Across American history, the most devastating harm has often come from men in suits, behind desks, wielding pens and executive orders. Legality has too often cloaked atrocity.
We must ask: Are we entering a new era — perhaps the cruelest yet?
Government-sanctioned policies under President Donald Trump — compounded by a paralyzed Congress — are leading directly to suffering, trauma and death. Migrant children are separated from their parents. Transgender youth are denied health care, worsening mental health crises. Pregnant women in Republican-led states have died from treatable complications. Trump’s past sabotage of COVID-19 safety measures is linked to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
This suffering shares a dangerous thread: the normalization of cruelty as policy. And that’s not new in America.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 — signed by President Andrew Jackson — led to the forced relocation and death of thousands of Native Americans. Slavery was protected by law, and the Fugitive Slave Act criminalized helping people escape bondage. Japanese American internment during World War II was legally sanctioned and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
We now face the same moral test in our time.
What’s chilling today is the role of power and wealth in shaping a landscape of harm. Elon Musk — now the world’s richest man — has launched a bizarre crusade to father as many children as possible, even as his actions help worsen global suffering. He recently bragged about putting USAID, America’s top humanitarian aid agency, through the “woodchipper.”
Bill Gates offered a sharp rebuke: “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.” He wasn’t exaggerating. Tens of thousands of vulnerable children are dying because humanitarian programs are being gutted by billionaires and political leaders with no regard for human consequences.
The contrast is searing. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has saved an estimated 122 million children through global health work. Musk, by contrast, uses his platforms to destabilize institutions, spread disinformation and promote authoritarian rhetoric. This is not just about tone. It’s about life and death.
This cruelty is echoed and magnified in Trump’s movement, which increasingly resembles an authoritarian cult more than a political party. With Trump’s return to power, we are watching democratic guardrails fall, social conflict militarize, and hate become institutionalized.
This is not a policy disagreement or a culture war. It is a moral reckoning.
Will we look back on this era as we do the Trail of Tears, internment camps or Jim Crow — with shame and disbelief that people let it happen? History won’t just record Trump’s deeds. It will remember whether we stood by in silence.
Unless stopped, Trump and the Republicans who follow him may go down as the most merciless and morally bankrupt leaders this country has ever produced. That millions still support them — not despite the cruelty, but often because of it — is not just heartbreaking. It is disgraceful.
I look in the mirror and ask what more I can do. I cannot stand the cruelty. I am ashamed.
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One day, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will ask what we did in this moment. They will ask who we supported, what we stood for and whether we remained silent. They will judge us — not just for what happened, but for the choices we made while there was still time to act.
May we give them an answer we can live with. May we earn the right to be remembered not as bystanders, but as citizens who stood up when it mattered.
If we do not, shame on us. The shadow that would cast over our generation would never be lifted.
Tom Debley is a retired East Bay journalist and public affairs officer. He lives in Walnut Creek.