The fog of news about the corruption and policy sins of the Trump administration can be overwhelming. One misdeed follows another so quickly that we simply have to file and forget – which is exactly what El Commandante Naranja wants us to do.
This morning, I discovered a helpful weekly list that is kept by a woman named Amy Siskind. Yes, Lake Jackson, you can trust her. She supported John McCain for president in 2008 and even went out on the Sarah Palin limb with him. While that last “credential” may make her a little scary to some, you have to admit that she covers a wide range of political respectability and has the kind of conservative chops that even an LJ Republican should be able to trust.
She decided soon after the 2016 election that the direction America had taken in the election was more sinister than simply the choice of poor leadership. We had accepted an assault on truth and a free press as somehow normal. On advice she had read from people who suffered through the authoritarian regimes that grew up in otherwise civilized nations, she set out to document the things that happened on a week to week basis that citizens seemed to accept as normal but which, in fact, constituted a slow slipping away from the moorings of democratic government. Each week’s list is headed by this reminder: Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
From week to week, the list has grown. Her first list, dated November 20, 2016, cited nine items worth remembering. Her most recent list of January 12, 2019 (Week 113) cites 183 instances of corruption and corrosion of democratic norms, each one of which we may tend to overlook and forget unless somebody keeps a list. It starts out noting Kevin Sweeney’s resignation as Pentagon chief of staff and ends with half a dozen or so @RealDonaldTrump tweets, each one twisting the truth (that’s maybe too kind) and dripping with disrespect and hostility toward most of the nation’s voters.
So, next time you vote be sure they know that we are “keeping a list and checking it twice.”
South of Town: Notes and Scenes from Texas' Upper Gulf Coast 