IT'S HARD NOT TO CALL NONSENSE

Editorial by Clint Grantham

Every time I hear someone swear we’re suddenly living in a “totalitarian state,” that Donald Trump was some unprecedented tyrant, or that America has never seen heavy-handed immigration enforcement or pressure on the press before, it’s hard not to call nonsense. 

This country has a long, well-documented history of presidents... across parties... who suspended constitutional rights, jailed critics, seized private property, surveilled citizens, interned whole populations, and even killed Americans without trial, yet those episodes rarely trigger the same breathless panic or historical amnesia. 

Compared to what the executive branch has actually done in the past, today’s hysterics... whether about immigration enforcement or high-profile media controversies... sound less like sober constitutional concern and more like selective outrage from people who skipped the history lesson.

Here are just a few examples from our nation's past off the top of my head...

• John Adams (1798) — Alien and Sedition Acts

Enacted during tensions with France, these laws made it a crime to criticize the federal government and allowed the president to detain or deport non-citizens without due process, directly suppressing free speech and press in peacetime.

• Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) — Suspension of habeas corpus; arrests

During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, allowing military detention without trial, which led to the arrest of journalists, legislators, and civilians suspected of disloyalty, bypassing normal judicial protections.

• Woodrow Wilson (1917–1920) — Espionage Act & Sedition Act

These wartime laws were used to imprison Americans for speeches, publications, and protests opposing World War I, criminalizing dissent and dramatically narrowing First Amendment protections.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933) — Executive Order 6102 (gold seizure)

Required Americans to surrender most privately held gold to the federal government under threat of fines and imprisonment, effectively voiding gold-backed contracts and concentrating monetary control in the executive branch.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt (1942) — Executive Order 9066 (Japanese-American internment)

Authorized the forced removal and incarceration of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans—most of them U.S. citizens—without charges, trials, or evidence of wrongdoing, based solely on ancestry.

• Harry S. Truman (1952) — Seizure of steel mills

Attempted to nationalize the steel industry during the Korean War to prevent a labor strike, asserting executive power over private property; the action was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

• Richard Nixon (1969–1974) — Surveillance and targeting of opponents

Used federal agencies for warrantless surveillance, intelligence abuses, and intimidation of journalists and political enemies, culminating in the Watergate scandal and resignation.

• George W. Bush (2001–2008) — USA PATRIOT Act & warrantless surveillance

Expanded federal surveillance and intelligence powers after 9/11, enabling mass data collection and reduced judicial oversight, significantly narrowing privacy protections for Americans.

• Barack Obama (2010s) — Drone strikes on U.S. citizens:

Authorized a drone strike killing Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, without indictment or trial, and later a separate strike that killed his minor son, raising profound due-process and executive-power concerns.

• Joe Biden (2021–2023) — Vaccine mandates and employment consequences

Used executive authority to impose nationwide vaccine mandates, resulting in service members being discharged from the military—many later reinstated with back pay—and nurses and other essential workers being permanently forced out of their professions, with courts later limiting or overturning parts of these actions

I don’t agree with every decision Donald Trump makes, and I don’t know anyone who does. But the narrative that he is some unprecedented tyrant or monster... something America has never seen before... is just plain foolishness. Our history is full of presidents who exercised far greater executive power and caused far more direct harm to constitutional rights, yet that context is conveniently ignored when outrage is selective rather than informed.