Complicit or Courageous? That is the question.

Am I a Kristi Noem or a Cory Booker?

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear … I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound, Everybody look what's going down. Buffalo Springfield

I woke up with that old 60’s song in my heart and listened to it on YouTube. There is something happening here, finally, in response to what’s going down with the Trump regime. In one night, Cory Booker broke the record for the longest (and likely greatest) speech on the Senate floor, and Susan Crawford beat Elon Musk (or whomever his choice was) for the critical seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court! Today everything feels a bit more hopeful.

While the zone continues to be flooded with Trump’s click-baity distractions (“I think I will run for a third term”), we also have the fiasco of “Signalgate” showing us the deplorable incompetence of those in charge of our safety and security. The economy is crashing, thousands of federal workers have been fired, Canadians are boycotting us, measles are rampant, former allies are issuing travel advisories warning people not to come to the United States, and God knows what’s happening with the price of eggs. In short, the utter evil of the Trump regime is becoming clearer each day.

And something is happening here. Perhaps “Signalgate” and the recent, lawless immigration roundups have created the red line that Americans of common decency will not cross. We are left with a number of binary choices:

• Good or evil?

• Right or wrong?

• Moral or immoral?

• Autocracy or democracy?

• Complicity or resistance?

It has become as simple, albeit as dramatic, as that. It is no longer a partisan issue: Republican vs. Democrat or MAGA vs. NotMAGA, Right vs. Left, or Red vs. Blue. It is more about who we are as people, as human beings.

It is not about political parties anymore; it is about the Trump regime and who is complicit and who is not. History has recorded who were Nazis and Nazi collaborators and who resisted the Nazi regime. It is like the meme floating around social media asking, “Would you hide Anne Frank, or would you report her hiding place?” How absolutely tragic that there are so many parallels between the Trump regime and Nazi Germany. It is not hyperbole, and we must pay attention.

The Nazis “disappeared” people to concentration camps. In recent weeks, the Trump regime has “disappeared” people without due process, without accurately determining their legal status, to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador. CECOT is a concentration camp (let’s call it what it is) built to hold 40,000 prisoners who are allegedly gang members or terrorists. The Trump regime agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to house 300 deportees for one year. El Salvador is notorious for human rights abuses¹ but clearly that is not a problem for the Trump regime. Here is an image of how CECOT treats those in their care:

Regardless of what these men have done or not done, we must ask ourselves as we look at this photo: Is this good or evil? Is this moral or immoral? Is this right or wrong? Is this humane or inhumane? Am I ok with this?

And here is the Twitter post video of our esteemed Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem (yes, the dog-murderer)² threatening future deportations to El Salvador. Here is a photo of her wearing her $50k Rolex watch in front of a cell at CECOT, where 300 human beings are detained after the Trump regime lawlessly “disappeared” them without due process or even accurately determining who they are.

This is who the Trump regime is. And this is only one example of the cruelty and depravity of the regime that has been dismantling our government every day since January 20, 2025.

And so we come back to the questions before us:

1. Do I choose to be a Kristi Noem …

   1. Will I be actively complicit and collaborate, condone, just obey orders, support, and justify what the Trump regime is doing?

   2. Will I be passively complicit and ignore, stay silent, deny, minimize, sanewash, and keep my head down and hope for the best?

   3. Are my heroes Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin, and Viktor Orban?

2. Or do I choose to be a Cory Booker

   1. Will I find the courage to actively name, face, and fight the evil of the Trump regime?

   2. Are my heroes Volodymyr Zelensky, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Marc Elias, Governor Janet Mills, and Heather Cox Richardson?

Will history judge me as a collaborator or a resistor? As complicit or courageous? While on the one hand the choice seems simple (who would want to be tainted as similar to a Nazi or Nazi collaborator?), I must acknowledge that from my position of white privilege it is much easier for me to choose to fight than for many others. For example:

• I don’t know what it is like to have my safety and the safety of my loved ones threatened by rabid MAGAs, as is the case with many Republican lawmakers across the country who might want to speak against Trump.

• I don’t know what it is like to be afraid because the color of my skin puts me at risk of being profiled as “other” and therefore suspect.

• I don’t know what it is like to be at risk for being “disappeared” because of my legal status in the United States.

• I don’t know what it is like to live under an authoritarian government, so maybe I am completely naive about the risks associated with resistance.

Concern for personal safety is real. That is not cowardice or complicity; that is recognizing reality. Thanks to the Trump regime, we have become a country where fear is legitimate and we don’t know what is going to happen. In the midst of that, we each need to figure out what we can do within the confines of our personal circumstances.

Action Steps

1. Go to Cory Booker’s web page and thank him for his courage, his stamina, and his enCouragement to claim our power as Americans.

2. Go to Kristi Noem’s Twitter account and post replies to her posts letting her know what you think of her.

3. Donate money if you can to the ACLU or other organizations fighting for our civil liberties and democracy.

4. Find the nearest April 5th Hands Off demonstration near you, make a sign and GO!

5. Use the 5calls app every day and make calls.

6. Read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From an American every day to be informed.

Conclusion

Something is happening here. And it is good. In his marathon speech, Cory Booker called on us to claim our power and fight for our country. Heather Cox Richardson constantly reminds us that we have agency; we, the people, own this country. The recent debacles and evil actions of the Trump regime are waking up the masses, and more of that old Buffalo Springfield song runs through my heart.

What a field-day for the heat. A thousand people in the street . Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side

1. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/el-salvador-mil-dias-regimen-excepcion-modelo-seguridad-a-costa-derechos-humanos/

2. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/29/kristi-noem-misdemeanour-shooting-dog