Politics – Susan Feathers

They are Stealing Our History

The first steps taken by the incumbent regime sought to selectively erase American history:

Fired the national Archivist putting the national archives under the watch of the Secretary of State who also holds several other major offices for which he has no training; the minions of fascism bore away in the Archives like termites in channels and holes under no sunlight of public observance;
Deleted web pages of government agencies, replacing articles and documents to reflect a racist, white history and removing all they call “woke” (i.e. racial justice; the mistakes America has made at home and abroad as we have learned how to live up to the high ideals of a true democracy where truth is key; the most egregious are the removal of civil rights struggles over our history, and the multicultural nature of our population from our inception: a. erasure. deletion of language of human rights and therefore human dignity; b. lying about the truth [misinformation] thus disabling citizens of a shared history, shared reality; c. denigration and shaming as a way of instilling fear and removal or disempowerment);
Harassment and legal actions against America’s most prestigious universities in order to make Boards of Governance to bend to their will;
Attacking science institutions and ignoring the illegality of impoundment of funds authorized by Congress.
Harming the public and worldwide population by denial of climate change; removal climate change research and monitoring facilities and staffing; withdrawing from global climate and health agreements and initiatives.
Disempowering political opponents and the public through legal, social media, and law enforcement activities meant to shame and induce fear;
Abandonment of the government’s responsibility to the public to follow the laws and regulations of a democratic Republic through our federal, state and local laws.
Acting against longstanding policies that have created peace among nations with longstanding allies across the world.

I never thought this could happen in the United States of America, but it truly is and we in the fight of our lives to defeat the evil doers in the trump regime that seek to install a Christian nationalist autocracy with unelected fascist ideologues like Steven Miller supported by the Heritage Foundation.

I fault the Republican party which no longer can claim any legitimacy in our Republic, our democracy. They abrogated their claim to moral fortitude by selling out the American people for an ideology inconsistent with democratic values. Indeed, looking over its long pursuit to enslave Americans whom they have long deemed unequal to white Christian males, we have tolerated it long enough. We must turnover this vile, dark element and once and for all declare and reiterate the moral force of our founders’ vision with a new one for modern times including a public awareness of its duty to guard against despots and their sycophants and the utter corruption of wealth in our politics.

Photo by Susan Feathers. A ghost crab on Santa Rosa Island, Gulf Islands National Seashore: sands of quartz crystal washed to sea form barrier islands.

Letter to Congressional Republicans

January 26, 2026

Letter to All Republicans

US Congress 2026

Dear Senators and Representatives of the Republican Party,

This moment requires members of the Republican House and Senate to act decisively to protect the civil rights of citizens and adhere to Constitutional laws. Under your watch, the nation has never been more at risk of becoming another form of government: autocracy.

We the People have patiently waited for you to stand up for democracy. There is no more recent and brazen example as the persecution of Minnesota leaders and citizens. Pam Bondi’s request for voter roles is a clear violation of state’s sovereignty under law. Other cities have endured violations of civil rights by ICE but in Minnesota the worst of the far right ideologues of your once great old party are persecuting people it labels with a host of unamerican labels from elected officials right up to the White House.

We are not dealing with a “strong executive” but with people in key positions of power who have publicly stated their hatred of immigrants and their hatred of Democrats. Whatever happened to a nation in which both Republican and Democratic administrations were adhered to by citizens of all political views because all our leaders followed the rule of law and Constitutional laws.

My view is that we learned who DJT was in his first administration in which he pushed against the laws of our nation but was held in place by our guardrails against a despot: Supreme Court and Legislature. Now we have a stacked court of right leaning judges who have given immunity to a leader who is exactly the kind of person our founders wrote about who if he got into power would destroy the Republic. That is what we are witnessing, and, I have to say, is doing so with a lot of facilitation by you and your colleagues.

I am 80 years old, and I have never seen anything like we have in Donald Trump: an erratic, unstable human being; a person ignorant of our country and the world al large; a man whose mental health is deteriorating in plain view. We have never been more at risk in national security.

