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The ABCs of American Values
NOVEMBER WARNING TO AMERICANS FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL
NOVEMBER WARNING TO AMERICANS FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL
By Thomas Coffin
By Thomas Coffin
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
-Winston Churchill on the price to Britain of defending their democracy from the Nazis.
-Winston Churchill on the price to Britain of defending their democracy from the Nazis.
Now it’s our turn. Are we up to the task, or is our democracy not worth the trouble? Perhaps we are weary after 231 years of passing the torch to the future generations.
Now it’s our turn. Are we up to the task, or is our democracy not worth the trouble? Perhaps we are weary after 231 years of passing the torch to the future generations.
But our Founders entrusted us with their solemn legacy. It is there in the Preamble to remind us:
But our Founders entrusted us with their solemn legacy. It is there in the Preamble to remind us:
“We the People of the United States in order to form a more
“We the People of the United States in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility
Promote the general Welfare, and secure Blessings of Liberty
Promote the general Welfare, and secure Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.”
Constitution for the United States of America.”
For the past four years I have tracked Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s agenda as they have relentlessly sought to destroy American democracy. We are faced with no less than that which Churchill soberly steeled his country for the price it would have to pay, even more so because America’s enemy comes from within our borders, speaks our language, and pays lip service to our same heritage—but the heart of the enemy betrays our Constitution along with all the freedom and liberty that the Founders revered.
For the past four years I have tracked Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s agenda as they have relentlessly sought to destroy American democracy. We are faced with no less than that which Churchill soberly steeled his country for the price it would have to pay, even more so because America’s enemy comes from within our borders, speaks our language, and pays lip service to our same heritage—but the heart of the enemy betrays our Constitution along with all the freedom and liberty that the Founders revered.
I saw the signs starting with the 2016 campaign, for instance when Trump exhorted a rally of his supporters to pursue “2nd Amendment Solutions” if he lost the election.
I saw the signs starting with the 2016 campaign, for instance when Trump exhorted a rally of his supporters to pursue “2nd Amendment Solutions” if he lost the election.
Now let me elaborate a moment on that remark: he was raising the specter of nothing less than political assassination of his opponent should he have lost the election. Trump has an army of apologists who labor to massage his statements to water them down and try to excuse their plain meaning. That is fatal to understanding his complete contempt for our Constitutional government and the fundamental principles of democracy it represents. He means what he says, he speaks to his base, and he tasks his clean-up team to mitigate, deflect, or deny the meaning of his words. To emphasize the true meaning of his astonishing statement, I wish to fast forward to just a short while ago in the 2020 campaign involving Joe Biden, when Trump repeatedly told a latter-day rally that he was contemplating issuing a presidential executive order prohibiting Biden from assuming office if he were to win the election. From assassination to presidential decree, Trump is delegitimizing our very democratic election system and refusing to be bound by the results or the will of the voters. In between these roller coaster rides he has mused about simply adding additional 4-year terms to his office as he arbitrarily decides in typical Putinesque fashion, following in the steps of a dictator he famously emulates.
Now let me elaborate a moment on that remark: he was raising the specter of nothing less than political assassination of his opponent should he have lost the election. Trump has an army of apologists who labor to massage his statements to water them down and try to excuse their plain meaning. That is fatal to understanding his complete contempt for our Constitutional government and the fundamental principles of democracy it represents. He means what he says, he speaks to his base, and he tasks his clean-up team to mitigate, deflect, or deny the meaning of his words. To emphasize the true meaning of his astonishing statement, I wish to fast forward to just a short while ago in the 2020 campaign involving Joe Biden, when Trump repeatedly told a latter-day rally that he was contemplating issuing a presidential executive order prohibiting Biden from assuming office if he were to win the election. From assassination to presidential decree, Trump is delegitimizing our very democratic election system and refusing to be bound by the results or the will of the voters. In between these roller coaster rides he has mused about simply adding additional 4-year terms to his office as he arbitrarily decides in typical Putinesque fashion, following in the steps of a dictator he famously emulates.
The difficulty in dismissing this rhetoric as insane delusional nonsense is that there are no rebukes forthcoming by the supposedly sane members of his Party or surviving sober members of his administration. To the contrary, his Attorney General, William Barr, gives public speeches wherein he promotes the idea of the absolute power of the office of president and Barr’s own authority to be sole arbiter of the Rule of Law to be applied as he sees fit, to prosecute political enemies of the president or refuse to prosecute his political friends. This is indeed heady stuff heading into November, and I hasten to add that neither Trump nor Barr, when asked, have given any assurance that they will respect the results of the November elections or instead unilaterally declare the process void and try to stay in power.
The difficulty in dismissing this rhetoric as insane delusional nonsense is that there are no rebukes forthcoming by the supposedly sane members of his Party or surviving sober members of his administration. To the contrary, his Attorney General, William Barr, gives public speeches wherein he promotes the idea of the absolute power of the office of president and Barr’s own authority to be sole arbiter of the Rule of Law to be applied as he sees fit, to prosecute political enemies of the president or refuse to prosecute his political friends. This is indeed heady stuff heading into November, and I hasten to add that neither Trump nor Barr, when asked, have given any assurance that they will respect the results of the November elections or instead unilaterally declare the process void and try to stay in power.
