By: John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College
Trump 2.0 shows that the US Constitution alone cannot prevent the United States from becoming an oligarchic autocracy, but we the people can reverse that tide. The country and the American Dream can ill-afford for the enablers of Trump 2.0 to retain power. Testifying to that are the events of June 12, 2025, which are emblematic of our dire straits.
On that Thursday, I felt that the United States had ceased to be a democratic republic when federal agents manhandled Alex Padilla, the senior US Senator from California. Padilla was assaulted when he insisted on questioning the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, about ongoing anti-immigration raids in the Los Angeles area. Trump 2.0 relished the confrontation and the humiliation of Senator Padilla, who is the brown-skinned son of Mexican immigrants.
On that same day in Los Angeles, June 14, unidentified, masked ICE thugs, viciously beat and detained Narciso Barranco, an undocumented landscaper who has lived in the United States for thirty years, has no criminal record, and is the father of no less than three US Marines. One of them, Alejandro Barranco, said of the assault on his father, “It’s hard for us. We feel hurt, we feel betrayed.”
Authoritarianism flexes its muscle by demonizing people and by bringing military force to bear on its own people to quell opposition and cow people into obedience. The wanton attacks on Senator Padilla and Narciso Barranco, augmented by the Washington parade, showed that autocracy had arrived in the United States.
Resistance to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States is as important as it has ever been.
John K. Roth is the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. He received his BA from Pomona College in 1962 and joined the CMC faculty after taking his MA and PhD in philosophy at Yale University. Roth has expertise in Holocaust and genocide studies, philosophy, ethics, American studies, and religious studies; he was the Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. In addition to lecturing throughout the world, Roth has authored, coauthored, or edited more than fifty books and has published hundreds of articles and reviews.