constitution – Susan Feathers

Pronouncements are not laws. Still …

Trump’s gusher of executive decrees cannot conceal that he has been spectacularly inept in effectuating many of his objectives, nor can they mask Congress’s fecklessness. It has passed only 5 bills this year, several of which merely express disapproval of regulations.

We have a do-nothing Congress, a president claiming bizarre, unlimited powers to pursue revenge, but—thank goodness—judges across the country who appear determined to protect our constitutional system from Trump’s predations. If it rediscovers its constitutional responsibilities, Congress might tip the balance in favor of the rule of law. ~ The Contrarian, May 5, 2025

At the same time, this fact should not relieve us of the citizen imperative that is before everyone of us. In my own city and region, DEI policies in public schools are on the block with many school boards already voting to end this policy; citizens are losing jobs and food security is rising as USDA and USAID have weakened food programs such as SNAP and farmers’ markets that they depend on to stay in business. Veterans have lost jobs and services; healthcare is being withdrawn or removed altogether.

Disinformation abounds. Public education and higher education are threatened with loss of funding if they do not comply with executive orders coming down in a steady stream, day to day. A chill has fallen over press staffs in our local media for fear of retribution or loss of income. It is all illegal yet, overwhelmed and generally underfunded even in a democratic space, these key institution for a strong democracy are failing. Some are forming alliances to resist the threats from a rogue leader and administration, but we need more and better coordinated mass action.

The Weekend Show: Project 2025 Discussed with David Graham, Author of The Project.

Concessions to a Dictator

Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny and most recently Freedom, offers a Substack message about the moguls and news agencies “Obeying in Advance” – in anticipation of a dictator coming to power.

See this video about the first step in the rise of tyranny.

It is the lowest form of behavior, to cower in the belief that a dictator will reek havoc on you and your business interests for your political position. That has made our nation smell very bad. Our body politic reeks of cowardice and self aggrandizement today as we witness the cowering of our news agencies and people with too much money and power, kneel to the dictator. We have not learned from the 20th Century which documents how Hilter and the Nazi movement came to power.

Jeff Bezos (billionaire owner of Amazon and The Washington Post) decided the paper will not endorse Kamala Harris as promised. In that, he has lent his endorsement to a dictator promising retribution, destruction of our democratic government, promises to support the rich and powerful, and head honcho for a right-wing, Christian nationalism movement building over the last decade with the emergence of a man not fit to be our President.

The Washington Post not endorsing Harris and Walz to remain neutral right when the nation teeters on the knife edge of tyranny is a massive error of judgement. Anticipation of retribution: what a cowardly lot you all are.

Americans, drink your coffee and stand in front of a mirror. Do you want to be ruled by powerful megawealthy and people who purport to care about you but don’t give a damn in reality?

Let them eat cake! Echoes from history are not whispering today, they are shouting! The news agencies turning their backs on you and your family to be “neutral” or to endorse a vindictive man with no regard for the American Republic, let alone understanding of what it is, will regret their action. History will record it. But there will be decades of suffering before it ends.

Adding this message from the Editor of the Guardian today, 10-26-24:

What I Know About America

Democracies are bustling often raucous spaces. A country founded upon principles of freedom and the law is a marketplace of ideas, of groups grieving for freedom denied or improvements to the quality of life of groups overlooked by legislation. These strivings, using the principles and legal mechanisms for their lawful dispensation to all, in the Constitution of the United States, have resulted in a people generally welloff and generous of heart.

Our generosity extends to countries across the Earth. We have helped protect people who wish to live by a similar creed as seen through the NATO alliance and our strivings to bring peace in the Middle East. We stand by the people of Ukraine as they fight for the freedom the Russian oligarch strives to deny them.

Where we see one man (or woman) act only on his or her behalf in making decisions for all the people under his rule, we understand anew the value of democracies.

How to recognize antidemocratic forces …

Generally speaking, people who speak about themselves more than their citizens, and strike down laws and protections that are beneficial for all citizens to favor only one demographic or religious tradition, are antidemocratic forces.

No leader is perfect as no person. We all make mistakes but we expect of each other that we are striving toward the laws that govern our way of life. We look at the person over time to discern what their true intention may be. Is this leader one who works together with other lawmakers to protect democracy and enact legislations that expands freedoms to the People?

Does a potential leader have a moral compass that guides him or her during very difficult times? Does a candidate tell the truth, admit mistakes, and generally collaborate “across the aisle” in our nation’s deliberative bodies, in Congress and among world leaders similarly devoted to freedoms worldwide?

Isolationism, demogoguery, lying and cheating, and above it all hoodwinking to reach personal power over some of the people–these is not the charater traits we must have in a leader of a free and just people.

What Does Democracy Promise?

Being an American takes work and devotion to protect and grow democracy. A good thing always draws an equal and opposite force. The work of democracy is the refinement and constant reconstituting by assertion and practice the verities of our founding fathers and all the people of America who have been able to maintain its sweet elixir of liberty for 247 years.