Op-Ed: With Trump’s aggressive regression, the “F” word is here

Last week, I thought of then-Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) in the Capitol after the Jan. 6 2021 riots, bent over, sweeping up the debris. He was us. 

The Asian Americans who believe in America.

I hope you took a moment on Jan. 6 to recall and renounce the attempt of Trump supporters to steal our democracy—and all because of a president who would not accept he lost the 2020 election.

The exact number of lives claimed in the deadly riots varies. Estimates generally fall between four and eight, depending on how deaths are classified in relation to the riots and their aftermath. More than 1,500 rioters were charged, and the majority served jail time. But when Trump won a second term, the convicted felon pardoned them all, including those with violent offenses. At least 33 of the pardoned were rearrested for offenses that included child sexual abuse and burglary, according to a report by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

So much for second chances.

Trump is doing what he can with his second chance as president. After a year of chaos, from DOGE to inflation causing tariffs, to the global problems in Ukraine and Gaza, the president topped himself last week.

The surprise invasion of a sovereign country and arrest of that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, was what I called an act of “nouveau imperialism.”

But I was wrong. It was worse.

Trump did say he was ready to “run” Venezuela. I suppose being of Filipino descent, I was sensitive knowing the Philippines was America’s first colony in 1898.

My first reaction was to joke about it. Was he doing it because, as a former owner of Miss Universe, Trump was jealous that Venezuela has nearly twice the number of big-time beauty queens than the U.S.?

That made as much sense as anything else Trump and his minions are saying.

But with each day since the January 3 attack, Trump gloated about the military strike.

“They knew we were coming,” Trump told members of Congress this week, proud of his invincible force. And then Trump aide Stephen Miller went on TV to indicate this military action is just the beginning. Cuba next? Colombia? Greenland?

This isn’t just the talk of imperialism. This is global bullying. It’s the F word: fascism.

As a listener to my micro-talk show on YouTube said: “We did it because we could.” 

This is nuts, no less than a fascist declaration. 

The F word is here. We don’t like to say it in polite conversation. But we are in F-ville now.

And the U.S. is not the good guy. Not the moral leader.

We are going backwards. It’s Trump’s aggressive regression.

Civil rights? What happened pre-’65 was bad enough.

But how far back? Not all the way to the Civil War? No, post-Reconstruction, the 19th century. That feels right for the president.

A time when there are no women’s rights, abortion rights and foreign policy. 

Well, it’s all about being the imperial bully. Trump’s Donroe Doctrine, the bastardization of the Monroe Doctrine, which I’m sure Trump had no knowledge of and probably thought it was the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine.

He likes the women.

And what reins him in? 

“Yeah, there is one thing,” said Trump last week to the New York Times in a candid. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Let that sink in. He is saying he is not just above the law, but “above it all.”

King? He wants to be the god of his own theocracy.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

If it’s us vs. The Mind of Donald Trump, it should be very easy. But that makes it dangerous, because the sycophants adjust at will and empower him.

When the ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, Trump was so quick to show us that mind by declaring Good a “professional agitator” part of a “left-wing network” to “incite violence” against federal agents. 

He was making it all political, turning it into a national Rorschach test, the kind that he’s used to divide our country on everything since his rise in politics.

Good’s death demands a thorough investigation. But will the feds continue to say why bother if the oracle Trump has spoken?

He’s the power. It’s all about power now.

So how do we get the power?

First, read Renee Good’s award-winning poem. I’m the poet laureate of my small rural city. Through her poetry, you know this woman’s heart.

And then, consider the speech of Jumaane Williams, New York City’s Public Advocate, who was sworn in on New Year’s Day at the Mamdani inauguration.

What we need in America is a kind of people power. The Philippines had it in the people who protested Marcos.

What do we do in America? The ending of Williams’s speech was instructive.

“No one let go of anyone’s hands.” Williams said. “Because if we’re all connected, we can’t lose anyone. So we hold on to the hand of our neighbor, and we reach out with our other hand to grasp someone who may fall through the cracks, and we bring them along. I want everyone, if they’re comfortable, take a hand of the person next to you or the arm and just repeat after me: We can all be the voice of the people. I know what’s ahead, but I won’t lose hold, and I won’t lose hope. Anything can happen. So anything can happen. And as we march forward, no one let go of anyone’s hands. Peace.”

People cheered. It’s worth a shot.

Last week, were you cheering? 

Or were you trying to sweep up the broken pieces of our democracy like Andy Kim in 2021?

Emil Guillermo is a journalist, commentator and stage monologist. 

He has written a weekly column on multi-cultural, social and political issues since 1995.

See his show on Trump Derangement Syndrome, “69, Emil Amok: A Real Journalist Stands Up”

http://playgroundsf.vbotickets.com/event/solo_fest_69_emil_amok_a_real_journalist_stands_up/177513

Jan. 17, 7pm

Jan. 26, 8:30pm

Feb. 2, 8:30 pm

Feb. 7, 2:30 pm.

It’s part of San Francisco’s Solo Fest at the Potrero Stage on various dates in January and February.

Check the times here:
http://playgroundsf.vbotickets.com/event/solo_fest_69_emil_amok_a_real_journalist_stands_up/177513

 See him on YouTube@emilamok1