It strikes me, in these times when we are witnessing raw power being thrown around like dodge balls in a gym class, that it is exactly this kind of arrogance that was the motivation for democracy. The last tyrant to rule Athens was Hippias in 510 B.C. After his reign, democratic reforms were introduced. I believe that most people want lives that are free of compulsion and tyranny. They want lives composed of kind relationships with others, of possibilities for friendship and love, and of the ability to live with the freedom to do as they please, so long as others are not harmed. Most people don’t believe that might makes right, don’t think that others should be required to be like them, and don’t agree that difference is bad or even that other cultures are anti-American. No, I think most people seek to live lives that are good, try to make their families comfortable, and want to help their neighbors.
Elections have consequences, and so do ignorance or misapprehensions. We are enduring that lesson right now. It used to be that if a candidate who you didn’t like got elected, you could expect that the other party would inhibit their worst tendencies, or at the very least, the rule of law would stop them from driving the country into an unjustified war or into an economic depression. Constitutional safeguards would prevent an official from taking on too much power, or from doing something that was blatantly illegal. But the good old days are gone. Right now it feels like all the guard rails are down.
Worse, there are people in Washington who want to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country. They want to make their pro-life position the law of the land, to legislate (in opposition to biological fact) that there are only two sexes, to deny the rights of people who are not straight, and to drive our world more quickly into an ecological catastrophe by increasing the use of fossil fuels. All of these positions are opposed to earlier laws and policies.
Their policies are quickly making our world less safe by eliminating foreign aid and straining international relations, threatening to take control of land in Greenland, Panama, and now Israel, and imposing high tariffs on our most important trading partners.
Possibly the worst thing that they have done is to eviscerate USAID. This is the agency that oversees foreign aid. Samantha Power, who was the administrator of USAID, wrote: “Some investments save lives almost immediately — like the medicines dispensed to 500,000 children with H.I.V., or the nutrient-rich food manufactured in states like Rhode Island and Georgia that pulls starving children from the brink of death. Out of the $38 billion that U.S.A.I.D. spent in fiscal year 2023, nearly $20 billion was for health programs (such as those that combat malaria, tuberculosis, H.I.V./AIDS and infectious disease outbreaks) and humanitarian assistance to respond to emergencies and help stabilize war-torn regions.” (NYTimes, I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere. Samantha Power, Feb. 6, 2025) Now our President calls it a “fraud.” I expect that there will be terrible consequences from our withdrawal from this work.
We understand that our two party system has differing views on many topics, and we expect changes when we have a new group in power. What we don’t expect, and can’t tolerate, is the outrageous abuse of power demonstrated by appointing unelected individuals to take control of critical government institutions. It is Congress who is designated to control the budget, and Congress who allocates spending. Taking this power away from them by manipulating a computer payment system must be stopped. Unfortunately, due to the nature of computer security, it may already be too late. If I were trying to take over a payment process, the first thing I would do is to install a “back door” that would allow me back in should I have my access revoked.
Lawsuits have already been filed, impeachment has already been brought to the floor of the house, and protests have begun. Other countries are retaliating with tariffs of their own, and goods will continue to rise in price. Every new piece of news creates a frenzied response.
Hope
And in the midst of all this anxiety-making turmoil, I have hope. In times like these, I’m not sure where the hope comes from. It could be that I’ve experienced difficult times before, times when I wasn’t sure that anything could improve, and miraculously, they did. Or it could be that I’ve witnessed the intelligence and persistence of many people who solved some really hard problems, and made a difference for lots of people. Or maybe it’s just faith. The big thing about Christianity is that just when you think it’s over and you’ve lost — everything shifts, and you haven’t lost at all. It turns out that you had the keys to the treasure all along.
The composer Stephen Foster wrote a song called “Hard Times”. One verse says: “there’s a song that will linger forever in our ears / o hard times come again no more.” I echo those sentiments. Let’s not let this all happen again. The story goes that when Foster died, there was a piece of paper in his pocket with these words on it: “dear friends and gentle hearts.” Those are two of the things that will get us through this.
