A recent letter to the editor decried alleged anti-Trump rants by various Burlington County Times readers. The letter writer contends that, three years into the Trump administration, the economy is doing well and things are getting done.

He also contends that these rants dont add anything to the conversation. Assuming this is all true, lets have a conversation that may, hopefully, add to our understanding of what is actually going on.

For starters, while the economy is doing well for the top 1% and those who have 401(k)s, it has essentially left 40% of the population behind economically. Add to this Donald Trumps proposed budget to make substantial cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and you can easily see how the disparity in income will only worsen.

Second, the letter writer is absolutely right: Trump is getting things done. And at the top of his agenda is destroying our democracy and creating a dictatorship. Some of the things he has and is currently doing to achieve this are:

Denigrating our Constitution, referring to it as phony;

Attacking the press as the enemy of the people;

Demanding loyalty to him personally rather than to country;

Characterizing his political opponents as criminals and threatening retaliation;

Encouraging and endorsing violence, tacitly or overtly;

Speculating that he would like to look into libel laws, thus weakening freedom of speech;

Tweeting denigrating comments about anyone who criticizes him;

Alienating our allies and cozying up to and expressing admiration for dictators;

Appointing an attorney general who serves him rather than the American people;

Disparaging our intelligence agencies while allying himself with our enemies, namely Vladimir Putin;

Making a mockery of our system of government; for example, by appointing incompetent and inexperienced advisers.

If any of this seems far-fetched, I refer you to two books: Fascism: A Warning, by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.

The daily assaults on our democracy continue, not the least of which are Trumps serial lying and insulting tweets. Our democracy is being destroyed by a thousand cuts. And if and when it finally dies, it will not be because of some coup or uprising. It will be because we have become complacent and refused to heed the warning signs.

Oh, yes, those who are personally benefiting from an alleged solid economy will dismiss this as hyperbole and insist we just need to move on. I advocate a different approach: Wake up, get your head out of the sand, and educate yourself.

Antoinette Auger is a resident of Burlington City.

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Guest Opinion: Some of the things Donald Trump is getting done - Burlington County Times