I suppose it is only natural for a person to reach a certain age and long for the so-called “Good old days.”

Whether they reminisce about the music of their day, the cars they used to drive, or the freedom they used to have.

We’ve all heard that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out and get away. But if you put him in room temperature water and gradually turn up the heat, he will eventually get used to it and be boiled to death.

Now, why anyone would want to boil a frog to death is beyond me and beside the point.

But I use that analogy to show that when it comes to losing the America we used to know, the frog is in the water, and the heat is getting turned up.

In Trump’s first 100 days, this country has seen chaos like we’ve never seen. Sure, we’ve had tumultuous times in the past, but I always felt that adults were in the room and we would eventually right any wrongs. Now I’m not so sure.

Back in the “Good old days,” newsrooms had a full staff to keep an eye on the government and report on any wrongdoing. People got their news from trained professional reporters who spent time digging into a story and double-checking their facts. Now, too many read the headlines on a tweet from some partisan hack, and they feel informed. It wasn’t all that long ago that wrongdoing by government officials was exposed and changes were made. Now, there are too few investigative stories, and those that are reported are ignored or blamed as being propaganda from the “lamestream media.”

The nation’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has given the Justice Department permission to subpoena reporters to find out who is leaking them information on government activities. It’s meant to intimidate the press and the whistleblowers alike.

American citizens and people who are legally in the country have been deported. The Trump administration has defied a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of one such person.

Speaking of courts and immigration, a Wisconsin judge was arrested by the FBI for obstructing agents about to arrest an undocumented immigrant. The judge may or may not be guilty of a crime, but there was no need to arrest her in the courthouse, have her do a perp walk to the car, and then have Kash Patel violate the DOJ’s own policy of releasing video of the walk.

The arrest was meant to intimidate judges and lawyers more than it was meant to enforce the rule of law.

And speaking of the rule of law, the Trump administration is going after powerful law firms to get them to bow down to his authority.

The White House Correspondence dinner canceled former Omaha comedian Amber Ruffin from being the entertainment. The press was afraid of upsetting the President. If you can’t make fun of the President, we have lost a basic First Amendment right. Free speech takes another hit.

Speaking of attacks on the press, there have been many more. The head of 60 Minutes resigned when CBS kept applying pressure on him not to upset the President. Upsetting him might hurt a big business deal.

Trump has banned the Associated Press from official presidential events because they refuse to call it the Gulf of America. He’s sued the Des Moines Register for publishing an inaccurate survey that showed him losing. ABC gave the Trump library 15 million dollars to settle a lawsuit where Trump claimed that George Stephanopoulos libeled him. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Some Americans embrace these attacks on the media, but many don’t know anything about them. A Poynter Institute survey found that 20% of the country is unaware of the attacks, and 44% are only slightly aware.

Trump has said he thinks he can defy the Constitution and serve a third term. He’s already selling MAGA hats with 2028 on them. He didn’t want to leave the White House last time why would he agree to leave now?

Granted, the so-called “Good old days” weren’t always that good, but our Congressmen and Senators were more loyal to the Constitution than to their party. Nowadays, those positions have been reversed.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The frog is in the water, and the heat is getting turned up. If we get used to rising temperatures, the water will soon be boiling, and the “Good old days” of freedom will be a thing of the past.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.