American Democracy Is Under Attack by Martin Ingber
A photographic portfolio from the front lines
For almost 250 years, the United States of America has represented the ideals of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”, guided by the founding principles enshrined in the U. S. Constitution -among these the cherished rights of free speech, and freedom of the press; freedom of assembly; freedom of religion; due process of law; and representative government as determined by majority vote.
Today, under the new trump administration, many fear that those fundamental rights are under assault by a flood of potentially immoral, corrupt, and even illegal government actions. They see a wealthy and powerful extremist minority that threatens to dismantle American democracy, in favor of an authoritarian state intolerant of diversity and social equality.
And so, again and again, Americans are taking to the streets by the thousands to express their opposition to the policies of the new regime.
Within its first 100 days, the trump government’s nonsensical Tariffs war has blasted a multi-trillion dollar crater in a previously robust economy, decimating the retirement savings of millions of Americans, triggering renewed inflation, and bringing small businesses across the country to the brink of bankruptcy.
The administration now threatens to give a multi-trillion dollar tax reduction to its billionaire donors (!) funded through drastic cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -essential programs that working people, the elderly, the disabled and the less fortunate depend upon for health care and day to day survival. Agencies that safeguard everything from clean air and water to education, Veterans services, consumer protections, and much more also face devastating cuts.
I.C.E., the nations’s customs enforcement agency, has been carrying out trump’s longtime vendetta against immigrants with cruel, Gestapo-like tactics, including sweeping internments, kidnappings and deportations that have far exceeded the boundaries of the law, and have outraged many decent American citizens.
Would-be ‘co-president’ Elon Musk (who contributed over a quarter of a billion dollars to the trump election campaign) was given charge of a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’. He proceeded to direct the widespread and apparently arbitrary firings of tens of thousands of essential federal employees, including air traffic controllers, nuclear energy technicians, medical researchers, and other highly skilled specialists. Americans quickly discovered that, besides destroying the careers of dedicated professionals, such irresponsible actions can have life-or-death consequences for everyone.
And then there is donald trump, who famously aspired to be ‘a Dictator’, and who seems determined to rule as one. He appears to be closely following the blueprint of ‘Project 2025’, a strategic plan developed by hard-core conservatives to replace the American democracy of the past 250 years with a ‘Christian Nationalist’ version of the United States -a government in which virtually all power could be concentrated in the hands of a single autocrat… some one such as donald trump.
And now the news is increasingly filled with reports of protests and demonstrations in cities and towns large and small, with hundreds of thousands of citizens saying ‘NO’ to the policies of the trump regime, and to the very real threat to democracy that they represent. New York City knows donald trump and his history especially well; and that is undoubtedly what brings so many New Yorkers out into the streets, marching together, carrying signs, spreading the alarm, and desperately fighting to preserve democracy in America for "We, the People".
