OPINION: Trump’s Hits at Democracy Just Keep on Coming

Whether you call our system of government a representative democracy, a constitutional republic or a democracy for short, those of us who cherish it (to use Donald Trump’s new favorite verb) have become increasingly alarmed.

Nearly all Americans were brought up to believe that an all-out plunge into fascism can’t happen here, but Trump and his Project 2025ers are taking frightening steps to stop us from stopping them from bringing this about.

Trump, who lies almost every time his lips move or his fingers hit a keyboard, said during his campaign that he’d only be a dictator on day one. He did indeed issue an avalanche of executive orders, memos and proclamations on what he seems to consider his coronation day, but his autocratic moves haven’t stopped since then.

He and his cronies have attacked immigrants, transgender people, education, public broadcasting, the media, government workers, regulatory agencies, the arts, the entertainment business, law firms, whatever countries we can still call our allies, and anyone who won’t roll over for him.

Just a few days ago, he fired three Democratic Consumer Product Safety commissioners, apparently for voting against giving his former(?) sidekick Elon Musk’s Department of “Government Efficiency” access to the supposedly independent agency. Consumer Reports said this “lawless attack” will put Americans at greater risk from unsafe products. 

Trump also ousted Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden for what his press secretary called her diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries termed this his latest attempt to “ban books, whitewash American history and turn back the clock.”    

Trump’s order last month to the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s main fundraising platform, should send chills up the spine of anyone who fears the possibility of one-party or one-person rule and who still … cherishes … the rights and freedoms that our Constitution guarantees.

The basis for the probe appears to be foreign and fraudulent donations that ActBlue itself detected and rejected. Significantly, the White House memo doesn’t even mention the GOP’s WinRed platform, and Trump has apparently forgotten that the DoJ works for the USA, not DJT.

Trump has been no fan of the Bill of Rights except for the amendment that allows his MAGA goons to take up arms against, say, police charged with protecting the Capitol and preserving the peaceful transfer of power.

Just last weekend, he told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that he didn’t know whether he should uphold the Constitution (which he swore on Inauguration Day that he would do). In other words, he’ll do what he’s done all his life: see what he and his lawyers can get away with.

He and Welker were discussing whether undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process before being deported, in some cases to a foreign prison/torture chamber. The Supreme Court says they are, despite its ruling last July that presidents can essentially do what they want in their official capacity. (Did the right-wing “justices” have a premonition that their candidate  would win in November?)

When documented immigrants were being rounded up in March, On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder warned that without due process, no one, including an American citizen, is safe. Deportations less than two months later proved him right.

On Friday, ICE agents swarmed on Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside a for-profit immigrant detention center in the city. He was charged with trespassing and detained for hours in a Homeland Security barracks. 

Baraka told MSNBC that he’d planned to participate in a press conference with three members of Congress who’d come to inspect the facility.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the state had outlawed such detention centers, and Baraka said this one violates city regulations. “The reality is that we’re in a dispute,” the mayor said, adding that disputes are settled in courts, not by ICE, the attorney general or the president of the United States.

Trump’s obvious mental decline has led many to wonder who’s in charge. A far more important question is whether anyone can and will stop this chaotic and inhumane regime from destroying our country.

Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.

Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.

Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.

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