Where did America's leaders go?

Robert Reich -   As Trump and his goons strip Americans of our constitutional rights, the silence of the nation’s leadership class is deafening.

I’m old enough to remember when, during the Vietnam War, university presidents utilized their bully pulpits to remind America of its moral center.

Today, university presidents are cowed. One college president recently told me point blank that “university presidents have no business speaking out on public issues.”

The chancellor of my own university, the University of California at Berkeley — the very place where the “free speech movement” began in 1965 — still hasn’t explained why Berkeley last week handed over to the regime the names of 160 students, lecturers, and faculty members who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Some are here on visas and terribly vulnerable. Others lack tenure and are vulnerable in different ways.

It’s not just university presidents who have become silent or complicit. Whatever happened to America’s religious leaders?

During prior crises of conscience, such as the struggle for civil rights, the voices of the nation’s religious leaders were loud and confident. They brimmed with moral authority. Today, we hear only the strident voices of the religious right.

What happened to America’s business leaders? They’ve never been especially reluctant to speak out on public issues.

For years Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, has acted as a self-appointed spokesperson for American business, sometimes reminding CEOs of their social responsibilities. This time? Utter silence.

Other CEOs have gone over to the dark side, competing to suck up to the tyrant-in-chief, eager to lavish him with praise, gush over his accomplishments, even hand him gifts of solid gold bullion.

The leaders of America’s legal community? “I want to keep my head down,” the senior partner of a large firm told me. “We have too much to lose.”

The leaders of the media? They’re busy consolidating their ownership over ever more of the nation’s media and dare not upset Trump’s FCC and toady Brendan Carr.

What of their responsibility to protect free speech? They’re far more interested in maximizing the value of their shares of stock.

And whatever happened to the nation’s political leaders? Where are their voices in this time of democratic crisis?

Most Republicans are zombies and most Democrats, wimps.


For years Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, has acted as a self-appointed spokesperson for American business, sometimes reminding CEOs of their social responsibilities. This time? Utter silence.

Other CEOs have gone over to the dark side, competing to suck up to the tyrant-in-chief, eager to lavish him with praise, gush over his accomplishments, even hand him gifts of solid gold bullion.

The leaders of America’s legal community? “I want to keep my head down,” the senior partner of a large firm told me. “We have too much to lose.”