No. of Recommendations: 13
Six years ago, on September 15, 2019, after about a six-week hiatus during the summer, I wrote a Facebook post that started:
“Many thanks to all of you who have reached out to see if I'm okay. I am, indeed (aside from having been on the losing end of an encounter with a yellow jacket this afternoon!). I've been moving, setting up house, and finishing the new book. Am back and ready to write, but now everything seems like such a dumpster fire it's very hard to know where to start. So how about a general overview of how things at the White House look to me, today...”
I wrote a review of Trump’s apparent mental decline amidst his faltering presidency, stonewalling of investigations of potential criminal activity by him or his associates, stacking of the courts, and attempting to use the power of the government to help his 2020 reelection.
Then I noted that the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), had written a letter to the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, on Friday, September 13, telling Maguire he knew that a whistleblower had filed a complaint with the inspector general of the intelligence community, who had deemed the complaint “credible” and "urgent.” This meant that the complaint was supposed to be sent on to the House Intelligence Committee. But, rather than sending it to the House as the law required, Maguire had withheld it. Schiff’s letter told Maguire that he’d better hand it over. Schiff speculated that Maguire was covering up evidence of crimes by the president or his closest advisors.
And I added: “None of this would fly in America if the Senate, controlled by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, were not aiding and abetting him.”
“This is the story of a dictator on the rise,” I wrote, “taking control of formerly independent branches of government, and using the power of his office to amass power.”
Readers swamped me with questions. So I wrote another post answering them and trying to explain the news, which began breaking at a breathtaking pace.
And so these Letters from an American were born.
Six years later, we are in the midst of Trump’s second term, and the patterns I saw six years ago are slicing to the heart of both the mechanics and the soul of the United States.
In that first letter where I warned of rising authoritarianism, I wrote: “So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…. Defend what is great about this nation: its people, and their willingness to innovate, work, and protect each other. Making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination. While we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us.”
And we have made noise, and we have taken up oxygen. All across the country, people have stepped up to defend our democracy from those who are open about their plans to destroy it and install a dictator. Democrats and Republicans as well as people previously unaligned, we have reiterated why democracy matters.
If you are tired from the last six years, you have earned the right to be.
And yet you are still here, reading, commenting, protesting, articulating a new future for the nation. And I am proud to be among you.
I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities: the idea that we all have the right to work to become whatever we wish. I believe that American democracy has the potential to be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives.
And so I write.
I have come to understand that I am simply the translator for the sentiments shared by millions of people who are finding each other and giving voice to the principles of democracy. Your steadfast interest, curiosity, critical thinking, and especially your kindness—to me and to one another—illustrate that we have not only the power, but also the passion, to reinvent our nation.
To those who read these letters, send tips, proofread, criticize, comment, argue, worry, cheer, award medals, and support me and one another: I thank you for bringing me along on this wild, unexpected, exhausting, and exhilarating journey.
—— Heather Cox Richardson, September 15, 2025
No. of Recommendations: 0
Nice sentiments - i appreciate she included Republicans and was open to any and all who wish to preserve democracy.
Thing is, before Trump....
Freedom of Speech. Who was crying about the. Fairness doctrine? Talk Radio? FOX? The Anti-Bill-of-Rights Liberals.
Toilet bowl size.
Washing Machine efficiency
BBQ grills.
Meat consumption.
School lunches.
Social Indoctrination in school.
It was Liberals want to meddle with freedoms.
I've yet to hear even *one* of them say "yeah, we do it too" or even "yeah, ok, we did it too but this shit is worse" - id' even support that one.
What she and the other attention seekers and Faux "democracy!" acolytes fail to realize is that *part* of the problem is - as someone said on TMF - IF people don't have some common appreciation of a national history. Of national civics. IF people don't understan how they got their liberties and theirt "democracy"! and what the responsibilities of that franchise are ---they are prone to letting it be taken. Or worse yet, they are living the American Dream of "i made my bills this month" and buried in their digital lives and mostly oblivious, other than what their cable network or podcast tells them every damn day.
It takes more than a small majority.
60%+ of us would have to come together and literally embrace each otehr on views we can't stand.
IN Richardson's letter....is there a promise for *cover* for Republicans who want to speak out -- but are scared of Trump?
If there is a war to protect democracy don't things get messy? In this case - proviging cover for cowardly politicians is one form of messy.
IOmagine, if a handful of GOP'ers had the votes and money coming in - they'd not have to worry about Trump's power.
You people would instantly freeze him out.
BUt, i know. This isn't the daily tit for tat you people are into.
Continue on with the "democracy"! writings. Get a COEXIST and We Support the Troops sticker too. Woo Hoo!
During the Bush years we were told - patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
Well.....
No. of Recommendations: 5
Yes, we all like Heather, and I can depend on it being posted id I haven't read it yet. I seek ou those things you won't seen. like this:
Deadly Memes: Tyler Robinson’s Far-Right ‘Groyper’ Ties
Despite initial reports and President Trump’s claim that the suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk was a ‘leftist’, two pieces of evidence point the other way
Byline Times Team
13 September 2025
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/09/13/deadly-memes-ty...and this: (This one is an archived study on right wing violent extremism that was taken down by the Trump Admin.)
Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism. Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives.[1] In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.[2] A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.[3]
https://web.archive.org/web/20250911012550/https:/... 