In this article I will avoid repeating verbatim from essays I have written over the prior 4 years. The reader is invited to read the articles linked at the end of this article if desired, which highlight some of the most destructive measures taken by the administration against our fundamental democratic and Constitutional principles. Not the least of those is the attack of the Rule of Law itself, without which there can be no democracy and no liberty. In the remainder of this article, I will concentrate on four recent developments leading up to the November election that represent the administration’s attempt to deliver the coup de grace on the heritage the Founders bequeathed us. These measures include racism, the deployment of police and paramilitary action against the people, massive voter suppression, and the incitement of civil strife and violence among factions of the citizenry that the administration seeks to turn against each other.
In this article I will avoid repeating verbatim from essays I have written over the prior 4 years. The reader is invited to read the articles linked at the end of this article if desired, which highlight some of the most destructive measures taken by the administration against our fundamental democratic and Constitutional principles. Not the least of those is the attack of the Rule of Law itself, without which there can be no democracy and no liberty. In the remainder of this article, I will concentrate on four recent developments leading up to the November election that represent the administration’s attempt to deliver the coup de grace on the heritage the Founders bequeathed us. These measures include racism, the deployment of police and paramilitary action against the people, massive voter suppression, and the incitement of civil strife and violence among factions of the citizenry that the administration seeks to turn against each other.
I begin with racism. From the beginning Trump and his Party have demonized people of color and fueled the fires of white supremacy with bigotry towards groups of Americans they define by skin color. There can be no pretext about the agenda of the Party’s racism after 4 years in office. The president has encouraged police to use unlawful force in arresting suspects (e.g., alleged gang members of color), repeatedly denied there exists any systemic problem of white police officers using unlawful deadly force against African-Americans despite its frequent occurrence with no holding the officers accountable. He and his Attorney General support criminal justice policies that result in disparate prison terms for African-Americans, and they have gone to a wholly unprecedented effort to attempt to deploy American troops to suppress Black Lives Matter protestors seeking reforms to end police brutality.
I begin with racism. From the beginning Trump and his Party have demonized people of color and fueled the fires of white supremacy with bigotry towards groups of Americans they define by skin color. There can be no pretext about the agenda of the Party’s racism after 4 years in office. The president has encouraged police to use unlawful force in arresting suspects (e.g., alleged gang members of color), repeatedly denied there exists any systemic problem of white police officers using unlawful deadly force against African-Americans despite its frequent occurrence with no holding the officers accountable. He and his Attorney General support criminal justice policies that result in disparate prison terms for African-Americans, and they have gone to a wholly unprecedented effort to attempt to deploy American troops to suppress Black Lives Matter protestors seeking reforms to end police brutality.
On another front, in our border areas, the administration has reveled in the cruelty of human rights violations towards parents and their children seeking asylum, separating children from their parents, some as young as toddlers. He has described these refugees as vermin and snakes, denied them adequate health care and deported the parents without their children—a violation of the Geneva Convention. He has also resurrected segregation policies, a throwback to the Jim Crow era, by promising to protect white suburbia from an “invasion” of non-whites. His policies are blatant racism, and he even goes so far as to evoke nostalgic symbols for cultural icons of monuments to slavery, which he pledges to keep as symbols of the Civil War and the effort of the South to preserve that odious institution of subjugation.
On another front, in our border areas, the administration has reveled in the cruelty of human rights violations towards parents and their children seeking asylum, separating children from their parents, some as young as toddlers. He has described these refugees as vermin and snakes, denied them adequate health care and deported the parents without their children—a violation of the Geneva Convention. He has also resurrected segregation policies, a throwback to the Jim Crow era, by promising to protect white suburbia from an “invasion” of non-whites. His policies are blatant racism, and he even goes so far as to evoke nostalgic symbols for cultural icons of monuments to slavery, which he pledges to keep as symbols of the Civil War and the effort of the South to preserve that odious institution of subjugation.
When persistent patterns of police use of deadly force against Black people resulted in no justice for the victims and spurred protests across the nation, as I have mentioned, the administration attempted to use the Armed Forces to attack the protestors in a never-before assault on Americans. The military refused, and the administration cobbled together a paramilitary force of DHS Border guards to send to Portland, Oregon to do the same mission, albeit without training or without any request from local authorities. It greatly exacerbated the situation, being viewed as an authoritarian crackdown on citizens exercising their right to protest injustice. These actions by the administration were clearly intended as a calculated shot across the bow of the City and its citizens by an emerging dictatorship determined to suppress dissent and the exercise of free speech rights. The war on the American people only promises to escalate further as Barr orders federal prosecutors to bring sedition charges against protestors and even explores indicting Democratic mayors of major metropolitan areas populated by African-American citizens, as well as labeling major cities as anarchist territories. Never has the country witnessed such retaliation by an administration against its own people. The British could see the Nazi Armada across the Channel. Here, it has already arrived on our shores. We must ask which is more dangerous? After all is said and done, Democracy is the target, and an enemy from within is all the more sinister.
