WE ARE THE RESISTANCE
ODILE DE VASSELOT DE RÉGNÉ was a young French aristocrat when she heard General Charles de Gaulle’s voice on the radio asking for the French to resist German occupation. And taking many risky assignments is just what she did, including helping Allied airmen get from Belgium to France on their way to Spain, away from Nazi capture.
It was April 1944 when General de Gaulle’s provisional government rewarded French women for their work in the Resistance by giving them the right to vote. Yes, voting rights for women were a long time coming in parts of Europe. It was not until April 29, 1945, that French women voted for the first time in municipal elections.
But what these women did to save their country has never been forgotten.
On April 29th of this year, France celebrated the 80th anniversary of French women’s right to vote. In preparation for the occasion, Le Monde interviewed French Resistance hero Odile de Vasselot de Régné about her memories of voting for the first time. The piece was published on April 29th, but Madame de Vasselot died in Paris a few days after the April 17th interview. She was 103 years old. For her exceptional work in the Resistance, she received a war hero’s funeral.
May we remember the courage and honor of Odile de Vasselot as we face our own country’s occupation by those who want to destroy American democracy and our personal freedoms. Let us brace ourselves with determination and bravery to resist the authoritarians before us—and let us take heart that we will succeed.
NOW, TO THE sheer incompetence, insanity, and corruption of the Trump administration and what our Resistance needs to be. Trump’s “making America great again” is making each and every American less safe every day.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson writes a brilliant news and analysis column, but the one on May 5th covers the extent of Trump family corruption in one shocking/not shocking piece. We aren’t surprised. These people must be working around the clock figuring out how to make unethical money from this presidency, as well as devising ways to fleece the MAGA flock, who—good little sheep—seem perfectly happy to fund whatever he wants. Richardson’s column on May 6th underscores more of the Trump Regime’s incompetence, although we see the results of it every brutal day.
But what about that AI photo of Trump as Pope? He posted it on Truth Social and then said he had no idea who made it. Presumably, it was someone in his employ. This photo must be J.D. Vance’s dream come true. I read that, as an evangelical Baptist child, he imagined the “Catholic Jesus” as a “majestic deity” reserved for the privileged. Now, he is one of the privileged, and his boss has deified himself.
I am proud to say that I neither read J.D. Vance’s controversial memoir Hillbilly Elegy nor watched the movie. Vance calls his Yale Law School Professor Amy Chua the “authorial godmother” of his book. For over three years while he was a student at Yale, she mentored his writing of it. Chua herself wrote a controversial book—Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother—about her Chinese parenting techniques. This is an excerpt she published in The New York Times.
The Chinese Mother
A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:
• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin• not play the piano or violin.
What creates a successful life? Most experts would say that true success and happiness come from realizing all parts of yourself, not just excelling at competitions and academics. The real question is what do we genuinely value? What about living with yourself, hopefully on a deep and meaningful level, with grace in the pleasure of life? Or being a worthy human being with both compassion for others and a passion to make the world a better place? In life, we must learn more than how to accept; we must also practice the generosity of forgiveness.
The Trump Regime displays none of that.
PART OF THE American dream was to be educated and excellent. It was certainly the case in my family. But the dumbing down of America has been happening for decades, promoted by Conservatives and the GOP, and it’s one of the cornerstones of the Trump Regime. The educated, sophisticated, diverse, and cultured—the “woke”—is exactly what they’re trying to stomp out of existence, “they” being white men and women who don’t like brown people. Anyone who isn’t white and yet thinks their money and status make them fit the white mold is dreaming.
But keeping people ignorant so they can be controlled evidently doesn’t apply to the GOP gentry. The Democrats are elitists? Hmm. The Ivy League is full of conservative extremists like Vivek Ramaswamy, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Elise Stefanik, and Ted Cruz, with conservative professors mentoring them. But “elitism” is a narrative that the Republicans took control of, made their own, and crushed us with to hide their hypocrisy in plain sight.
Meanwhile, we Democrats intellectualized issues instead of listening to voices from the farms and ranches of America, or from the shrimp boats, or from the small businesses that Walmart shut down. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) decided who our candidates would be and threw the rest of the field out of the running, despite what the people were telling them, with or without words. Feelings, actions, and movements speak too.
The energy we’re now seeing generated by Bernie Sanders and AOC’s rallies around the country is throwing the DNC’s arrogance in their faces. Do they get it now? The people have wanted real change since 2016, when Trump was elected. Many of the Trump voters didn’t want the same-old corporate answer that had been rammed down our throats for too long. Even Obama, whom we loved, who promised a shake-up, didn’t make the difference we expected. Of course, the GOP sought to neutralize him by hog-tying his agenda while fanning the flames of racism with industrial-strength blades. But despite their opposition, Obama was elected twice. Twice. A young, educated, brilliant, capable, handsome black man. It was the GOP’s worst nightmare.
The mainstream, legacy media that we counted on in the past has repeatedly failed to report on events with the understanding, truth, and experience that we have desperately needed. They actually helped Trump get elected the first term by constantly covering his ridiculousness. They were greedy. More digital clicks meant more money in advertising dollars, and Trump knows nothing if not how to create circus drama to get the cameras rolling. Candidates who deserved coverage, like Bernie Sanders and others—candidates who were not only serious but possessed the energy to recast the political and cultural conversation around them, pushing forward a vortex of change—were mostly ignored. The DNC got what they wanted, and some Democrats, too. At least that’s what they thought…until Trump won.
