“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Jefferson
The signors of the Declaration of Independence understood the potentially lethal consequences of their actions yet opted to, “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” by formally severing ties with England and casting off a dictatorial king.
The Framers of our Constitution established three co-equal branches of government, fearing an aristocratic Executive could morph into a monarchy if a president was granted unconstrained “unitary executive” power; orchestrated a military dictatorship as its commander-in-chief; misused his pardoning power to favor loyalists; and was not held in check by both Congress, through its enumerated powers, including the budget, declaring war and advice and consent of treaties and presidential appointees, and the Judiciary which could enjoin the Executive from actions contrary to the Constitution or the law.
During the intervening 234 years, more specific signals a nation is at risk of transforming into an authoritarian state able to strip its people of their Constitutional-protected liberties and rights have become evident.
- A populist leader who creates a cult of personality, infallibility and personal victimization around themselves.
- Demanding personal loyalty rather than experience or knowledge.
- Regulating media questioning or critical of their actions.
- Discrediting truth and ignoring facts while promoting lies and endorsing conspiracy theories.
- Endorsing a mantra of national decline and identifying “enemies of the state” and other scapegoats as the underlying causes.
- Manufacturing national emergencies to disregard or suspend individual human, civil and Constitutional rights.
- Disdain for intellectuals, science, and the arts which do not reinforce a leader’s agenda.
- The co-opting religion to establish a façade of defending family values.
- Cronyism and protecting of corporate power and financial backers.
- Obsession with crime and national security, nurturing an impression the nation is under attack.
- Delegitimizing elections and disenfranchising blocs of votes deemed as opposed to a leader.
- Idolizing the military and embracing paramilitarism.
- Prioritizing retribution against perceived political enemies.
- Espousing geographic expansion, allegedly for national security, even if requiring military intervention.
Americans should be alarmed, although perhaps not surprised, the president is attempting to use Army Day, June 15th, as an excuse to stage a massive military parade in Washington DC also designed to celebrate his June 14th birthday; the type of spectacle one might expect in Moscow, Beijing or Pyongyang. Aside from exhibiting his limitless narcissism, such an event will cost millions when he and Musk have engaged in a scorched-earth campaign to cut government spending and fire thousands of dedicate government workers, despite producing little evidence of ”waste, fraud or abuse.”
Permitting Donald Trump to unilaterally govern through executive orders (a term found nowhere in the constitution), Congress is becoming constitutionally, and possibly criminally, complicit in dismantling the foundations of our constitution and the preservation of our nation’s unique experiment in representative democracy.
Will Congressional Republicans, who delight in group chants of “USA! USA!”, finally stand up to Trump and, as the fifty-six signors of the Declaration, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney demonstrated, put their country first even at the expense of their personal careers before it is too late for America?
Theodore Roosevelt noted, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.”
Dick
