I remember pondering in my excellent high school civics class whether something like Nazism could happen here. The common wisdom and a pervading sense of pride and patriotism was that it could not. But the Germans I knew all seemed like good people. And smart. I look back those forty plus years and give myself credit. With trepidation I thought, sure, it could probably happen here, too.

Sadly, here we are, our constitutional democracy is crumbling under a relentless assault. Republicans today are failing in a similar manner to how decent Germans failed in the 1930’s.

I wrote on these pages after the 2016 election of my three legged plan to defy Trump.  I set out to:

1. Publish books with progressive ideas promoting love of the land
2. Promote and support women in leadership
3. Build a blue oasis in a red, red state

I am doing pretty well on all three. Torrey House Press is having a record year and is building a terrific staff to keep expanding its impact. I plan on raising a cool $1 million to help them further build capacity. The board, besides me, is all women and so is the staff. And to a small but hopefully useful extent I levered my observatory to help the town of Torrey, Utah become an International Dark Association certified dark sky community.

I want to do more.

The other day I read an essay that was encouraging writers to go on record regarding where they stand at this time of constitutional crises and the impeachment of Trump. I am feeling surprisingly patriotic and therefore anxious and distraught at how our democracy is being undermined. At the 2016 election I knew and wrote about how loathsome Trump is, but I didn’t know then how there is, inexplicably, no bottom to Republican tolerance of Trump’s depravity, no line he cannot cross with impunity.

Here is my list of major things that are not remotely okay for our country but that are okay with Republicans:

• Denying climate change
• “Deregulation” that amounts to allowing dangerous pollution and damage to the environment
• Assault on our public lands
  • Illegal dissolution of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments
• Trump’s myriad personal conflicts of interest and refusal to release his tax returns
• Trump’s allegiance to Russia over our national security agencies
  • and to Saudi Arabia
  • and to Turkey
  • and to North Korea
  • and the commensurate assault on NATO and our allies
• Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds
• Illegal financing of a useless border wall
  • with families seeking legal asylum separated and kids held in cages
• Nepotism in the White House
• Porn star payoffs and bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy”
• The number (so far) of his senior staff members now in prison:
  • Cohen
  • Flynn
  • Manafort
• Tariffs
• Federal deficits > $1 trillion
• Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy and the resulting massive federal deficit–all during an economic expansion
• Opposition to affordable health care and of the Affordable Care Act
• Blocking a sitting president’s appointment of a Supreme Court justice
• Unconfirmed Cabinet and government officials
• Rampant racism, bigotry and misogyny
• Assault on the the free press
• Obstruction of justice
  • as per the Mueller investigation
  • on going defiance of the duly elected Congress of the United States of America
• High crimes of bribery and extortion of a foreign power for personal and political gain
• Pardoning and celebrating convicted war criminals
• Alternative facts
  • 13,500 lies told by Trump so far
• Incessant, narcissistic Tweeting promoting the above.

What am I missing? That Trump never wore a tan suit?

People of good will will not stand for this undermining of the noble and sacred ideals of our country. One way or the other we will defy it. This country I learned about in my high school civics class is worth defending. Republicans need our prodding to wake up and recover their decency. Without their support Trump would immediately be cast upon the despot dunce heap of history.

It cannot happen too soon.