The Real Danger Isn’t Disagreement — It’s Silence

Commentary by Michelle Shindell 

Someone recently wrote me and said she didn’t like Biden at all, called him “a joke of a president,” but added that it didn’t consume her mind 24/7, nor did she feel the need to “teach” the world how wrong he was.

Fair statement.

My response is: Biden may not have been your cup of tea, but he was never a danger to the Constitution or the basic rule of law. Disagreeing with a politician is normal in a democracy. Trying to dismantle democracy itself is not.

When historians like Kevin Kruse and Timothy Snyder start listing the twelve steps for wrecking a democracy, you can either shrug and call it politics, or you can say it out loud so people start recognizing the pattern. I choose door number two. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

The steps are weirdly familiar:

First, divide us. Turn “We the People” into “Us versus Them.”

Second, break unions, gut healthcare, make school unaffordable, then hand out scapegoats like candy, tell folks it’s the other party’s fault.

Third, lie so constantly that truth itself becomes exhausting.

Fourth, befriend dictators while calling allies freeloaders.

Fifth, insist that the government is broken and only one man can fix it, conveniently, the man saying that.

Sixth, turn the police inward, first on minorities, then on dissenters.

Seventh, funnel the money upward and call it freedom.

Eighth, capture the courts, bend the schools, weaponize justice, and let your friends off scot-free.

After that, it’s just details, but basically, it is gaslighting the nation until everyone’s too tired to argue. Exhausted, divided people are easy to rule.

And here’s where I admit I’m the person who can’t stop connecting the dots out loud.

I know it’s “teachy.” But this isn’t some conspiracy board in my basement. This isn’t hysteria; it’s history. Romans, fascists, authoritarians? They’ve all run the same grim playbook. Same script, different century.

The good news is, history also says it doesn’t have to end that way. People have stopped this slide before. Ordinary citizens in Poland, Brazil, South Korea. People who looked up from their dinner tables and said, “Wait a minute, this isn’t normal.”

So maybe I sound preachy or teachy. Maybe I sound tired. Maybe I bore you. That’s okay. I am tired and I even bore myself. But I’m also paying attention.

And Elie Wiesel said silence is complicity and that is why I’ll keep showing up here. Not because I think I’ll change anyone’s mind on Facebook (I won’t), but because silence is a luxury we can’t afford.

So I’ll keep posting, keep "teaching", keep boring you with long paragraphs and too many commas and hyphens because that’s what ordinary people do when the house is smoldering. We grab a bucket, we holler for the neighbors, and we remember we still belong to each other. My house burns and yours could be next.