Sunday, March 23, was the anniversary of some notable historic events.
On that same date in 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy. In 1933, the German Reichstag passed the “Enabling Act,” cementing Adolf Hitler’s authoritarian power. Back in 1775, Patrick Henry made his famous declaration to the Virginia Provincial Convention, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
These are grim reminders of the reckless endangerment of our democracy under the Trump administration.
The crisis reminds me of my childhood bedtime stories. My favorite was The Three Little Pigs. Widely popularized by the 1890 English Fairy Tales compilation by Joseph Jacobs, it became a true classic and staple that has charmed children for the past 135 years.
No one can forget the story. Mama Pig sends her three children into the world to seek their fortunes. With modest successes, all find themselves in a position to build their personal residences.
The first builds a home of straw, because the material is cheap and the construction is fast and easy. The second builds a home of sticks, because sticks are plentiful and labor is minimal. The third, an industrious and hard worker, builds his home of bricks and mortar, understanding that the superior materials will make the home more durable against the savages of nature and the incursion of thieves.
Sadly, the three little pigs hold a relevant and poignant lesson for today’s America, not because Americans are little pigs—though much of the world would be justified in calling us that—but because every one of us is in a situation of historic vulnerability.
While our “home” has stood proudly for a quarter-millennium, and through some difficult times, we should never be so naïve as to assume that it is an impenetrable bastion of freedom. With the seamless transfer of power in 2025 from Joe Biden to President Donald Trump, America has emerged into a new age, one in which there are no longer any reliable expectations and one in which our country must now prove that it was constructed of the right materials, by the best of craftsmen.
The Trump chaos will prove the quality of the country we built and call our home.
Americans are being confronted with the gnawing realization that there’s a “weakest link” in virtually everything created by the imperfection of mankind. And the Trump disaster is proving that there were important matters that had escaped the imaginations of the Founding Fathers.
In a very real sense, the Big Bad Wolf has arrived and he’s repeating, over and over, those ominous words: “Little Pig, little Pig, let me come in!” Americans all know the script and, even those who responsibly shave every morning (no offense, I like my facial hair too) repeat the rebuff: “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.”
Well, the wolf is not easily thwarted. And he persists in his mission of destruction: “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!”
The straw house falls and little pig number 1 runs to his brother’s stick home to escape the hungry wolf. There’s a repeat of the story. The stick home also comes crashing down, and the two pigs run to their brother’s brick home.
This proves to be their salvation. The wolf cannot penetrate the walls and threatens to come down the chimney. Brother number 3 has an idea—boil a large cauldron of water on the fire, and wait for the wolf to slide down.
Sure enough, the wolf slides down the chimney right into the pot and is boiled to a lovely medium-rare. The three pigs feast on the wolf.
When our Mama Pig—England—relinquished control of her colonies, Americans faced pressing decisions on how they would build their home. Plenty of wisdom and care went into the project, and the builders created a “house” that would be able to withstand some of the most powerful huffing and puffing.Today, that is being challenged by the most corrupt man to ever set foot in the White House.
Bent on tearing down the essential defenses in our country’s system of balancing power and checks on power, Trump is essentially threatening that he’ll huff and puff until our democracy falls. And, what would replace it? A thugocracy of absolute power, wherein a cowardly legislative branch could be threatened into submission and the courts—the brick and mortar of our nation—could become mere pawns of the most dangerous man in the world.
Sadly, the disrespect for America’s Constitution and accompanying Bill of Rights is not a Trump exclusive. The attack on the Twin Towers began a fear cycle that has allowed the federal government to withdraw some of our “inalienable freedoms.”
Trump is merely the monster to finish our democracy’s destruction. Americans are in the process of losing their free speech, freedom of assembly, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and the freedom to live without officially sanctioned racial, religious and sex-based discrimination.
No matter one’s present sentiments, Donald Trump was not the beginning of the destruction of Americans’ freedoms. The reality is that he is the “rear end”—in more ways than one—of a long line of presidents who have, either intentionally or inadvertently, eroded the inalienable rights enumerated and memorialized by our nation’s founding fathers.
The sad thing was that Americans made a trade, especially during the aftermath of 9-11, that they would tolerate a certain suspension of their traditional freedoms in the quest to feel safer from their outside enemies. Looking back, it was a terrible mistake.
Trump has a voracious appetite for little pigs. If we don’t relish the prospect of being eaten, we must fight his internal terrorism to preserve those freedoms we hold dear.
Tell your legislators to quit hiding and do their jobs. The end of this disaster will never come if we just hope for the best. Oink!
