world." "We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this." "The atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation --- reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the security services and the debates in Communist courts." On the Sunday following the shouting match in the Oval Office, leaders from the E.U., Great Britain and Canada met in an emergency meeting in London. Absent were the U.S. and Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban, a long-time Putin ally and Trump supporter, who was not invited. This meeting was followed by an emergency session of the E.U. in Brussels on March 6, during which all but one of the attendees (Orban) voted to provide Ukraine with an additional $30 billion in support for military equipment, and a plan for $800 billion in a rearmament fund for Europe to defend Ukraine and itself. In the mean time, Donald Trump showed his colors by placing further U.S. military aid for Ukraine on hold, and cancelling intelligence sharing with Zelensky's military forces. In addition, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions. The Trump administration made clear that it no longer sees Russia as a cyber security threat. Shortly before these manipulations were executed, the U.N. passed a resolution calling for de-escalation, an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It included a demand for Russia's "complete and unconditional withdrawal" from Ukraine territory. Contrary to historical precedent, the U.S. voted against the resolution, joined by 17 others, including Russia, Israel, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Hungary and Iran. Every one of these, except for Israel, has an authoritarian system of government. Trump's maneuverings have raised concerns, not just in Europe, but also in the capitals of allies around the world. For about 80 years U.S. foreign policy has been based on a network of alliances and institutions that allowed the country "to project power, to create zones of prosperity, to enjoy trade with like-minded partners." This extended mainly to Europe. Trump is effectively signifying that he is no longer interested in hearing from European allies, and that he is aligning with a power that is a daily threat to Europe. He is also considering a major change to U.S. participation in NATO, especially relative to U.S. adherence to Article 5 of the alliance, which stipulates that an attack on any member is considered to be an attack on all and will prompt a total NATO response. Trump has pointedly stated that he would only send U.S. military to defend NATO allies that contribute what he deems to be a fair share of their national GDPs to their defense budgets. He has actually encouraged Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to any NATO country that does not pay enough. European leaders are scrambling about how to respond to these attacks on an alliance that has successfully endured for this long. They need to consider what they can do to help Ukraine stave off continued military attacks by Russia and political attacks by Trump. Giorgia Meloni, Italy's prime minister, leader of the, fascist leaning, "Brothers of Italy," and a Trump supporter, is pushing for a summit meeting to help clarify positions and develop options. The continent is reorganizing, but hoping that eventually America will come back. A lot can happen during the next four years. Theo Wierdsma

CONFRONTING FASCISM

It did not take long. Soon after the new Trump administration moved in and began its implementation of significant components of the "Project 2025" blueprint, the accusations of "Fascist" and "Fascism" surfaced everywhere. Governmental institutions that had survived for generations suddenly ended up on the endangered species list. Civil servants, whose lifetime employment had been considered permanent, were suddenly asked to resign or face termination. Many faced replacement by functionaries whose dominant "expertise" included their willingness to pledge loyalty to the new president. With a stroke of the pen, all references to D.E.I. (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) were erased. Related programs and their administrators were eliminated. Everything considered negative, including the January 29 mid-air collision over the Potomac, were blamed on its programs. Thousands of immigrants, mostly undocumented, even some legally in the country, now feared internment and deportation. Members of the administration's authoritarian core began haphazardly deciding who belonged to the in-group and whose careers should be eliminated. And the administration's apparent master plan continued to unfold day after day. Fascism is essentially an ideological catch-all term which refers to a broad set of aspirations and influences that emerged during the early 20th century. It became identified by the European dictators Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco. The movement included elements of nationalism, enforcement of social hierarchy, hatred toward social minority groups, opposition to liberalism, a cult of personality, racism and the love of militaristic symbols. An ABC News poll, conducted in October 2024, found that 49% of American registered voters considered President Trump to be a Fascist. This could simply be a gut-level response. However, multiple academics have contributed to the attempt to fit President Trump into their definition of the ideology. Yale historian Timothy Snyder, whose fairly recent manuscript "On Tyranny" received significant traction, in his article: "What does it mean that Donald Trump is a Fascist?" (The New Yorker, Nov. 8, 2024), defined the concept as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights, and threatens to use force against political opponents." Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale, in his book: "How Fascism Works - the politics of us and them," elaborates on this definition. He talks about the "cult of a leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists, minorities and immigrants who are presumably a threat to the character and the history of a nation." The leader proposes that only he can solve it, and he considers all of his political opponents enemies or traitors. As the expression goes: "If the shoe fits..." Historian Ian Kershaw wrote that "trying to define "Fascism" is like trying to nail jelly to the wall." However, the allegations of Fascism don't just emerge from the president's political opponents. Trump's former Chief of Staff, retired Marine General John Kelly maintains that Trump "fits the definition of Fascist." Former United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, after the president suggested that Milley "should just shoot the protestors. Just shoot them in the legs or something," called Trump "Fascist to the core." Political Scientist Robert Paxton, who specializes in the study of Fascism, previously denied that Trump should be labeled a Fascist. However, he changed his views after the January 6 attack. Paxton saw the attack on the Capitol as similar to Mussolini's 1922 march on Rome. Just as Mussolini pardoned the black-shirts who helped him ascend to power, Trump pardoned his supporters convicted of taking part in the attempted insurrection. Princeton philosopher Jan Werner Muller is still not convinced that "Trumpism" is a species of Fascism. He prefers to call it far-right populism. However, he concedes that " it would be foolish to start reflecting on Fascism only when it is fully fledged." Regrettably, aside from some of the attributes identified in the opening paragraph, the list of qualifications is rapidly expanding: - The Department of Education is scheduled to be eliminated; - The Federal government has been instructed to insure that the K-12 education curriculum across the country is converted from "radical indoctrination" to "patriotic education."; - The administration has withdrawn from the USAID - the Agency for International Development. The 10,000 staff of experts has been reduced to a skeleton contingent of 300. - Mr. Trump plans to terminate multiple individuals from the Board of the Kennedy Center and install himself as its chair, with the intent to change its vision to that of a "golden age of arts and culture. - The president made a point of his intention to use the Insurrection Act of 1807, and deploy the military in Democratic cities and states against perceived opponents. (Between 2022 and October 2024 he has made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents.). - He made a point of supporting the activities of Elon Musk, his unelected "special government employee" who managed to exhibit his Fascist inclinations by twice enthusiastically offering a stiff-armed Nazi salute during the inauguration ceremonies, and by telling a crowd of 4,500 Neo-Nazi "Alternative For Germany" attendees of Germany's second largest political party - during Holocaust Remembrance Day, and during the 80 year anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to not be ashamed of what happened during the execution of the Nazi's "final solution" during World War 2. So, is President Trump really a Fascist? Probably! But the more important question is whether the electorate cares, and whether enlightened patriots will continue to let him get away with it. Theo Wierdsma