People simply would not tell the truth

Sarah Kendzior studies authoritarian regimes and uses her blog and Twitter feed to document how the nasty guy fits the mold. She has also been doing TV and radio appearances to spread her findings. On a recent appearance on the Rick Smith Show she expressed her frustration. An excerpt from a transcript of the show posted on her blog:

My question remains, since so much of this information that we built our articles on was in the public domain, is why the hell didn’t anyone do anything? When Manafort took over Trump’s campaign, when Trump had this obvious record of terrible financial conflicts of interest, ties with the mafia, bankruptcies. The way that this campaign played out, the more Mueller clamps down now, the more angry I am that nothing happened before. Because we were told over and over that we were crazy, that we were paranoid, and there was this sense of ‘If I really am right about this, if my instincts are correct, that I’ve gotta be wrong because clearly somebody would do something about this.’ It’s almost like it’s so obvious it can’t be true. But we were right.

And now they have entrenched themselves in the White House. There is classified information that is accessible to a large number of people who should have never had it in the first place. Those secrets can be sold on the market. We have climate change regulations that can’t be undone, we have damage that can’t be undone. We have courts packed with conservatives. We have corruption on a scale that we never could have imagined. It’s basically a Mafia White House. So good luck fixing that!

And if people had freaking been on the ball, back in not even 2016 or 2015 but, like, in 2002, and the entire time Manafort and Trump were getting into all this shit — I mean, Jesus Christ, where the hell were people? Why did nobody speak up in a forthright and honest way? And why were those of us who spoke up castigated repeatedly for a year? I know I sound pissed, but it’s because I am. It is so frustrating. It is not out of personal pride or anything like that. It’s because I have to raise my children in this country. I have to see people get deported in this country. I have to see a permanent breakdown of an already flailing society because people simply would not tell the truth.