“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
These words are more than just a sentence. For American’s it is and has always been a way of life. But now our foundational documents are considered nothing by the very government that those documents served to create. Toilet paper is more sacred. Our government continues to take the lives of its citizens and residence without repercussion. It has jailed members of the press for reporting on facts that don’t fit the narrative they want seen. And they have removed any sense of happiness or joy from the common people who now sit and worry about how any word they state or action they take will be parsed to serve an authoritarian.
We can no longer claim to be a democracy. The people no longer rule. We no longer have a choice in the future of t his country. Even the Bill of Rights has been trampled underfoot by Trump and his secret police. It has been a glorious 250 years. Too bad it has come to an end.
In case you think I am being hyperbolic, let me point out just a few of the ways that Trump has killed off America with the silent assent of congress and the judiciary.
Amendment 1 – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Congress itself may not have created any laws that violate the rights guaranteed under this amendment, but it has signaled its willingness to allow the Executive branch of government to abrogate these rights. Reporters are being arrested for reporting factually on the news. Protestors are being shot in the streets of our cities. Law-abiding citizens are being rounded up in their homes and dragged into sub-freezing weather in their underwear. Any large gathering of protest is deemed “illegal” and we the people are being tear-gassed as a result.
I fear even this letter exercising my right to free speech and to petition the government for a redress of grievances will put my name on the stormtrooper’s hit list. Ask Jimmy Kimmel. Ask Stephen Colbert. Ask Don Lemon.
Amendment 2 – A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
In case you have missed it, the states of Minnesota, California, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, and any state who dared vote against this destruction of the United States of America is under attack with limited means to defend ourselves. We are invaded by a reckless invader and cannot even use our own troops to defend ourselves for fear they will be federalized and serve the whims of an evil dictator whom Congress continues to empower through gross inaction. When citizens take it upon themselves to provide for their own protection by legally carrying weapons for defense, they are shot and killed as “domestic terrorists” and “agitators” and their murders never see a moment in jail. What do you think the outcome of this will be?
I predict that the population will rise and take over where Congress and our entire system of government have failed us. We are moving past more than a mere civil war. We are moving inexorably toward a new revolution where citizens will wrest back their power by any means necessary. Do I want that situation? No. But I see it coming. We have seen it throughout the Arab Spring movements. We have seen it in Ukraine. We have seen it in Germany and with the fall of the Soviet Union. How can anyone with a modicum of historical memory not see where this is heading?
Amendment 4 – The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Every day people are having their doors battered down without judicial warrants. They are taken into custody and disappeared to another state or another country without any due process. This is no different than the desaparecidos under Pinochet in the 1970’s. How soon we forget the lessons learned through the mistakes of others. Yet the constant refrain is “It can’t happen here”, or “We are a system of laws.” How many of those laws are worth more than toilet paper when the orders of judges are ignored and oftentimes the judiciary grants carte blanche to “Dear Leader” to do his will? It CAN happen here. It IS happening here. And congress and the judiciary prefers to either side with Trump or remain willfully ignorant.
Amendment 5 – No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence [SIC] to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
How many cases have been brought against Trump’s enemies list without legal indictment? James Comey. Letitia James. Don Lemon. And those are just the start of what will be a very long list. Trump is now calling for the arrest of a former president for treason because his feelings are hurt due to facts not aligning with his personal reality.
Go further through that amendment. How many citizens and legal residents of the United States have been deprived of their lives, liberty, and property in just the past year? Do we need to make you a list, or are you keeping score yourself? People are being murdered, kidnapped, and assaulted by the State of which you are a part. It is being done in your name whether you choose to realize it or not.
Amendment 6 – In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence [SIC].
These rights have been shredded time and time again. When people are pulled from the street for no reason other than not being caucasian or speaking with the same accent as the perpetrators, they are being quickly loaded onto planes and trafficked to other states or countries. Many have ended up in prison in El Salvador. When it was ruled they were not to fly anyone out of country, they did it anyway in defiance of court order. Yet the court in failing to find them in contempt does nothing to enforce its orders. Instead, we now send them to Uganda or another third world country in which they have no rights, no family, no redress, and no hope of ever returning.
Amendment 8 – Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Instead, our glorious government circumvents these rights by not allowing bail at all. How many legal immigrants have been kidnapped and held against their will for no reason? Now, how many of those have been granted bail? I bet that number falls under 1% if not nearly zero.
Amendment 10 – The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Do we have the rights to arm ourselves against a tyrannical government? Do we have the right to self-preservation? I argue that we do not under this administration. The moment we organize, the boot will come down on our necks as “insurrectionists” or “traitors” whereas it is actually patriotism for standing up for our rights and the rights of others that are supposedly enshrined in our founding documents. At the same time, the dictator in chief pardons every white supremacist and insurrectionists that attacked you on January 6th. How many of those are now in his secret police force which Congress refuses to reign in? Sure. You temporarily cut future funding, but you already doubled their funding in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and allowed him to reappropriate monies from other government agencies to build this new secret police force. You allowed him to quite literally take food out of the mouths of children to wage his war on America.
You have given up your own constitutional rights to be the body that decides appropriations. You have given the power to declare war over to a dictator who is exercising it to blow up fishermen in the Caribbean, threaten to annex Canada, Greenland, Cuba, and Panama. You have given over your right to being the body responsible for taxation by allowing a dictator to impose tariffs payable by the governed of the United States. If you are willing to give up your rights and the rights of the international community, how confident do you think we feel that you will uphold our rights?
Can you not yet see why you have lost the trust of the American public? People are dying. People are being kidnapped in broad daylight. Our rights have been trampled beyond repair. And Congress and the courts appear to be lacking the intestinal fortitude to stop it. All three branches of government have failed us. That makes you complicit.
I can hear your protest now that you are just one individual. We are all just one individual, but if what is happening in Minnesota and across the country teaches you anything, we are a large collective of individuals who will continue to stand up for our rights and the rights of our neighbors by any means necessary at the risk of our own lives and personal freedom. We want our country back, and we want it back now through every legal means possible.
Inaction is no longer an option. Today, we are voting by withholding our dollars in the largest single-day economic blackout in our history. In November, we will not only vote out the oppressors, we will vote out any who chose to stay silent or inactive regardless of party affiliation. A tidal wave of patriotism is coming. I hope Congress is prepared for it. How many American citizens and legal residents must die at the hands of Donald J Trump and his minions before that happens will be a permanent stain on our system of government and will be our legacy for the next 250 years and beyond.
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