Writer David Brooks is rarely prone to hyperbole and often resists the easy pull of partisanship. A thoughtful conservative who has moved toward the center, he writes to understand politics through the lens of conscience—reminding readers that integrity, not ideology, should guide the debate.

Like Brooks, I believe that integrity is vital to a thriving democracy. Like Brooks, I believe that character matters more than political tribalism, that humility strengthens judgment, and that without honesty, responsibility, and respect at the core of public life, democracy itself begins to crumble.

So when David Brooks asks a question, I listen:

“How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent? He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him, at the very least, morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful. What has brought us to this state of moral numbness?”

Brooks’ question is not partisan outrage; it’s moral concern for a nation founded on three words: We the People. And if Brooks is concerned, it means the fire’s already burning.

Donald Trump’s actions have already corrupted both truth and the institutions we depend on to uphold it. That corruption doesn’t stop at the steps of the Capitol; it has infected courtrooms, law offices, medical research, and universities across the country. When a former FBI director and a national security adviser are hauled into court, that’s not justice, it’s retaliation.

Robert Kennedy’s book The Enemy Within focused on his investigation into corruption, crime, and the abusive power of organized labor leaders within the Teamsters Union. Kennedy exposed how greed and intimidation undermined the rights of honest workers—reminding the country that the gravest threats to justice often come not from foreign adversaries but from corruption within our own institutions.

This time, the corruption doesn’t come from a union boss; it comes from the highest office in the land and from those willing to subvert the very Constitution the president swore to defend.

His teardown of the East Wing of the White House is symbolic of his teardown of democracy itself. But his most destructive work has been dismantling reason, research, and truth, aided and abetted by a compliant Republican Congress that would rather protect their jobs than the American people, and a majority of the Supreme Court that believes that the president has supreme power over pretty much anything he wants.

America stands at a moral crossroads unlike any… any we’ve faced since the nation’s founding. Donald Trump has exploited healthy skepticism, turning the phrase “fake news” into a sledgehammer aimed at the press and “radical left lunatics” at anyone who dares to challenge his endless list of grievances or peacefully protest his actions.

“America needs a mass movement, now,” Brooks writes. “Nonviolent protests put authoritarian regimes in a lose-lose situation: Either cede the streets to the protesters or crack down in ways that weaken your legitimacy. If a movement seeks only to please its own radicals, it fails. If it uses action to change the narrative and persuade the mainstream, it has a good chance of success.”

And it’s already begun with No Kings rallies across the country. The October 18 rally drew approximately 5 to 7 million Americans across the country who demonstrated the conscience and the courage to push for change.

Donald Trump’s response came in a jaw-dropping AI-generated video he posted, where he appears as a fighter pilot, dropping what seems to be feces on protesters while wearing a crown—an image as crude as it is revealing of his contempt for dissent. How anyone can tolerate such an image posted by a U.S. president is jaw-dropping in itself.

If we’re to pull back from the edge of authoritarianism, we must continue to act—to build support, to hold nonviolent rallies, and to support those leaders, on both sides, who are willing to lead the charge back to reason, back to the moral character of this nation.