America’s leadership class is failing us. It’s up to you and me to defend democracy | Robert Reich

The disappearance of America's leadership class at a time like this means that the rest of us have to be leaders

As Trump and his goons strip Americans of our constitutional rights, the silence of the nation's leadership class is deafening.

I'm old enough to remember when, during the Vietnam war, university presidents utilized their bully pulpits to remind America of its moral center.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now