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WASHINGTON -- Greetings from riding shockwaves in the nerve center of the free world.

Bleak fury is passed around like the plague here since The Washington Post's owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, nixed its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

This column before Election Day is filled with foreboding.

Then came former President Donald Trump's ugly rally in Madison Square Garden, laced with jeers, insults and racist remarks by his friends, which recalled the 1939 neo-Nazi rally right there in the same spot. One "comedian" called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage." Very smart.

This hatefest America is not America for me.

Yet Trump is a black-magic master in awakening the dark side in us. Every time. Expert author Arlie Hochschild studies his speaking in a code of grievance, or "stolen pride," in places like Kentucky coal country.

Remember Trump's "very fine people" at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Remember Jan. 6, when he incited an armed mob to swarm Congress while it certified the election.

And don't forget his disrespect for a woman of color, demeaning Harris as "low IQ." Among other things.

It felt like the second coming of a chapter best left on the ash heap of history -- Trump's term starting with "American carnage." Surely we know he means every word he says.

Since the news broke like a dam Friday, the Post was pelted with a blizzard of 250,000 canceled subscriptions, some resignations in protest and an outpouring of emotion inside and outside the newsroom.

One former staff writer described himself as "heartbroken."

A senior editor called it "the bleakest day of my journalism career."

Our political town is small enough, with a memory long enough, to remember Watergate with fierce pride. The Post busted a president, Richard Nixon, for wrongdoing, leading to his leaving office in 1974.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the team that pursued the Watergate scandal, lent their voices of alarm to the outcry against Bezos.

Amazon founder Bezos is from the other Washington, where he started his company in Seattle. The second-richest man in the world showed how little he understands this beautiful city of memorials by the riverside and what we hold dear. He'll be bewildered by the swift resistance to his tarnishing the daily gem. Owning a newspaper brings civic responsibility.

Bezos is building a double mansion by Woodrow Wilson's old home (both Princeton men), but he just lost respect and standing in society on earth. What's worse, his Blue Origin space executives had a meeting on defense contracts the day he blocked the Harris endorsement.

At its core, the capital's voice matters in shaping the national discourse and as center stage in history. If we have little power in electoral votes, then influence fills the gap.

The slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" is on the Post's front page. Ironic, isn't it? This election could be our last vote in democracy. Under Trump's thumb, this will be no country for the old -- or children, either.

My hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, just did the same thing: The billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, prevented the paper from endorsing the vice president in her home state; three editorial board members resigned. As a biotech investor, he may want to stay on the good side of Food and Drug Administration regulators.

In a city of tomorrow, not yesterday, Los Angeles readers don't share the same strong bond with their newspaper. Here, it's personal. There, the conversation centers more on scripts, shows and movies.

When two billionaires bow before Trump, they do so knowing a President Harris would not retaliate with wrath against any "enemies from within." Both are breaking protocol when the free press is at stake in a Trump militarized police state.

Billionaires Elon Musk and Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel also play an outsize role in the convicted felon's campaign.

Thiel helped lift Sen. JD Vance onto the Republican ticket. Vance's record of following alt-right groups, like Raw Egg Nationalist, on X is a disturbing pattern.

I remind myself to keep the faith. Trump lost the popular vote twice. The third time's the charm. Speak, America.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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