Pastor Martin Niemoeller famously wrote, “First they came for the socialists, but I was not a socialist, so I said nothing.” Any allusion to Pastor Niemoeller instantly summons the history of how, in the 1930s, the Nazis rapidly eroded the freedom of the German people and brought down their fragile democracy. Such comparisons are frowned upon these days. They are considered overblown and hysterical. There can be nothing that compares with the unmitigated evil of the Nazis. True. However, I am not comparing us to 1941 Germany. I am referencing how Germany devolved from the hopes of 1933 and how the downhill road they took condemned them to arrive at 1941. We must seek an off-ramp from this road that I believe we are already travelling.

A modern version of the Niemoeller litany might be: First they came for the recent immigrants, but I am not a recent immigrant, so I said nothing. Then they came for the peaceful protestors, but though I’m a peaceful protestor, they didn’t get me, so I said nothing. Then they came for our Fools, the comedians and satirists—and that is deeply personal. I am a political commentator, a satirist and an aspiring Fool.

When a government comes for a segment of society that it finds threatening, it usually starts with the weakest elements and works its way up to those whose criticism might actually threaten them. So, when they came for the immigrants, it was low-hanging fruit, but now they’ve come for the Fools, the social satirists who mock them and make them objects of derision. They don’t like being laughed at.

Being a Fool is an honorable profession. It involves speaking the truth in a way that brings laughter and, more importantly, insight. The Fool’s job is to use humor to open the minds of those in power. Importantly, it is also the Fool’s job to tell the truth and still survive. Though King Lear’s Fool dies, in most literature he survives to joust with pointed jests against the power of the King or State.

It is the mark of thin-skinned and insecure supposedly powerful people to turn in anger and fear against society’s marginalized people and the Fools who often stand apart on polite society’s fringes. This is what is happening now to us, our society, our immigrants, minorities, dissenters, protestors and Fools. While they are being rounded up, deported without due process, isolated and disappeared, the government seeks to eliminate the reporters who tell us what is happening and the Fools who meet the threats of the powerful with derision, laughter and insight, producing truth.

They started with Stephen Colbert and went on to Jimmy Kimmel. Today they’re targeting Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers by name, and we know Jon Stewart will heave into range shortly. Get rid of the comic commentators and Niemoeller’s observation is completed; so, when they come for the rest of us, there will be no one left to speak on our behalf.

I don’t blame Trump, at least not completely. No leader, hell, no person, enjoys criticism or worse mockery. Every president believes that he is being mistreated, misquoted and misrepresented by the media. This is not a left or right complaint. John Adams attempted to criminalize criticism of the president—and at least in this one thing, Trump would follow Adams. Trump’s desire to stifle the laughter and mockery is understandable, and while I don’t like it, I expect no less.

What I don’t expect or accept is the clear cowardice of our institutions that caved without resistance to the threats and demands of this bully. How could they not know that if they paid blackmail, they would have to pay it again? How could they not know that if they caved to a bully, they would only empower and encourage the bully to their own detriment? Yes, I’m mad at Trump, but worse, I’m disappointed in the academics who folded and paid Trump’s monetary demands—as if money could remediate antisemitism, or if Trump actually were trying to remediate antisemitism as opposed to finding an entry point to weaken academia.

I’m angry and disappointed at the law firms that, when threatened with loss of government contracts, shrank into pathetic servility and offered to work out their extorted fines with pro bono work for Trump causes.

Worst of all is our media, the Fifth Estate, the guardians of our democracy, who sold out by paying for protection. First, Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post’s presidential endorsement of Biden when threatened with higher postal fees for his company, Amazon. Then, Patrick Soon-Shiong killed an LA Times Biden endorsement, most likely to protect his government contracts with the medical branch of his empire. Then CBS settled a legally frivolous lawsuit against 60 Minutes because of the allegedly unfair editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. I don’t know what Trump’s theory of damages might have been since he won the damn election! CBS rolled to protect a sale and a merger. Then ABC settled a ridiculous suit over George Stephanopolis saying Trump was convicted of criminal rape when it was only civil sexual assault with penetration.

Did these media giants and moral cowards learn anything from their craven capitulations? Of course not.

Trump went right back after CBS and Colbert, and again, CBS folded. Then he again went after ABC and yes, again ABC surrendered. Do you think any of these media giants believed that Trump had a case? Of course not. But they did believe that he would block their business interests and expansion plans. They believed he could hound and harass them and that it would be easier and cheaper to give in. But, alas, it doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked. It cannot work. Like the Terminator, “He’ll be back!”

An insecure bully is never satisfied. He is an open pit that cannot be filled. These leaders delude themselves and will ultimately weaken themselves while also weakening our democracy. Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

These core institutions, these guardians of our democracy, this Fifth Estate, have gone morally bankrupt, trading their core mission for short-term profits. Perhaps, if the media were owned by media people and not just reside in the small corners of the portfolios of giant companies with many business interests (and concomitant vulnerabilities), they could choose to take a stand and defend their important calling to bring truth to the people. If democracy depends on an informed electorate and the government destroys the source of information, our democracy will fail and fall.

Is this hopeless? Is it already too late? Has the bully won? Do we have a chance? Only a Fool would still have hope, which is why, now more than ever, we need to fight for and protect our Fools.