Talk of torture, gag orders on government departments, building a wall, limiting immigration from Muslim countries, investigation of non-existent voter fraud, cutting veterans’ benefits. Lies, lies, and more lies. And still more lies.

I hear people saying things like “this isn’t the America I grew up in!” But it is, you know. If you were here during the Nixon Administration — and you’re honest about it — it is in fact exactly the America you grew up in. Or in my case, were a young adult in.

A few of the specific issues, such as Islamophobia, are new, but the atmosphere and the underlying mindset are very much the same. An executive branch filled with people who give the term “henchmen” a bad name, executive secrecy and paranoia, a damaged and deranged president and a vice president who in some ways is even worse…same old song.

Repression of dissent, fake news (think body counts in the Viet Nam era), racism pretending to be something else, enemies lists, excoriation of the legitimate press. The FBI an out-of-control partisan organization, the Congress and much of the public in deep thrall to a psychopath, false dangers (Communism then, “Islamic jihad” now) hyped to justify unjustifiable government actions. Nothing new under the sun.

If you listen, you’ll hear people my age talking about how we already did the dissent and the demonstrations once, and for years. None of us really want to do it again. But we have to, and we will. It took 10 years of active dissent to end it the last time. Let’s all hope it won’t take as long this time.