The killing of two Minnesota citizens by ICE who were protesting (their civil right) and the cowardly way in which Homeland Security reacted by calling them both insurrectionists is how dictatorships operate. Each family has a right to a full investigation. Life is not cheap in America under normal conditions.

I am begging you and your colleagues to stand up for the Republic! Protect our 250 years of striving together to make the best country we can. My God, the world is turning away from us. But do you know what I hold each of you most responsible for? Breaking the trust of the American people in such ways that you have weakened and endangered us. STAND UP!! Think about your legacy.

Sincerely,

Susan Lee Feathers

Devoted Patriot of American Democracy

Teacher, Writer, Active Citizen

Freedom, Nation’s Capitol. Photo by Susan L Feathers, 2013

Church and State

I am old enough to witness and experience the deleterious impact of religious oppression on the lives of individuals, communities and a nation.

In 1961 my family moved back to east Tennessee after 16 years in the U.S. Air Force. We had lived in Texas, California, Hawai’i Michigan, New York, Kansas, Virginia, and Tennessee.

I was 16 when we returned to Johnson City, Tennessee near the Appalachian mountains and birthplace of my father and me. My paternal grandparents lived just outside of town in the small rural community of Watauga. Their hilltop home and farm were my personal touchstones in an otherwise migratory life.

At the base of the hill was a little white church at which Grandad was custodian and carpenter of pews, altar pieces and other furniture made in his shop in the old red barn.

I remember as a child a kind of freedom in worship. My parents, both raised in Christian faiths, explored many faiths as a practice, learning something from each to form what I learned was my responsibility: to form my own values based on my experience growing up in a democracy. To test them against the moral laws of the country as a guide and bulwark against tyranny.

These dear memories stand in contrast to what life in a small southern town was like for a teenager, for a woman. The church exerted a controlling influence espousing different freedoms for men than for women. From behavior to choice of avocation to personal freedom, there was a code for women much more circumscribed than for men. I never went to church without gloves, hose, garter, and garter belt, without behavior in deference to men. This is the white male hegemony that current MAGA leaders seek to reestablish. Repression of women, Black individuals, and immigrants is concurrent with building back an imagined past.

While the Bible teaches tolerance, the South practiced racism, while women are revered by Jesus, Southern men used vulgarities when referring to women’s bodies while requiring them to be virgins at the same time. It was common for young women to be touched inappropriately by relatives or strange men. A girl thus treated could not speak out about it without being tagged a slut.

Our early founders dealt with much greater religious domination. Having personally witnessed and experienced religious oppression by a state religion, our founders and early Americans of the Revolutionary times, wisely chose to keep religious preference in the personal realm. At the founding, there was a diversity of religious beliefs and diversity of people from Native Americans to far eastern, European, African and Islander living together in the British colonies. Diversity is the seedbed of our Creed: E pluribus unam, from many, one.

In 2025, a Christian nationalist cabal has seized control of the American government, a democracy founded on laws. This Christmas, it chose to impose Christian religious symbols and religious language on a nation founded on religious freedom and separation of church and state.

I abhor and reject this regime’s imposition of a particular faith on all, declaring it a state religion. IT IS NOT. Christianity is a personal religious choice. but not exclusive of any other religious tradition including the right not to embrace a religious faith.

Make no mistake. Trump et al intend to destroy the United States of America and install a king and minions in the name of Christ. Just as we helped Europe rid itself of a demagogue, we must ourselves rid the country of Maga ideology and ideologues before they take what is ours.

We are a nation of many faiths including Christianity. About 60% of Americans embrace Christianity. But it is not, nor was it ever a state religion. Nor are we a white nation. We are a nation of many peoples and beliefs and that is the great strength of our democracy and the hope of the world.

Any Grown-ups in the Room?

The hourly dismantling of the American Republic demands that grown-ups stand and exert their authority as citizens. Afterall, this is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Since 2015, Donald J. Trump has intended to rid us of the rule of law. His principal tool has been obfuscation of fact, otherwise known as lies. The Heritage Foundation, which brought billions of dollars to elect Trump and crafted Project 2025, engaged Russell Vought as its principal writer. Later installed by Trump as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Vought is orchestrating the takeover and destruction of democracy at an unrelenting pace.

