Tyrannical governments such as fascist Italy, Spain and Germany during the period of 1934-1945 used propaganda and suppression of the press to maximize their control and quash dissidence within their violent regimes. Recent historical examples of disinformation efforts are found in the propaganda of Russia under Putin, or the closed society of North Korea under Kim Jong Un. The goal of this practice is censorship and the subjugation of the people. 

Former President George W. Bush at the Spirit of Liberty Forum in 2017 said, “No democracy pretends to be a tyranny. Most tyrannies pretend to be democracies.” I doubt President Bush could have guessed how prescient his words would be or that they could ever be applied to our own democracy. The new U.S. government has removed its thin mask of pretense and has emerged with the face of a new fascist state. 

In addition to his other areas of destruction, Trump has signed an executive order to defund the Institute for Museum and Library Services while his acolyte Congresswoman Margery Taylor Greene was recorded on C-SPAN making  a verbal assault against National Public Radio and PBS with false claims of indecency under the guise of protecting the public interest and reducing government waste. The on-going attack on democratic institutions such as the free press, public information, and federal public library funding is no accident. This is censorship with the aim to control U.S. citizens’ perceptions of the facts while giving a puerile cover to a covert self-serving agenda. 

Mr. Musk’s hidden services in a dual relationship as both contract recipient and special government employee is a blatant example of the graft and abuse of power in this administration. The majority party of congress is complicit in their graft and nihilism. This is a tyranny pretending to be a democracy. 

We must lawfully exercise our rights under our constitution or surrender them. Let us join together and take a stand against the suppression of the press and the ignorance it promotes, not for blind nationalism or a flag but for our communities, the rule of law and a common humanity which is ours under a democracy worth saving. 

“I know not what treason is if sapping and betraying the liberties of a people be not treason.” — Cato the Younger