A recent letter in these pages suggested that we, the patriotic opposition, shut up and give Trump a chance. We gave him, and a Republican Congress, a chance four years ago. All we got was a tax cut for the rich, $5 trillion added to our debt, fewer Americans employed than when he took office, one million dead Americans from a bungled response to a pandemic, and lots and lots of meaningless chaos. This time the results will be much worse; they already are.

The First Amendment gives us the right to speak out against this tyrannical government, at least for now. I am certain that this administration is working on ways to make those who wish to exercise their rights are still allowed to do so, but there will be consequences if you speak out against them. “I am your retribution.”

The letter suggested that common sense was back.

To accept a bribe for a $4 million airplane is not common sense, it is corruption.

To be played on the international stage for the fool and the tin-pot dictator is not common sense, it is embarrassing to our nation.

To demand a military parade on his birthday, from a person who dodged the draft when asked to serve his country, is not common sense but a cowardly act and degrading to every veteran who did answer the call.

To create a crypto coin that allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to offer our president unlimited bribes anonymously is not common sense, it is corruption.

To send the world’s financial and manufacturing systems into chaos by repeatedly announcing and removing tariffs on a whim, then lying about the imminent ‘deals’ being made is not common sense, it is incompetence.

To push for the extension of tax breaks for the rich that put us deeply in debt the first time and will add another $5 trillion in debt is not common sense, it is greed and stupidity. Trump and his friends are getting rich, you are not, suckers. The credit rating agencies are not fooled, they have downgraded American credit worthiness, not because of Biden, but because of Trump.

To use Gestapo-like tactics to grab people off the street and send them without due process to prisons overseas, then defy the Supreme Court’s orders is not common sense; it is fascism.

I could go on listing the very many and very real abuses made by this administration, but would be accused of fearmongering. You are right, I am afraid. US Senators have admitted they are afraid. We should all be very afraid of what this regime is planning.

This is not a drill. This is our 250-year-old democracy at stake and Republicans have failed us, badly. They have the power but not the courage. They are all taking the easy path, ignoring what Trump says and does, and hoping it all works out.

When it all comes crashing down, when our rights are ignored, our courts packed, our free press shuttered, when Elon Musk starts to use his database with intimate details, including the voting records of every American, to suppress dissent, we’ll know to blame the Republicans who abandoned common sense and American history by putting this tyrant back in office.

Tom Meara is a Jamestown resident.