Because Trump doesn’t read or investigate, he is a stooge for powerful ideologues. A barrage of Executive Orders signed in the first quarter of his term were lifted directly from Project 2025. This plan cloaks itself in the language of patriotism and democratic values, while the intent is its opposite: the wholesale destruction of the guardrails in the Constitution to check executive power. Now that Trump et al have functionally dismantled or made ineffective federal agencies and branches of government, the intent is clear: empower the Executive to Install a new form of governance: authoritarian. All of it is unconstitutional. A raft of lawsuits in pursuit of these thieves has made some progress in holding back full scale implementation. However, a Supreme Court dominated by Trump nominees, is preventing just outcomes that are within the scope of a true Republic as shown in our history.

Onerous still is the outright rewriting of our history. This is accomplished on a large scale while the American public watches in shock. So preposterous in scope, the dismantling of historic buildings, art and information in our museums, National Archives, federal buildings, and even the architecture of the White House, has temporarily stunned Americans. Some make jokes about it, but Trump is dead serious. I imagine closets filled with cans of white paint and gold leaf off the Oval Office and a meandering president doing touch ups late at night. Its about image with Trump. But the people who made him president intend to take what is ours.

The most recent outrage is the announcement that there will be no national holiday commemorating the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. who advanced civil rights through faith and leadership, and built a powerful nonviolent movement that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Instead, we will celebrate the birthday of Donald the Trump.

One of the most tragic periods in recollection, history will not forget the mean intent and childish actions of a mentally dysfunctional leader installed by a party and minority electorate intent on imposing their warped, racist ideology on all the rest of us. We must resist! Citizens and courts are the last bastions of the Republic. Recall the warning of John Adams when asked the outcome of the Constitutional Congress. “You have a Republic, if you can keep it.”

To me this is the strongest statement of our shared responsibility to be ever vigilant and willing to defend the government that emerged from our founders best ideas. Now, as the jaws of injustice aim to rip asunder both the physical and ideological bulwarks of Freedom and Justice, we must stand up as adults and resist these forces that fool an unwary citizenry through lies and the theft of democratic language to mean its opposite.

Wherever each of us resides, we must be willing to speak truth to power, to correct lies and misleading language. Pick your battles, friends, for such is the multi-pronged attack on American laws, customs and values that there is plenty of room for everyone to choose their cause.

Make no mistake. These are dangerous people running our Republic. Free and fair elections are their next target. If we lose that battle, I fear it will harken the end of our democratic society.

Tolerate no fools. We must be the adults in the room. We must restore our liberties and place our trust in each other to do so justly.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anntelnaes/p/trump-dusting-off-the-old-playbook?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Update: Today’s Substack post from Heather Cox Richardson pay tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife by quoting from the film by Reiner, The American President.

In this clip, the American President speaks to an opponent about character and the requirement of the Office of President which depends of good character. In our current situation, this should be said to the current occupant of the White House Office of the President whose name I shall not utter for he has violated every aspect of character Americans have come to value in their President.

A formula for national chaos…

At the White House 2 + 2 = 0. ~ Anonymous

Republicans justifying cuts to programs through the One Big Beautiful Bill (Rescissions Act of 2025) assert that the States and private sector will make up for cuts to federal funding in the Congressional budget.

Alice Ruhnke, President of GrantStation, lists the ways the bill is disabling the Nonprofit Sector which provides a big swath of the Social Safety Net in America.

Read her work here. Interesting to see the progression month by month. Pay attention to proposed changes to the Johnson Amendment (1954). If passed, it would drag churches and charitable organizations into the maelstrom of partisanship politics.

Standing Up: Be a Citizen

For the first American citizens of a new democracy, people who had been “subjects of a monarchy” had to learn how to be a citizen. What did that mean? Require? In early American homes, taverns and gatherings, this was the topic. All agreed it meant something important. Something was required. Acting in another way meant being involved, and contributing to maintain the rights the democracy asserts belong to all of us. It is active, not reactionary.

