When I was growing up, I was really interested in World War II and specifically the Holocaust (I know, I know, I was a weird kid). I read a lot of survival narratives. Some Jewish and other targeted people escaped Nazi territory altogether, some survived the camps, some were successfully hidden for the duration of the war.

But one thing most of the narratives and experiences had in common was that at some point, the Jewish person or family tried to leave their country, but they couldn’t get papers. Papers always came up — sometimes exit visas, sometimes entry visas, sometimes passports. But always, the German (or, often, occupied) government denied them travel papers.

Years later, my sister came along and read my Holocaust books as well. She went a step further and decided she wanted to dedicate her life to stopping genocide and human rights abuses, and she is currently attending Leiden University in the Netherlands for a master’s degree in war and peace studies. She’s graduating in May, and our whole family is supposed to go see her (and, in my case, go overseas for the first time!).

But. We don’t know if the government will issue my wife a passport. You see, almost all her legal documents have her proper name and gender marker, but her expired passport from high school doesn’t. And a few weeks ago, the president instructed the State Department to stop changing gender markers on passports.

So, we have no idea what will happen if we apply for our passports. Either a renewal will be rejected outright, or it will process in a way that does not match all her other documents. We don’t even know if we should apply for passports — you have to give your documents to the government. What if they don’t give them back?

It brought me back to Germany in 1938. But we’re in America, in 2025. And we don’t know if the government is going to prevent us from leaving the country. Not because we’re criminals or international spies or something, but because of matters of identity.

I don’t care if you think I’m silly and hysterical comparing these things. I was blessed with a good education, including in history. Plus, I have autism, which in addition to the ability to eat the same thing 87 days in a row without complaint also comes with enhanced pattern recognition.

I don’t like what I’m seeing. I don’t like the conclusions I’m drawing. It feels like the Democratic Party has thrown my community under the bus and the Republicans are driving the bus. We’re in the middle of a constitutional crisis right now. Most people haven’t noticed because the television isn’t framing it that way, and also because it’s kind of boring and involves words so long that you fall asleep halfway through them, words like “impoundment” and “appropriation.”

Congress has the power of the purse in our government. I double-checked the pocket Constitution I keep in my purse. (It’s a different type of purse power.) By unilaterally shutting down chunks of the government that Congress voted on approving funds for, the president is violating both the Constitution and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

And so many so-called constitutional conservatives who are always thumping on about the Constitution and federalism and checks and balances of power are rolling over like my dog asking for a belly rub, abandoning all their previously held beliefs just because they like the man violating them. Pathetic.

In my time here at the Press Herald, I’ve occasionally pushed the boundaries of words you can and cannot print in the state’s paper of record. I’ve gotten away with “hell” and “rat’s ass” (in the context of not giving one). But I’ve been extremely sparing with F-words. There’s definitely one that I’m not allowed to say at all, and another that I suspect in the future I might not be allowed to say either.

But there’s only one word for a government that scapegoats its problems on a minority of citizens, that concentrates power in the executive offices, specifically the head of the state, while ignoring the elected representatives of the people. That F-word is fascist.

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