Bernie is the one out there trying to save us now, while the Democrats twiddle their thumbs. He has not changed his message in decades, which is absolutely the only way to take back our country. AOC with Bernie makes for a charismatic combo with the crowds to prove it. Meanwhile, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is raising his own good hell, and now Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has delivered the speech of the moment, calling for “mass protests” and declaring that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace.” Amen.
The New York Times recently published a piece titled The Fight Against Trump Isn’t a Movement, but It’s Gaining Momentum. This is yet another example of how NYT is missing the cultural mark and not doing the job we have historically expected it to do. I have been disappointed in their reporting for years, and The Washington Post is dead to most of us. But this headline is flatly wrong. People all over the country are out in big cities and small towns protesting against this disaster of an administration. There are multitudes of grass roots organizations pulling their people together to do everything they can. Look at what’s happened to Tesla, because of our efforts. Tesla’s sales and share prices have plummeted. Do better, NYT.
This poor performance of these mainstream outlets is why we’re turning to the growing and thriving independent press, which is producing the news we need. I always read comments, and I have never seen so many NYT reporters jump in to try to justify the above-mentioned piece about the fight against Trump not being a movement. The Times must know that independent journalists are beating them all day long. MeidasTouchNetwork, The Bulwark, Jim Acosta, Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice, and so many more are the journalists people trust now.
We’ve been talking for some time about how NYT and others have sane-washed Trump. National Book Award-winning journalist James Fallows astutely addresses this important subject in his piece After the Election: Swimming in the Sea of Disinformation. If you haven’t read it, now’s the time.
And let’s not forget the celebrities. The “cult of celebrity” allows those who will to drive detrimental coverage as well. Take Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner, who, like Trump, had a brilliant mind for mindless reality TV. Transgender Caitlyn grotesquely has supported Trump since 2016, even with Trump’s full-throttle campaign against transgender people. If Caitlyn didn’t hate herself before, she definitely should now, for being part of this assault on transgender people. What’s a transgender Uncle Tom called? An Aunt Caitlyn?
AND THAT BRINGS us back to J.D. Vance. The Yale environment had a huge impact on this young man from Middletown, Ohio. Back in 2011, when the senator met (Peter) Thiel following a talk the venture capitalist gave at Yale Law School that Vance has characterized as “the most significant moment of my time” at the institution…
After Yale, Vance worked with Peter Thiel who became another mentor to him. It turns out Thiel is a member of the Silicon Valley Christian bro community. Billionaire Christian tech bros. But are they actually following the teachings of Christ?
I asked AI—the tech bros’ greatest teacher—to tell me what were Jesus’s greatest teachings. The answer:
Jesus taught that loving God is paramount, requiring a complete devotion of one's being to Him. This love is not just a feeling, but a commitment to living in accordance with God
Building upon the love for God, Jesus emphasized the importance of loving one's neighbor, extending this love to everyone, even enemies. This love is expressed through acts of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.
Despite its Christian nationalist engine and the enaction of “Christian” Project 2025, this administration, including Vance, fails in the entirety of the second most important tenant of Christianity, Love Thy Neighbor. The Trump Regime is anything but kind and compassionate, and Trump’s vengefulness is well known. We see him act on it every day. This vindictive deportation of immigrants is inhumane. But Trump loves nothing more than being a bully. And Vance spits out his own intolerance at every opportunity, most recently about visitors who might come to the U.S. for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hey, y’all, you’re welcome to come here, but then get the hell out. We don’t want you. His un-welcome was said with glee.
Why would anyone in the world want to come to the United States for a sports event or vacation? The U.S. is expected to lose billions of dollars in the travel and tourism business because of Trump’s mess, including because visitors do not feel they would be safe here. And they’re not.
Does Trump have any idea that his attack on the Ivy League (and all other colleges, universities, grade schools, high schools, public schools, and PBS’s efforts to provide for children who can’t go to nursery school) is so transparent? Limit education and stop engaging bright minds. So much for the Tiger Mother’s extreme, some would say abusive, parenting for excellence. Dumbing down is the point today.
TRUMP’S ATTACK ON us is overwhelming, and there are great obstacles before us. But think of what the French Resistance was up against. Think about our French Resistance heroine, Odile de Vasselot…
In November, as Mr. Macron was decorating her with the National Order of Merit at the Élysée Palace, she responded with bracing words: “What I want to say to young people is, ‘Never give up, never give up, whatever difficulties you face.’”
From her heroic resistance to the Nazis occupying her country to our version of that, I take this as a timely message for American Resistance. Merci beaucoup, Madame. We needed to hear your summons to do what is right.
Please send any questions or comments our community can address and respond to.
Peace. We are one.
A Few Of My Favorite Social Media Posts And Memes Of The Week:
*Correction. This piece first referred to JD Vance as coming “from the hills and hollers” because of an editing mix-up. He did not grow up in Kentucky. He grew up in Middletown, Ohio, which the piece now says.
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Vive la Resistance!
Fantastic! Beth is on FIRE! Vive la Resistance!