Katherine Anne Porter’s 1962 novel, Ship of Fools, is described as an allegory about the rise of Nazism. While on a German ship bound for pre-World War II Europe, a group of passengers of different nationalities seek a kind of utopia and unknowingly undertake a long voyage into a world of prejudice, racism and evil. Eventually the novel was adapted into a movie by the same name.
Eerily, sixty-plus years later, with the rise of Donald Trump, America faces a similar situation: an executive branch of government headed for fascism and founded on a kakistocracy—a ship of crooks, quacks, and fools. Arguably, it took us many years to get here, and multiple factors contributed: rising income inequality, the Supreme Court’s ruling that wealthy individuals can make unlimited campaign contributions, the myth of meritocracy, a growing selfishness over sacrifice for the greater good.
Some of us anticipated this the minute Trump was elected. We understood that his narcissism, greed, cruelty, and demand for retribution against his so-called enemies would trigger him to blow up the foundations of our democracy in order to enrich and empower himself and his wealthy cronies — all who first had to prove their unwavering loyalty and devotion to him. Will he help the middle or lower class? Of course not. Did he ever have any intention to help them? No. He decided to mislead and trick them into helping him get elected, possibly with the long term goal of ending all free and fair elections and making America, once the paragon of worldwide democracies, into a dictatorship.
We see this with the nomination of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, an accused rapist and alcoholic from Fox News (a propaganda machine for MAGA Republicans) who has zero experience in the military. We see it with the nomination of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a hardcore conspiracy theorist and open worshiper of Russia and Putin. We see it in Sean Duffy, the new Secretary of Transportation overseeing the FAA and the recent rash of plane crashes. We see it in RFK Jr., the quack elected as Secretary of Health and Human Services, who has zero experience with medicine and science and is a vaccine-denier.
And finally, we see it in Elon Musk, a miserable plutocrat who has weaseled his way into accessing millions of Americans’ sensitive tax and social security data, while cutting thousands of competent government workers’ jobs. All so he can enrich himself and his companies and avoid the government oversight that watchdog groups formerly managed. Conflict of interest? Obviously.
Is America going to get sicker due to less oversight over our medicine, food, water, and airplanes, among other things, and will the average American’s life expectancy shrink under Trump? Unfortunately, yes.
The Republican-controlled legislative branch of government has also enabled Trump by ceding their voices. They’ve caved to every single one of his nominations. Even Senator Thom Tillis of NC, who apparently was organizing a private campaign among fellow Republicans against Pete Hegseth, was sidelined by Trump himself, who threatened to primary him in 2026.
However, this ship of criminals, quacks, and fools is weak and knows full well it is weak. It must rely on threats and intimidation, even as it tries to enable the Justice Department to do its bidding. No one voted for our power and voices to be usurped. Although the mainstream media is slow to cover protests against this administration, thousands have sprung up around the country.
In North Carolina, a similar crisis is playing out in an election for the NC State Supreme Court. Allison Riggs, a Democrat, won the election in November fairly and squarely; but her opponent, Republican Jefferson Griffin, a sitting NC judge, has challenged the results numerous times. His latest tactic? Claiming that some 60,000 votes cast by North Carolinians (who followed the voter registration rules to the T) are invalid, based on his and his cronies’ arbitrary decision to “change the goalposts” post-election. Truly, if this crook steals the election from Allison Riggs, it will be a terrible watershed moment not just for the state of North Carolina, but for the nation.
It will set a dangerous new precedent for Trump and his allies across the country to ignore the will of the people and adjust the laws to their fancy, to enable the outcomes they prefer. In some ways, this has already begun. JD Vance, who holds a Yale law degree, has indicated that executives (aka Trump) don’t have to follow the courts’ rulings. Anyone who studied American history in high school knows this is patently false. The purpose of the three branches of government is to serve as checks and balances on one another so that no single branch becomes too powerful and/or corrupt.
We must use our voices and speak out, even when our elected officials do not seem to be willing to represent us. We must stay strong and hold them accountable. Forward, Democracy!
