We’ve crossed some lines in the last few days.
The rule of law is slipping through our fingers. The Justice Department obstructs justice for the President. The Secretary of the Treasury refuses to comply with legal Congressional demands to release the President’s income taxes. The President encourages federal law enforcement to break the law with an offer of pardon. The Senate majority leader, whose wife is also the President’s Secretary of Transportation, refuses to do his constitutional duty. Our Supreme Court is occupied by five conservative Catholics, two of whom believe that the U.S. can establish religion, that are part of a billionaire-funded decades-long conspiracy known as the Federalist Society that seeks to strip Americans of their political, economic and human rights. The majority of the country’s population (almost 2/3) is represented by only one half of one of the three branches of government (1/6).
The President and his propaganda network stoke white supremacy and religious bigotry, specifically targeting sitting U.S. congresswomen following an election season that witnessed mass murder by a white supremacist in a synagogue and a bombing campaign against the President’s critics by one of his supporters.
Secretary Neilson, who has broken human rights laws, resigned her post at Homeland Security because she wasn’t harsh enough. The nation’s immigration policy is in the hands of a 32 year old Santa Monica incel with no Congressional oversight. The President now intends to capture migrants and flood California and New York (who already subsidize red-state America) in hopes of politically destabilizing them.
We are descending into tyranny.
It will become more aggressive and obtrusive each month. Crisis will be manufactured (as they already have been) to distract from lawless corruption and to incite further division. Critics in the press will be further intimidated and threatened with jail. The machine will begin indicting political opponents. Many others have written and warned against this. All the elements are locking into place.
A frequent descriptor of Trump in the media is that he will keep sinking lower and there is no bottom. That is the definition of an abyss, a bottomless pit, an infinite emptiness. You can throw anything into the abyss – your morality, your truth, your civil rights, your property, your human rights and your life. The abyss will not fill up if you stuff the whole world into it.
Power corrupts, which is why the founding fathers restricted the President’s power with Congress and courts. Even a President with the best of intentions would become a tyrant if there were no check on their power and Trump came to office with the worst of intentions. He is drunk with power.
There is no bottom.
Nobody is coming to save us. We, our fellow citizens, are all we’ve got.
The last hurdle for authoritarianism is the 2020 election, which they will likely play dirtier than all previous elections. It’s essential that every U.S. citizen you can find vote a straight Democratic ticket to halt the rot. An even Senate, more House seats and more governorships that can be flipped blue will put a wrinkle in their plans. The election will be contested, that much is certain, but it’s tough to rig a 60/40 loss.
Get involved in campaigns, city council, school boards and non-governmental organizations. Join and participate face to face. Forget Twitter and Facebook resistance as it’s all infiltrated, monitored and designed to make you think you’re doing something when you’re just pushing a button while adding to your advertising profile. Get involved, stay involved and recognize that anyone that isn’t for Trump is an ally, regardless of their position on single payer or student debt. Our political house is on fire, let’s extinguish the flames before we argue about what color to paint the rooms.
You are all that stands between us and the abyss. Get busy.
Wes Clark Jr. 