What have we learned in the first three weeks of the second Trump administration? Voters have spoken, and the results are: Character does not count, in elected or appointed office. Competence does not matter for administration appointees. Personal corruption, criminality, and conflict-of-interest can be ignored, as can the Constitution.

What does matter? Color and Christianity rule the day: white is more “in” than ever, as God favors some people over others, and some have more rights than others. Cat-fighting is encouraged: pick fights with everybody, always, day and night. Chaos, conflict, and confusion are the new norms. Dreams of conquest (Greenland, Panama Canal, Gaza) displace compassion and caring for everyday Americans.

This is a hard right turn for this country, different than Bush, Reagan, or Nixon. The idealogs behind it are more aggressive, more prepared and better financed than before. That is bad news for those who love and have faith in this democracy. How to impede this authoritarian progression is not just the job of the Democrat Party. We could all just put down our phones, exhausted from the tsunami of bad news. Let’s not do that. Small things, like the veiled attempt to “normalize” DOGE in this paper (Marcia Kelbon, Feb. 5) need responses. There is nothing normal about Elon Musk, what he is doing and especially, how it is being done. It’s one thing to eliminate government waste, redundancy, overstaffing and reduce the deficit. If only that was the full agenda.

Chicken Little I am not; I hope that some voters will eventually regret their ballot choices. But as fortunate as we may be to be living in Port Townsend, Jefferson County and Washington state, even here, lives are changing.

Steve Chappuis

Port Townsend