Poll Says Most Americans Think Trump is a "dangerous dictator" & Why Athletes Should Stay Away from the White House
May 2, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Two quotes from Henry David Thoreau that celebrate American defiance—the same defiance that Trump wants to punish.
Most Americans see Trump as "dangerous dictator," poll says: The only question is why don’t ALL Americans see him this way?
Super Bowl Star Fires Back After Backlash to Him Hanging Out With Trump: When an athlete plays golf with Trump, they are seen as endorsing his policies. If it’s a Black athlete, it’s even worse.
Trump Is Trying to Reinstate Columbus Day, Which Was Never Canceled: Once again, Trump is bragging about doing something that he didn’t do and doesn’t have the power to do.
Hegseth boasts about ending ‘woke’ program on women and security that Trump had signed into law: More evidence that Hegseth’s hatred of women and minorities outweighs his intellectual capacity.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: When Celebrities Criticize Other Celebrities: Larry David rightfully criticizes Bill Maher’s participation in Trump’s PR stunt.
Kareem’s Video Break: This is some fancy footwork. Yes, I’m jealous.
Kareem’s Sports Moments: Mallakhamb is a combination of yoga and gymnastics. It’s amazing to watch.
Gene Pitney Sings “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa”: His voice distills agony and guilt in this powerful song about unexpected romance.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
from “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), author of Walden
The rich man . . . is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.
from “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was a staple of high school English classes, specifically his book Walden and his essay “Civil Disobedience.” In Walden, Thoreau describes his two-year experiment living the spartan life in a small house he built as he tried to connect to nature—and disconnect from civilization. During this time, he was arrested for not paying six years worth of poll taxes (which were used, among other things, to keep Black people from voting and was finally outlawed in 1965). He spent one night in jail before his aunt got him out after paying his delinquent taxes, against his wishes. The experience inspired him to write “Civil Disobedience” about the duty to resist unjust laws.
Noted American author John Updike said of the book, “A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible.” Thoreau was often credited by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as his inspiration for strategies for peaceful protest.
Some American high schools still teach his works, though I’m not sure for how much longer given the current pressure from Trump and GOP conservatives to weed out any works that don’t sing the praises of the government, Christianity, and White people. By the way, I’m happy to sing the praises of all three of those things because they do deserve praise. But not always. And not for everything they’ve ever done. Neither does anyone or anything deserve such blind, uncritical faith. I know I don’t.
The first quote asks us whether we should obey laws that we know are unjust while waiting for the majority to come around to agree they are unjust. As we did with slavery and women’s rights. Or do we have a duty to disobey unjust laws as a means of bringing about the changes more quickly? Should Blacks have disobeyed segregation laws that kept them from lunch counters? Should Rosa Parks have refused to give up her seat? People who aren’t the victims of unjust laws, or who even thrive because of them, are all for putting the brakes on progressive changes (“The rich man . . . is always sold to the institution which makes him rich”). Slaveholders, industrialists using child labor or heavily polluting the water and air, men who receive job preference over women, etc. will shout their outrage at protestors pushing for change toward justice for those being exploited.
I’m not here to answer that question for you. That is a matter of personal conscience. I’m here to point out that the reason we have taught “Civil Disobedience” in high schools for over a century is because we recognized that protesting injustice is the American Way and has been since our inception. Today, we have an administration that, like our former British masters, is trying to stamp out protests by punishing everyone who disagrees with the administration, calling them traitors, locking them up, deporting them, suing them, and withholding money—everything dictators do to silence free speech.
I worry that if Trumpian anti-education triumphs, Thoreau will soon be eliminated from school classrooms as will our proud heritage of defiance against tyranny, whether from abroad or homegrown. If that happens, American children will no longer be taught to question the morality of laws or governments, but only the mindless bliss of blind obedience.
FYI: In 1766, America’s first student protest took place—at Harvard University. It was called the “Great Butter Rebellion” because the students were tired of being fed rancid butter. It resulted in half the student body being suspended. The ringleader of the protest was Asa Dunbar, Thoreau’s grandfather.