When persistent patterns of police use of deadly force against Black people resulted in no justice for the victims and spurred protests across the nation, as I have mentioned, the administration attempted to use the Armed Forces to attack the protestors in a never-before assault on Americans. The military refused, and the administration cobbled together a paramilitary force of DHS Border guards to send to Portland, Oregon to do the same mission, albeit without training or without any request from local authorities. It greatly exacerbated the situation, being viewed as an authoritarian crackdown on citizens exercising their right to protest injustice. These actions by the administration were clearly intended as a calculated shot across the bow of the City and its citizens by an emerging dictatorship determined to suppress dissent and the exercise of free speech rights. The war on the American people only promises to escalate further as Barr orders federal prosecutors to bring sedition charges against protestors and even explores indicting Democratic mayors of major metropolitan areas populated by African-American citizens, as well as labeling major cities as anarchist territories. Never has the country witnessed such retaliation by an administration against its own people. The British could see the Nazi Armada across the Channel. Here, it has already arrived on our shores. We must ask which is more dangerous? After all is said and done, Democracy is the target, and an enemy from within is all the more sinister.
Beyond the tactic of locking up Democratic mayors and governors and occupying cities, the administration is striving to suppress votes in areas where voter turnout is strongly Democratic. Thus it cripples the United States Postal Service to impede Vote by Mail, appoints an ally (Louis DeJoy) to sabotage its ability to function, declares in advance that the vote will be fraudulent, and requires the elderly and vulnerable to risk COVID during a pandemic to exercise the right to vote. Those are the actions of an autocrat, not a president, a tyrant who fears a popular vote—who fears democracy.
Beyond the tactic of locking up Democratic mayors and governors and occupying cities, the administration is striving to suppress votes in areas where voter turnout is strongly Democratic. Thus it cripples the United States Postal Service to impede Vote by Mail, appoints an ally (Louis DeJoy) to sabotage its ability to function, declares in advance that the vote will be fraudulent, and requires the elderly and vulnerable to risk COVID during a pandemic to exercise the right to vote. Those are the actions of an autocrat, not a president, a tyrant who fears a popular vote—who fears democracy.
The last item from the Republican playbook is civil strife, fomenting of street violence, and vigilante retribution, as well as continuing divisions and hatreds among political, racial, religious, and ideological factions that define the United States.
The last item from the Republican playbook is civil strife, fomenting of street violence, and vigilante retribution, as well as continuing divisions and hatreds among political, racial, religious, and ideological factions that define the United States.
In the aftermath of yet another police shooting of an American-American in Wisconsin, an armed Trump supporter shot and killed two protesters, was allowed to leave the scene without being arrested by police, and was later lionized as a hero by many conservative pundits for his actions in murdering the protestors. In yet another incident, the president himself applauded the fatal shooting of a Portland man by law enforcement as an act of “retribution” regardless of whether the shooting was justified. There is no mistaking the tenor or his remarks—as with his previous encouragement of using unlawful police force on suspects, he is signaling approval of vigilante executions as appropriate retribution. This is a call back to his “2nd Amendment Solutions” remark. He also did this early in his term when he heaped praise on Rodrigo Duterte, the vicious dictator of the Philippines, for using vigilante death squads against suspected drug offenders. That type of messaging from the White House pulpit does not fall on deaf ears. It plants seeds, and what sprouts poisons democracy and paves the way for its overthrow.
In the aftermath of yet another police shooting of an American-American in Wisconsin, an armed Trump supporter shot and killed two protesters, was allowed to leave the scene without being arrested by police, and was later lionized as a hero by many conservative pundits for his actions in murdering the protestors. In yet another incident, the president himself applauded the fatal shooting of a Portland man by law enforcement as an act of “retribution” regardless of whether the shooting was justified. There is no mistaking the tenor or his remarks—as with his previous encouragement of using unlawful police force on suspects, he is signaling approval of vigilante executions as appropriate retribution. This is a call back to his “2nd Amendment Solutions” remark. He also did this early in his term when he heaped praise on Rodrigo Duterte, the vicious dictator of the Philippines, for using vigilante death squads against suspected drug offenders. That type of messaging from the White House pulpit does not fall on deaf ears. It plants seeds, and what sprouts poisons democracy and paves the way for its overthrow.
In closing, I leave you to consider the earnest warning of Winston Churchill regarding what is ahead of us if we are to defend our democracy. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be without the courage, resolve, and above allthe will to prevail. Defend our democracy!
In closing, I leave you to consider the earnest warning of Winston Churchill regarding what is ahead of us if we are to defend our democracy. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be without the courage, resolve, and above allthe will to prevail. Defend our democracy!
Previous articles by Thomas Coffin:
Previous articles by Thomas Coffin:
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