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William Kristol wrote:
*****[T]he Trump administration isn’t going to sit around and accept an unfavorable political fate. The bill’s unpopular now. But who knows how things will look after months of sustained political propaganda. Who knows how effectively the administration will be able to use the agencies and powers of the federal government to reshape perceptions, or even to tilt the electoral playing field. We’ve seen so far only the tip of the authoritarian iceberg that threatens to sink our liberal democracy. The assaults on institutions and opponents who seek to stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian project have only just begun.*****
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For those who know the truth, it is a profound duty to relentlessly speak it.
True, the regime is not "going to sit around and accept an unfavorable political fate." In close collaboration with its allies across all forms of media, it will indeed perpetrate "months of sustained political propaganda."
We who fight for our republic also will not – MUST NOT! – yield to fatalism. It is urgent that we counter propaganda with truth. In individual conversations, through letters to the editor, on social media, in town hall meetings.
Most of all, we must communicate with and for those who do not already agree with us.
It causes no great harm to blow off steam by grousing among ourselves. The sharing of information is important. However, all of this is insufficient – pointless – if it does not translate into effective efforts to raise awareness and spur critical thought among those who are comfortable in their obliviousness to the truth.
In today's Morning Shots, Kristol again effectively quoted inspiring words from "that greatest champion of the Declaration, Abraham Lincoln." In this instance, it was remarks to a Union regiment during the Civil War.
In these dispiriting times, let's also take courage from Revolutionary War naval Captain John Paul Jones's (perhaps apochryphal) words.
*****The battle began as night fell. The two ships [the American Bonhomme Richard and the British Serapis, under Capt. Richard Pearson] opened fire almost simultaneously. Two of the old cannons on the Richard blew up, and careful fire from Serapis quickly put most of the other American guns out of service. Jones concluded that close action was his only hope of victory over Serapis, which was superior to Bonhomme Richard in every respect.
[...]
With both vessels on fire, Pearson surrendered. Hundreds of spectators watched the battle from nearby cliffs. The ships moved off together, and the next morning, Bonhomme Richard sank. Jones sailed the crippled Serapis into a Dutch harbor, where he became an instant celebrity.
Early in the action, as the two ships drew close, Pearson called out to Jones, asking whether he surrendered. Jones is said to have responded “I have not yet begun to fight!”*****
