Spineless. Pathetic. Disgusting. No, I’m not talking about the Republican elected officials who suck up to Trump — though these adjectives apply to them. This time, I’m referring to the Democrats at the State of the Union address. What an awful display of cowardice. Why didn’t anyone plan a real protest? I would have been much happier had they all walked out, and certainly after their fellow congressperson was ejected.

It’s bad enough that we are being gaslighted daily by the orange horror. If the Democrats can’t own what’s going on and respond to it appropriately, then they are just as bad as the ones distorting reality and fanning the flames of hatred, fear, corruption and lies.

Where are the Democratic leaders? Why won’t anyone admit what’s actually happening to our country? We are descending into the madness of fascism. It doesn’t always happen with a military coup; sometimes it’s a slow, insidious business of taking away freedoms, hope, truth and justice.

Democrats need to stop waiting for the bullet — the gun has been fired already! A ping-pong paddle with a passive sign on it is not what we bring to a fight against tyranny. Every day, all of us are losing precious American ground. We need our Democratic leaders to take radical action, now, or they will be just as much to blame — and we will hold them just as accountable as the Republicans who started this unholy nightmare.

Anne Rankin
Brunswick