A recent conversation between Heather Cox Richardson, American historian and author of Letters from An American Substack publication, and Joanne Freeman, Yale Professor of early American history, discussed the behavior of our current legislators. Richardson posed that their current behavior, with exceptions, overall is not about principles of democracy but rather about keeping their seat and about a consumer economy.

Listen here to their 20 minute discussion.

Questions: 1. Have we forgotten how to be a citizen and what is required? 2. Have our representatives forgotten what their role is in representing us and defending a democracy?

Richardson points out that around the 1980s our discourse and our representatives no longer shared a common understanding of what a democracy is and does. The original consensus shared by the majority of Americans regardless of party?

Richardson continues to conjecture that being a good citizen has changed from defending principles to defending political parties and a form of economic policy, to the point that the majority of us, including leaders, have lost sight of our responsibility as citizens.

Joanne Freeman believes we assumed that as we are going about our lives that the democracy would just hum along without our oversight, without our participation. Making money, following economic indicators, obtaining power through how much money you make have taken over our sense of the country to which we belong.

Richardson and Freeman both believe that we must regain self-empowerment in order to empower a government to protect and nourish the democracy.

Self-empowerment (self-actualization) leads to democracy empowerment when we come together to act for decency, right and wrong and stand together against oligarchy.

Self-actualization comes from values of behavior and action in a democratic society, self-improvement (hard work, education, and engagement with fellow citizens) to keep the conditions of freedom healthy and alive through collective action: stand up for principles whenever they are challenged.

What do you think?

Militarization Against Freedom Loving Americans

The Constitution of the United States of America was written and approved by a body of men representing people whose life experience had been lived in the shadow of monarchies and despots of Europe who had ruled for millennia.

These men created a form of government, a republic, that is democratic and representational. It’s organizing principle is the “separation of powers.”

The separation of powers distributes legal authority among three core function of governance: 1) legislative; 3) executive; 4) judicial. This is the backbone of our form of democracy that specifically addresses the experience and fear of our Founders that the executive could become vested with too much power.

In June of 2025 the American government has rested power from the legislature and challenges the Supreme Court for ever greater executive power under Donald J. Trump. He openly defies the laws set forth in the Constitution.

The MAGA movement, MAGA Republicans (a right-wing Christian Nationalism movement) masquerading as the Grand Old Republican Party, bows to Trump and follows his every wish. These then are enemies of democracy in power in Washington and across Republican states.

Since taking office in January of 2025, and through hundreds of Executive Orders, Trump and his administration are openly defying the Constitution. The American public, including many people who voted for this president, are waking up to the daily assaults on our freedoms and exercise of justice under the law. Our rights as citizens are being eroded by this steady chipping away at the principles of justice and fairness that have been the bulwark of our constitutional form of governance.

On top of this is a president who does not know history, law, or the long held democratic norms of behavior established through 250 years of democratic governance and public life. Democratic values are under assault under his autocratic behavior and intent.

So tomorrow on Flag Day, a celebration of the establishment of the U.S. Army and the hallowed flag of America, a massive military parade with tanks and guns will fill the streets of our capitol with the self- appointed king in tow.

Join millions of freedom loving Americans turning out across our nation to celebrate No Kings Day – a peaceful demonstration by Americans who love democracy and will stand strong to prevent its demise at the hands of a would-be emperor. Maybe then you’ll notice, his intent is naked before us.

Hans Christian Anderson Parable: https://medium.com/@mattimore/parable-the-emperor-has-no-clothes-ace63fef6eb8

Learn more about “The Emperor’s New Clothes” original parable published in “The Little Mermaid” in 1837. It was a tale about a vain emperor exposed by his subjects.

Certain About Democracy

“In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals. It cannot be better than they are.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

I love this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt for its wisdom and emphasis that our government, our democracy, is no better and no worse than each of us.

My parents, born during the Depression, taught their daughters that being in a democracy requires us to do our part in exercising the rights of citizens. They were always engaged in voting, reading history and political analysis. Wherever we lived (we moved frequently as a military family), my parents joined a church community, showed up at PTA and school functions, and loved engaging with neighbors. Of course there was a web of relationships because TV was just three major channels, and Americans on the whole shared similar beliefs about democracy no matter their declared political party.

