With American democracy crumbling, we must "look for the helpers"

With American democracy crumbling, we must “look for the helpers”
As our national nightmare gets scarier, Mister Rogers' advice is now more valuable than ever

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published September 2, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Donald Trump’s shock and awe campaign against American democracy is now in its eighth month. So much is happening, and so quickly, that even seasoned political experts are struggling to keep up.

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At a press conference on Aug. 25, Ill. Gov. JB Pritzker gave a fiery speech warning Trump to stay out of Chicago and other blue cities and states. Pritzker called the president’s actions “the actual crisis,” differentiating it from the one Trump has “manufactured” around crime rates, which are at all-time lows. “If it sounds to you like I am alarmist,” he said, “that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.” Describing the administration’s deployment as “exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against,” Pritzker was blunt in his assessment: “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American…If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.”

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He has also escalated his attacks on the free press.

In a largely overlooked moment on Aug. 26, Trump threatened MSNBC, accusing it of being worse than the infamous transnational gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. The president, unfiltered, attacked the network and its employees as “Real scum, real scum — real dishonest people.”

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But the advice I most provide — and rely on — is from the beloved Fred Rogers, who famously said to “look for the helpers” when you’re in trouble. In this context, the helpers I’m thinking of are those people, here in the U.S. and around the world, who have faced authoritarianism, endured it and ultimately helped defeat it. .......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/02/with-american-democracy-crumbling-we-must-look-for-the-helpers/