To the Editor:
“No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines,” by Steven Levitsky, Lucan Approach and Daniel Ziblatt (Opinion visitor essay, Might 11), is alarming — or must be — to all Individuals.
Because the authors level out intimately, the U.S. is already in aggressive authoritarianism due to the Trump administration’s myriad actions. These actions towards regulation companies, universities, the media, political motion teams and others are fairly merely un-American.
Even a Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, admits to being frightened, given the administration’s want to retaliate towards those that disagree with it.
All Individuals who acknowledge this risk should converse up and take motion to protect the nation. I imagine that this period is extra harmful than those who preceded it, such because the Crimson Scare and the McCarthy eras, since this assault is being undertaken by the present president.
We can not keep silent. There’s an excessive amount of at stake.
Marc Chafetz
Washington
The author is a lawyer.
To the Editor:
The authors of this essay paint a darkish image of what’s taking place to our nation, they usually make a compelling case for all of us who oppose President Trump’s agenda to become involved in resistance.
However how to try this? I recommend {that a} Nationwide Resistance Fund be established, and that Individuals all through the nation be urged to contribute to it. A corporation with credibility for many Individuals ought to arrange a clearinghouse to simply accept donations and use the cash to mitigate a number of the injury that Mr. Trump is inflicting.
A rigorously chosen board of governors must be established to disburse the cash that’s raised. Some cash ought to go to teams (for instance, Harvard College and the regulation agency Perkins Coie) which can be refusing to buckle in response to Mr. Trump’s threats.
Additionally, cash must be allotted to people (reminiscent of federal workers who’ve been fired) who’re going through extreme monetary hardships due to their surprising terminations.
James P. Robinson
Seattle
To the Editor:
Steven Levitsky, Lucan Approach and Daniel Ziblatt state that “even Republican politicians are, as one former Trump administration official put it, ‘scared’ out of their minds ‘about dying threats.’” This raises critical questions.
Have legislators reported the threats to the Capitol Police or different regulation enforcement businesses? Have any of the individuals who made the threats been caught and prosecuted? Are these simply particular person extremists who worship Donald Trump, or is that this an organized marketing campaign to terrorize legislators into backing all the pieces the president does?
The police might not need to compromise their investigations by saying them publicly, however I want we may have some assurance that these individuals might be hunted down and delivered to justice — ideally in venues the place the president’s pardon energy doesn’t attain. If even a handful went to jail, we’d see far fewer threats.
Don’t let the thugs win.
Michael Laser
Montclair, N.J.
Disgrace on Attorneys
To the Editor:
Re “Some Elite Law Firms Decline to Take Up Immigration Cases” (entrance web page, Might 8):
For disgrace! There are extra vital issues than taking residence a big paycheck, a few of them being democracy, freedom, the rule of regulation and due course of. American attorneys ought to know that. They need to be courageous sufficient and keen to face up when they’re really challenged.
Sometime their kids or grandchildren might must danger jail, torture and even dying, as have so many world wide, to revive us to a free and democratic nation.
It is just greed, the need for cash, that may clarify the regulation companies’ conduct, as they (and we) usually are not threatened — but — with imprisonment for opposing our authorities’s conduct. How can the companions in these companies maintain their heads excessive earlier than their households?
Jean Berman
Brooklyn
The author is a former govt director of the Worldwide Senior Attorneys Challenge and a founding father of Grandparents Combat Again.
An Atheist Euphoric Over Pope Leo
To the Editor:
Re “Pope Leo, Peru and Me,” by Carlos Lozada (column, Might 11):
As an atheist and a humanist, I nonetheless share Mr. Lozada’s respect if not love for Pope Leo XIV. I’m euphoric over Pope Leo’s message of inclusion, humanity, decency, kindness and goodness. Peruvian or American is irrelevant to me.
He’s the rationale that for the primary time in days I’ve felt, sure, thank God, there’s an antidote to the depravity that has permeated the zeitgeist right here in America for the previous 4 months.
Mike Dater
Portsmouth, N.H.
