A college student is sounding the alarm that Americans are still refusing to hear the warning that has now arrived.
Writing Tuesday, Harper Leary recalled the German pastor, Martin Niemöller, who penned the infamous quote that highlights the complicity in silence.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me," the Lutheran pastor wrote after spending years aligning himself with the far-right Nazi cause.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia explains that "in the first years of the Nazi regime, [Niemöller] had remained silent as the Nazis persecuted other Germans, especially members of leftist political movements with whom he disagreed." He ultimately realized his mistake and began speaking out, only to be captured by the Nazis and thrown into prison and concentration camps for the last eight years of World War II.
In the years that followed, Niemöller traveled the country teaching Germans, particularly Protestant churches, that their silence made them just as guilty as the Nazis themselves.
In her column for "The Pitt News," Leary said that when she sees the words, she is reminded of just how easy it is for people to be "blinded by hate and lies."
"America’s individualism, which has manifested itself in identity politics, religious freedom and self-reliance, has distorted itself into a nation of apathy," she wrote. "We have become so focused on our own nuclear world, surviving, that we cannot see how hurting others also harms us."
What is happening in the U.S. today is the perfect example, with Republicans and ex-Trump supporters who claim they had no idea that Trump would come for their friends and neighbors.
She cited recent reports of Trump voters of one man in Florida who owns businesses that employ Latino workers with valid work permits and proper documentation, who are still being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Well, you know, you get to know these guys, you become their friends — just not an employer, but a friend — and you see what happens to their family. It’s … It’s quite a shock," Vincent Scardina told NBC.
The story is repeating itself across the U.S., with home builders in Texas, whose workers are also completely legal, but are still being harassed and arrested by ICE. They're too afraid to come to work, and the industry has slowed to a crawl in the area.
Mario Guerrero, executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, told the New York Times last month, "I did vote for Mr. Trump. Deporting the criminals is a great policy. But we voted for the American Dream, and unfortunately, right now, we're not seeing that."
As Leary explained, "The people who were comfortable voting for Trump, even though he publicly stated what his plans were and were then harmed by these policies, are living out the words of Niemöller."
Another group is veterans, she said, who backed Republicans in large numbers in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. Now, they're watching as thousands of American soldiers are being sent back to the Middle East to fight in a war Trump promised would never happen.
"The Trump administration is coming for its own people and thus disconnecting our country further," Leary wrote.
She closed by telling MAGA to wake up because authoritarianism never just stops at one target.
