Fourth of July, 2025
I can't fathom the persistence of Trump. He's vampiric, ever sucking the blood out of our democratic project, and laying waste to his own followers who don't yet seem to have grasped that he is not for them. He won't lift a finger for them. He will spout words to make them believe and empty their pockets for the billionaire club, and give nothing in return.
Meanwhile, actions against targeted groups and communities proceed unrestrained as the Trump regime removes basic human rights protections, strips government agencies to near-nothing or packs them with cowering yes-men. The Republican-majority Congress and Supreme Court demonstrate repeatedly that they work for Trump. So much for the ‘three branches’, for ‘checks and balances’.
Most cruelly, human beings are demonized as ‘illegal’ regardless of their history, immigration status, contribution to the nation, or personal situation. ICE goon squads in masks and unmarked vehicles roam city streets. They disappear people, break up families, deny due process, and detain adults and children in concentration camps – for that is what these places truly are. Women are losing control over our bodies. Millions, including Trump followers, will soon be denied health care. Free speech is under growing threat, and universities are muzzled. The cuts to USAID are projected to result in millions of deaths worldwide. The planet is endangered. And on and on. And worse. It has been relentless.
Here is an old photo. Meet Edward Nately, the innocent Second World War flyer played beautifully by Art Garfunkel in the film adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22.1 A face and film from another era. Almost unrecognizable now. Yet his face comes to my mind this Fourth of July.
Like Nately, we Americans have always had an innocence. We struggle to believe that the American project can come to an end. But our innocence has lost its charm and now just looks ignorant and dangerous, to ourselves and the rest of the world too. Joseph Heller saw it long ago in this excerpt from Catch-22, the oft-cited exchange between the young innocent soldier and an old Italian man, set during the Second World War:
“America is not going to be destroyed!” Nately shouted passionately.
“Never?” prodded the old man softly.
“Well…” Nately faltered.
The old man laughed indulgently, holding in check a deeper, more explosive delight. His goading remained gentle. “Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed... All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever?”
Nately squirmed uncomfortably. “Well, forever is a long time, I guess.”
Believing in forever does not look to be such a great option now. Nor can we look to our leaders or Congress or the Supreme Court.
It will be up to us, in our words and acts of resistance, and at the ballot box.
Catch-22 was first published in 1961. Mike Nichols’s film was released in 1970.