True Story: My great grandfather on my Dad’s side of the family tree was Andrew Jackson Feathers. He was a small farmer in East Tennessee and, according to Dad, a real raconteur of his village (Watauga). My Dad as a young boy accompanied Andy Jackson on his horse drawn wagon filled with fresh produce from his farm. They would stop at small markets in the hollers and hills in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. At each stop, there would be an ongoing discussion among locals about politics, economics and news of the day. Dad was an active listener and adopted the habit of engagement in his time and government.

Gatherings were common in my family. We entertained ourselves with lively discussions.

We need to think clearly about the elements of our current social structure on the family to federal levels. What was working in a time when we shared the basic beliefs about democratic governance sans party considerations?

It’s easy to grow sentimental about the “good old days” which of course were not good for many Americans. But, I think there was something very wholesome about America when we actually all agreed that democracy was a precious thing worthy of protection and the exercise of its basic principles.

National Constitution Center is a great source of civic education!

The Greatest Steal: American Liberty

“Sell not liberty to purchase power.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Freedom loving Americans feel the crumbling foundation of what generations of Americans strove to create and preserve: a republic founded on principles of freedom and fairness. A governance structure that protects the rights of everyone and works for the betterment of its people and people everywhere.

We are not a naive people yet even the most politically active citizen and public servant is in a state of shock as we watch the brazen violation of our laws to achieve another kind of society with autocratic governance. A nation not conceived in liberty but rather for control of the individual by the powerful.

There are no words to describe how I feel at this moment. It is like watching someone you love being drawn and quartered. Our collective screams and sobs are everywhere now as the full impact of destruction becomes apparent.

To listen to Donald Trump rant and rave, burble and goo, to witness his making a travesty of our seats of government, throw off and denigrate our allies and alliances bought with the blood of Americans, is simply a horror.

Behind him are the men and women doing the hacking and imprisoning: Steven Miller, Kristy Noem, Pam Bondi, and the king of it all, Russell Vought. Like automatons with weapons they bow and scrape in front of the menace while checking off their list of targets. Vought is the man behind the Project 2025, their Playbook of Terribles. Developed with the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 intends to create what it believes was the true America. But it has been corrupted with Christian Nationalism and white male supremacy and turns its blade to people it perceives as enemies and to the “other”.

There is only this now: rise and go forth and join the growing throngs of Americans willing to lay down their lives and livelihoods for Liberty. Rise and never rest until the whole lot of the MAGAs are removed. Then we must rebuild all that has been destroyed and with greater energy and purpose.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We know that now.

Pronouncements are not laws. Still …

Trump’s gusher of executive decrees cannot conceal that he has been spectacularly inept in effectuating many of his objectives, nor can they mask Congress’s fecklessness. It has passed only 5 bills this year, several of which merely express disapproval of regulations.

We have a do-nothing Congress, a president claiming bizarre, unlimited powers to pursue revenge, but—thank goodness—judges across the country who appear determined to protect our constitutional system from Trump’s predations. If it rediscovers its constitutional responsibilities, Congress might tip the balance in favor of the rule of law. ~ The Contrarian, May 5, 2025

At the same time, this fact should not relieve us of the citizen imperative that is before everyone of us. In my own city and region, DEI policies in public schools are on the block with many school boards already voting to end this policy; citizens are losing jobs and food security is rising as USDA and USAID have weakened food programs such as SNAP and farmers’ markets that they depend on to stay in business. Veterans have lost jobs and services; healthcare is being withdrawn or removed altogether.

Disinformation abounds. Public education and higher education are threatened with loss of funding if they do not comply with executive orders coming down in a steady stream, day to day. A chill has fallen over press staffs in our local media for fear of retribution or loss of income. It is all illegal yet, overwhelmed and generally underfunded even in a democratic space, these key institution for a strong democracy are failing. Some are forming alliances to resist the threats from a rogue leader and administration, but we need more and better coordinated mass action.

The Weekend Show: Project 2025 Discussed with David Graham, Author of The Project.