To the Editor:
“No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines,” by Steven Levitsky, Lucan Manner and Daniel Ziblatt (Opinion visitor essay, Might 11), is alarming — or must be — to all People.
Because the authors level out intimately, the U.S. is already in aggressive authoritarianism due to the Trump administration’s myriad actions. These actions in opposition to regulation corporations, 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 in opposition to those that disagree with it.
All People who acknowledge this menace should converse up and take motion to protect the nation. I consider that this period is extra harmful than people who preceded it, such because the Purple Scare and the McCarthy eras, since this assault is being undertaken by the present president.
We can’t keep silent. There may be 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 occurring to our nation, they usually make a compelling case for all of us who oppose President Trump’s agenda to get entangled in resistance.
However how to try this? I recommend {that a} Nationwide Resistance Fund be established, and that People all through the nation be urged to contribute to it. A corporation with credibility for many People ought to arrange a clearinghouse to just accept donations and use the cash to mitigate a few 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 are refusing to buckle in response to Mr. Trump’s threats.
Additionally, cash must be allotted to people (reminiscent of federal staff who’ve been fired) who’re dealing with extreme monetary hardships due to their sudden terminations.
James P. Robinson
Seattle
To the Editor:
Steven Levitsky, Lucan Manner and Daniel Ziblatt state that “even Republican politicians are, as one former Trump administration official put it, ‘scared’ out of their minds ‘about loss of life 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 things the president does?
The police could not wish to compromise their investigations by asserting them publicly, however I want we may have some assurance that these individuals can be hunted down and dropped at justice — ideally in venues the place the president’s pardon energy doesn’t attain. If even a handful went to jail, we might see far fewer threats.
Don’t let the thugs win.
Michael Laser
Montclair, N.J.
Disgrace on Legal professionals
To the Editor:
Re “Some Elite Law Firms Decline to Take Up Immigration Cases” (entrance web page, Might 8):
For disgrace! There are extra essential issues than taking dwelling a big paycheck, a few of them being democracy, freedom, the rule of regulation and due course of. American legal professionals ought to know that. They need to be courageous sufficient and keen to face up when they’re actually challenged.
Sometime their kids or grandchildren could should danger jail, torture and even loss of life, as have so many world wide, to revive us to a free and democratic nation.
It’s only greed, the will for cash, that may clarify the regulation corporations’ conduct, as they (and we) usually are not threatened — but — with imprisonment for opposing our authorities’s conduct. How can the companions in these corporations maintain their heads excessive earlier than their households?
Jean Berman
Brooklyn
The author is a former govt director of the Worldwide Senior Legal professionals Undertaking and a founding father of Grandparents Struggle 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 explanation 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.
