Many critical thinkers in the U.S. fear that Artificial Intelligence will replace much of the work that average people do, costing them much of their self-esteem. At the same time, those average people defensively resent immigrants, legal or not, because they compete with legacy job holders for the wages they earn.

This may be a stretch; but the Ken Burns film on The American Revolution can be interpreted as a lesson that the United States was formed because the colonies’ governing authority and loyalist sympathizers failed to recognize how different and independent thinking the colonists had become.   Today, the liberal democratic rationale of the U.S. government is being threatened by a reactionary cabal that resents the cultural changes that are the inevitable result of the humanistic policies on which the country was founded 250 years ago.

At that point, Great Britain did not realize that establishing a distant colony would encourage people to act independently.   Even in the eighteenth century, stubborn defenders of a right to enjoy the privileges of conquest were doomed to be left behind in the technological and intellectual development of man.  And so, the listless desire of the MAGA Crowd to abdicate personal responsibility for and participation in self-government will inevitably be defeated by the advance of the human spirit. 

Of course, realization of Mr. Burns’ optimistic expectation could take a long time unless a determined coalition, directed by a widely esteemed leader, renews the country's dedication to common values. Perhaps 250 years is not surprisingly long for us to have to reform our political system and recapture its purpose. 

Having been born into wealth, President Trump has never had to worry about tomorrow.  The people who voted for him desperately clutched onto his message that he would also make them carefree.  Now that he hasn’t, they are reluctantly abandoning him. 

How long will the sycophants in his administration continue to ignore reality and deny that Trump has been feeding his own ego and wealth at the expense of the MAGA crowd?  Unfortunately, they are foolish enough not to recognize that their boss is a snake oil salesman.  Any congressperson, who doesn’t acknowledge that, deserves to be summarily defeated at their next reelection bid

The development of Artificial Intelligence is feared by economists and social scientists as a threat to the self-esteem of many classes of salaried workers who perform repetitive tasks.  They include a wide range of technicians in medical, manufacturing, legal, artistic and scientific fields. 

Alternatively, AI opens a range of opportunities for these skilled and professional employees to devote their training and experience to developing new, more productive ways to accomplish their tasks using AI.  The career path that a former programmer, James Somers, described in the 11/06/2025 New Yorker illustrates that likelihood:

At first, I consulted A.I. models in lieu of looking something up. Then I gave them small, self-contained problems. Eventually, I gave them real work—the kind I’d trained my whole career to do. I saw these models digest, in seconds, the intricate details of thousands of lines of code. They could spot subtle bugs and orchestrate complex new features. Finally, I was transferred to a fast-growing team that aims to make better use of A.I. tools, and to create our own.

Chatbots illustrate a danger of AI that goes beyond its replacement of those jobs. They can facilitate the brainwashing that is key to dystopian futures like that portrayed in 1984.

A frightening possible result of widespread use of AI devices like therapy Chatbots might be indoctrination of gullible users by their well-financed, or even enforced, availability. If control of chatbot licensing comes into the wrong hands, it’s not just trained psychologists who will be circumvented; it could enable a fascist faction to build and direct a following.

Just think of how useful AI chatbots would have been for the creation and energizing of the Hitler Youth! Such tools could be used to coalesce right wing supporters of an antidemocratic putsch in today’s America.

Senate Republicans should indeed be worried that President Trump is shortsighted when it comes to the filibuster, as reported in Carl Hulse’s memo in the 11/4/2025 NYT.  Trump also believes that without congressional controls on him like the filibuster, the “blue slip” prerogative on prosecutor appointments, and other traditional exercises of coequal branch checks on the powers of the executive, he will indeed “get EVERYTHING approved.”

The Donald is deluded: he doesn’t allow that the Democrats will ever regain dominance in Congress. More dangerously, he entertains the thought that he or his designee will be able to extend his authoritarian regime beyond January 2029.

That prospect should concern all U.S. citizens, of course. Thank God, it seems also to have begun to concern careerist congressmen in both parties. Hopefully, it will bring them out of their obsequious stupor.

Past presidents have asked Congress to authorize their use of military power for responding to violent attacks by domestic rebels, foreign states and offshore outlaws, like pirates. Sometimes this was done after the fact; but doing so acknowledged that the Chief Executive depends on that co-equal government branch for employing the military, not to mention for funding it.

But Donald Trump acts as if he is not subject to the law; in his mind, and in the minds of his supporters, he is the law.  Moreover, his performance since his reelection last year implies that the results of the 2024 election showed that most voters wanted to abandon the government’s rules and regulations under the Constitution.  If his public approval ratings sink further below a majority during his second term, his determination to rule by personal whim seems likely only to strengthen.

It is up to the critical thinkers in the Congress and among the voting public to disabuse Trump of that anti-democratic delusion. The following steps need to be taken:

1. Continue to express popular disapproval, including No Kings rallies, direct communications to Congress,        and announcements on the public and social media
2. Campaign vigorously for elimination of Trump’s control of both houses of Congress in the 2026 mid-term        election
3. Lobby subsequently for congressional resolutions to cancel the obvious injurious programs of the Trump         Administration
4. Obviate any further such legislation and executive orders.