Standing Up To the Monster: The Oldest Story in the Book

Keith Raffel
Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:17:01 -0800
Opinion

On the top shelf of my office bookcase sits a 2004 book by Christopher Booker. His thesis is simple: There are only seven basic plots in fiction. The oldest of them all is overcoming the monster, exemplified by the 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon epic "Beowulf," where the hero faces the man-eating Grendel.

My father fought in the U.S. Army in World War II and witnessed the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945. Also in 1945, Army Lt. Daniel Inouye lost his right arm to a German grenade and later received the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity." After law school, I went to work on Capitol Hill for Inouye, by then a U.S. senator.

Both Dad and the future senator confronted the monster 80 years ago. Of course, Jerome Raffel and Daniel Inouye did not win the war on their own. They were part of a roused force of millions who each confronted the monster in their own way. And that's why they won.
Updated: Wed Feb 11, 2026

On the top shelf of my office bookcase sits a 2004 book by Christopher Booker. His thesis is simple: There are only seven basic plots in fiction. The oldest of them all is overcoming the monster, exemplified by the 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon epic "Beowulf," where the hero faces the man-eating Grendel.

My father fought in the U.S. Army in World War II and witnessed the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945. Also in 1945, Army Lt. Daniel Inouye lost his right arm to a German grenade and later received the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity." After law school, I went to work on Capitol Hill for Inouye, by then a U.S. senator.

Both Dad and the future senator confronted the monster 80 years ago. Of course, Jerome Raffel and Daniel Inouye did not win the war on their own. They were part of a roused force of millions who each confronted the monster in their own way. And that's why they won.

Whether Trump himself is a monster, or a Nazi, or a fascist, or a dictator or just a president with authoritarian tendencies, his second-term administration is monstrous.

In 1933, a Nazi official declared of his government's targeted enemies, "The only way to smoke out the vermin is to expel them." Trump echoed those dehumanizing words in 2023 when he promised to root out "the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."

Even while the world cheers for medal winners in the Italian Alps, masked agents are filling warehouses in the American heartland. According to NBC News, more than 70,000 people, including children, are being held in 224 facilities across the country. At a camp in Texas, three people have died, including one ruled a homicide. The administration is planning "mega-centers" to house even more detainees.

The last time the federal government set up internment camps like these on U.S. soil was during World War II, when it rounded up citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese descent. The Supreme Court upheld the measures citing "military urgency." Four decades later, a law passed by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan declared, "These actions were without security reasons and... were motivated by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." Eight decades later, the Supreme Court permitted federal officers to stop individuals in part based on their "apparent ethnicity" and the fact they "do not speak much English." As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Trump administration has also ended U.S. foreign aid programs supporting global health. According to a counter set up by Boston University professor Brooke Nichols, the second Trump administration's termination of programs targeting HIV, TB, malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia and such has led to over 800,000 deaths worldwide including over half a million children.

"The toll is appalling and will continue to grow," writes Dr. Atul Gawande, the author, surgeon and former assistant administrator of the Agency for International Development.

Trump and his administration are deeming their enemies less than human, they are interning U.S. residents, and they are responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people a day. The Supreme Court isn't doing much to stop them nor are Republicans in Congress. Law firms and universities have buckled in the face of administration threats. Once-great newspapers are abandoning their promises to cast light on challenges to democracy in favor of supporting "personal liberties and free markets."

Would-be totalitarians respond to public opinion. When poorly trained and overly aggressive federal agents killed a poet and an emergency room nurse who were both American citizens, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called the victims domestic terrorists. In the face of public outrage over real-time videos showing Noem had lied, Trump suggested that a "softer touch" may be preferable. He ordered 700 agents to be withdrawn from Minneapolis.

Trump's posting of a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was condemned even by his usually loyal supporters on Capitol Hill. For example, Republican Sen. Tim Scott called it "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House" and Republican Rep. Michael Turner said it was "offensive, heart breaking, and unacceptable." The video was taken down.

Monsters count on helplessness, inaction and cowardice to do their worst. Resistance works. Teachers can teach. Attorneys can volunteer to take on cases. Journalists can report the truth. Clergy can preach the Bible's command to "welcome the stranger." We can all talk to others and let them know where we stand. We can demonstrate, write our lawmakers, vote and support candidates who oppose monstrous, murderous actions. Like Grendel, defeated by a hero who refused to be intimidated, today's monsters have a weakness: our collective resolve to stand up to them.

When my grandchildren ask someday what I did to resist the present-day monster causing deaths and undermining the Constitution, I don't want to have to say, "Nothing." My dad didn't have to say that. Neither did Sen. Inouye. You don't want to, either, do you?