To the editor:
A lot of people are shocked and bewildered by the chaos in Washington. Musk and Trump are acting like thoughtless vandals. Nobody voted in November to end medical research or undermine the VA. So what’s up?
This is the authoritarian playbook. An authoritarian doesn’t put qualified people in positions of responsibility. Those people have a reputation to lose—and with sterling resumes, they can find other good jobs. When the boss picks someone completely unqualified—or worse, someone in legal trouble—that person knows they are entirely beholden to him. They will do more than obey; they will compete to please him before he asks. Of course, this is also an underlying weakness of authoritarian regimes. Toadies and hacks don’t perform well in a crisis. This is why Trump and Musk have already crippled the first line of accountability: One of their very first moves was to fire 17 inspectors general of various agencies. The next step, with Musk waving a chainsaw and sending prove-you-deserve-this-job memos, is all about terrorizing people in the executive departments so that they will hesitate to oppose the abuses and report the failures. After this, Trump’s people will harass the providers of reliable information—media outlets that question and verify the official story—so you will never hear about those failures. In fact, they have already started doing this.
President Trump clearly wants to be King Donald, making our government his personal instrument and our country his personal fiefdom.
We have to push back. This is why the Berkshire Democratic Brigades, along with many allied groups from Berkshire County, is holding a “No Kings” rally featuring U.S. Sen. Ed Markey at the Colonial Theatre on March 9. (Lots of people must agree: The event sold out in three days.) By the way, until the Republican Party changes its name to “Monarchist,” its voters ought to feel free to join this effort. None of us voted to have a king!
Jim Mahon
Williamstown
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