To the Editor:

Watching the national news these past weeks, I feel both anger and sadness. Donald Trump has once again chosen the path of division and force. He ordered United States troops into Portland to guard Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities; he signed an executive order labeling Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization,” and he pushed for the indictment of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, fulfilling what he openly called his “revenge.”

Here’s the truth: Antifa is not a formal group. It has no national leadership, no membership lists, no headquarters. The word is short for anti-fascist and refers to a loose network of people who oppose racism, white supremacy, and authoritarianism.

Some within that banner engage in direct action, which can at times be confrontational. But labeling an ideology as a “terrorist organization” is both legally questionable and dangerously misleading. If “anti-fascist” is terrorism, then what are we saying about our own history — about the men and women who fought in World War II against fascism abroad, or about civil-rights leaders who stood against racial terror here at home?

Even more alarming is what just happened at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, ordered an unprecedented gathering of nearly all U.S. generals and admirals (one-star and above) at Quantico, Virginia. No clear reason was publicly given, yet President Trump himself attended. This is not a routine morale session — it looks like a loyalty test, a show of force, and a blurring of the lines between military service and political theater.

When you step back, you can see a broader pattern: Trump and his allies are remodeling our government. Independent institutions are bent into tools of political loyalty. Troops are deployed in American cities. The Justice Department is turned against political opponents. Generals are summoned to loyalty meetings. Dictators abroad are praised while democratic allies are sidelined.

History teaches us how dangerous this is. In Nazi Germany, Hitler did not seize control in one day. He dismantled democracy piece by piece: silencing opponents, reshaping courts, controlling the press, and turning the military into a political weapon. Ordinary Germans were told it was all for “order” and “strength,” until one day there was no turning back.

And here we are, again seeing echoes of those early warning signs. Trump has been indicted on 91 felony counts — crimes that would ruin any ordinary citizen’s career — yet instead of showing humility, he boasts of admiration for strongmen like Putin, Xi, Kim, and Orbán. He has even said he would be a dictator “only on Day One.”

Whether one supports Trump or not, Americans should be terrified by this pattern: deploying troops against citizens, wielding the Department of Justice against political enemies, staging loyalty spectacles with the military, praising dictators, and reshaping institutions to serve one man. These are not the tools of democracy; they are the tools of authoritarianism.

We don’t need more division forced on us from the top. What we need — in Washington, in Albany, and in our small towns — is leadership that listens, unites, and governs with respect. Democracy is not about revenge. It is not about humiliating opponents or seizing more power at any cost. It is about building a livable future together, with fairness and decency.

Emily Vincent, RN

Berne

Editor’s Note: Emily Vincent is a sheep farmer who owns Two Rock Ranch in Berne.