To be honest, even using that title made me queasy, but on January 20 it will indeed be part of American history and our reality. I believe you have done nothing to earn it and have only increasingly demonstrated a dangerous and un-American set of principles, values and intentions.
I am not a gambler, but I imagine I am feeling what someone in one of your failed casinos felt when rolling the dice or watching the roulette wheel spin — uncertainty, fear, bracing for loss because in your gut you believe the house always wins.
Cathy Renna — File photo
Since the election you and your surrogates have continued to demonstrate that a vote for you was not dissimilar to a hate crime. My relatives on my father’s side in Italy were stunned and fearful when the results came in. “Should have learned from our mistake electing Berlusconi,” they joked. But there is another Italian leader you are much more similar to, and we should heed the history lesson of their past. My father grew up in Italy when Mussolini was in power. As we know, he ruled the country constitutionally as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1925, then dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. Now, I wouldn’t compare you to Hitler. Yet. So if the shoe fits, it would be a Dolce and Gabbana. Because when people talk about a potential constitutional crisis, this is what I believe they are alluding to.
But this is something you will never achieve. Because I believe in the core values of America and our constitution and we, as a nation, would never let this happen. Like Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights hero and icon you dismissively berated when he called your presidency illegitimate, we will march. We will resist. We will stand up and say no, not in our America.
My daughter is about the same age as Barron. What kind of world will she grow up in? Will it be one that considers her “less than” your child? Not if I can help it.
In his second inaugural speech, Barack Obama said, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths, that all of us are created equal, is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forbearers to Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall.” I am not alone in being guided by that star that our great President of the last eight years alluded to, a star that will get us through this next period of American history like no other, one that will test us but also one we will face undaunted.
The opinions expressed in these letters are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations and this magazine, its staff and contributors.
Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, is reportedly undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Collins made headlines more than a decade ago when he came out publicly in a first-person essay for Sports Illustrated.
The 41-year-old former center earned All-American honors at Stanford before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2001. Over his 13-year career, he played for several NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.
Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer with close ties to President Donald Trump, claimed during a deposition in her defamation lawsuit against HBO that sources close to the former president told her U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is gay.
Loomer is suing the network over comments by comedian Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher, who joked that she had an affair with Trump. She alleges Maher's on-air remark about her "sleeping with Trump" -- echoing a rumor circulating at the time -- cost her a job in the Trump administration and the political influence that would have come with it. HBO has argued that Maher's comment is protected under the First Amendment, just as Loomer's own inflammatory remarks are shielded when she targets her political enemies.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
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