Opinion/Your Turn: Don't just sit idly by and watch the destruction of democracy

On June 12, 2016, in his commencement speech to graduates of Stanford University, historical documentary filmmaker Ken Burns made history himself. After nearly 40 years of “diligently practice[ing] and rigorously maintain[ing] a conscious neutrality,” Burns said the time had come when he could “no longer remain neutral, silent.”

He then warned his audience about a presidential candidate who was “glaringly not qualified” for the job. He pleaded with those listening: “You must do everything you can to defeat the retrograde forces that have invaded our democratic process, divided our house, to fight against, no matter your political persuasion, the dictatorial tendencies” of a candidate of “terrifying Orwellian statements; a person who easily lies, creating an environment where the truth doesn’t seem to matter.”

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Modestly calling himself a “student of history,” Burns continued: “I recognize this type. He emerges everywhere and in all eras. We see nurtured in his campaign an incipient proto-fascism, a nativist anti-immigrant Know Nothing-ism, a disrespect for the judiciary, the prospect of women losing authority over their own bodies, African Americans again asked to go to the back of the line, voter suppression gleefully promoted, jingoistic saber rattling, a total lack of historical awareness, a political paranoia that, predictably, points fingers, always making the other wrong.”

Do I need to tell you who Burns was talking about?

Burns continued: “This is not a liberal or conservative issue, a red state, blue state divide. This is an American issue.”

Even back in 2016, Burns warned of how that man’s non-stop ranting and tweeting had given him “the abundant airtime he so desperately craves, so much so that it has actually worn down our natural human revulsion to this kind of behavior.”

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And that was more than six years ago. How many tweets, how many rants since then? I think this quote says it best: “The man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.”

Except Ken Burns didn’t say this. Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said it.

“If this man were to become president, think about the next five years," Cruz continued. "The boasting. The pathological lying. The bullying. Think about your kids coming back and emulating this.”

These predictions have come true and then some. And then some. And then some more.