THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE
In his first 100 days, Donald T**** has attacked at least five pillars of American democracy. With just a few examples, they are:
Separation of Powers: by showing a complete distain for the judiciary, violating orders and threatening to impeach judges.
Equal Justice: using federal prosecutors and agents as an extension of his political operation and using federal prosecutors and agents as an extension of his political agenda.
Due Process: from the firing federal workers without the 30-day notice that the law requires to the deportation of 238 immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Government for the People: from taking secret donations to his inaugural fund to using government resources to benefit his companies and his manipulation of the crypto markets, he and his circle enrich themselves at the nation’s expense.
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press: buy suing ABC, CBS and the Des Moines Register over coverage he does not like, and issuing executive orders to punish people for things they’ve said.
Whether or not one supports T****’s policies is not at issue here. Good people can disagree. But these things that he has and is doing are outside presidential authority, the law, and any Constitutional mandate. In these 100 days he has overstepped his bounds; we are a democracy, not an oligarchy.
These past 100 days have wounded this country, and there is no guarantee that we will either fully recover or that the knife won’t be driven in deeper. But giving the nation over is not an option
For these reasons it is the patriotic duty of all Americans to oppose Donald T****.
The best way is to build the largest possible coalition in defense of our Constitutional principles. It is to build a coalition of Americans who may disagree about our country’s way forward yet believe that these differences must be decided through debate and constitutional processes, not the dictates of a single man.
The United States Constitution has been under attack from within before. The post-Reconstruction era, the scourge of Jim Crow and the Red Scare are among those times. It recovered because Americans of good faith fought for this country’s ideals, for its very soul. That is our duty today.
The survival of our American democracy was not inevitable then, nor is it now. We do have one way to struggle. One way to preserve what we cherish so dearly. We have One Path Forward.
STAND UP SPEAK OUT RESIST
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