….or part of a plan to criminalize dissent and to foster a state-approved political perspective? It’s a reasonable question, since his signing ceremony linked to an executive order has given the dais in the White House to members of right wing organizations like Turning Point, USA, which pays college students to disrupt public meetings of organizations on the left like the Democratic Socialists of America and to spy upon and add professors with opinions they do not deem correct according to their skewed values to a national database which has led to intense public and private harassment of faculty members in colleges and universities across the nation.

In cloying terms during the ceremony, Trump introduced students, portraying them as victims of abuse for their politically conservative and religious views before giving them a national platform in the people’s White House. He then, in the manner of a third world strongman lacking only the iconically be-ribboned uniform affected by dictators, proceeded to threaten public universities with defunding.

Tomorrow, the headlines should read, “New Zealand bans military assault rifles, while in the US, Trump moves to criminalize dissent.” I personally believe our nation is on a very dark path. Please pay close attention. Incremental authoritarian trends are dangerous. Study the history of the Twentieth century and you will see how totalitarian states are born… not overnight, but by slow, inevitable, and unchallenged progression.

At the very least, please watch this unfortunate, purely partisan display and imagine where the rhetoric will take us…