NO KINGS

     This nation was founded to get rid of a monarchy, something that many Americans seem to have forgotten.  In the Declaration of Independence, after asserting that all are created equal and have rights, among which are “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” the founders argued that existing forms of government should not be overthrown lightly.  However, they concluded, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.”  The U.S. Constitution echoes this principle.  In Article IV, Section 4, it declares that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican Form of Government….”  “Republican” in this context means a government that is not a monarchy.

     Emboldened by a close win of the popular vote and the Supreme Court’s decision upholding “presidential immunity,” Donald Trump has ruled like a king, not a president.  The founding fathers relied on the separation of powers to protect our government.  Despite having a Republican Party monopoly on all three branches, Trump has ignored these separations.  He has imposed and taken away tariffs, even though this power belongs to Congress.  He has arrested and shipped people overseas, regardless of normal laws.  He has attempted to do away with the 14th Amendment, which gives every person living in this nation rights.  He unilaterally created the “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, firing government workers and invading citizens’ privacy at the will of Elon Musk.  He has appointed a series of incompetents:  the Fox News reporter Pete Hegseth to Defense, the quack loon RFK to Medicine, the Wrestling head Linda McMahon to Education.  He has increased his fortunes by marketing bitcoin in his own image, charging wealthy donors a million dollars to dine with him, and, in the words of today’s New York Times, created a culture of greed to undermine democracy.  He has discarded the Emoluments Clause, which forbids the president from accepting valuable items gifted by foreign nations –- the billion-dollar jumbo jet from Qatar being the most egregious example.  It is time to rally against this would-be monarch.

     Next Saturday, June 14th, is NO KINGS DAY.  It’s being celebrated at over 1500 locations here.  Indivisible, one of the many institutions organizing this day of protest, has over 2000 groups nationwide.  This date was chosen because that’s when Trump decided to hold a military parade, costing $45,000,000, to celebrate his birthday.  So now is the time to join the protest!  The only way to overthrow despotism is to have large groups of people organize against it.  It worked in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and at many other occasions.  It constitutes what the American patriot Thomas Paine called “Common Sense.”  Be on the right side of history, the law, and democracy with me then!