Many of the thousands of letters between the two founders attest to their deep commitment to religious freedom. | AlexanderZam/iStock via Getty Images Plus

From defying Congress to rewarding loyalists and ignoring constitutional limits, America is confronting a dangerous new era where the rule of law no longer restrains those in power…

Back when I was a kid in Lansing, Michigan, my father used to tell me that the difference between America and the places his Army buddies had fought through in Europe and Asia wasn’t the size of our buildings or the strength of our army.

(As Stephen Colbert nears the end of his run as a host on late night television, it is becoming clearer than ever that the forces of repression seek to crush what Michael Denning called "the Cultural Front," including the comedians. That is in popular culture today the most penetrating critiques of the drift toward American fascism are found among the comedians. And reflecting on our past, the era of the Spanish American War, Jim Crow, McCarthyism and now Trumpism, it is the comedians who have popularized and legitimized critiques of  the rich and powerful.