Ours is a nation of law, and though we fall far short of equal protection under the law, as established by the 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1868, the preamble to the constitutions tells us our goal should be to strive ever to form a more perfect union, guided by the precept that all men are created equal.
“But that’s not in the constitution!” I can already hear. Of course it is.
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
There is a faction of Americans who believe we live in a post constitutional era, a time when new things must be tried. But the “new” things they propose are no more than the tried and failed ways of the past, gussied up in polite and even patriotic words, “freedom,” “liberty,” “conservative” and laughably “Republican,” even though every ideal they tout is anathema to everything our first Republican President stood for.
It’s ironic that Abraham Lincoln stood against the same circumstance we face today, the ugly specter of white supremacy, and fought to uphold and defend our constitution and hold our nation together against rich white Christian men fearful that their “peculiar institution” would be unfairly deprived them, and how the man who might well be our last Republican president is the instrument of rich white Christian men who would deprive this nation its greatest gift, our constitution, for fear they’ll be deprived the idea of supremacy and privilege they believe due them as their birthright.
The Civil War was terrible, but the conflict that now approaches like a storm will be far worse as there are no clear free or slave states today by which to discern battlements or lines of demarcation, no fighting front, no rear echelon to fall back to for respite, for refitting. If allowed to happen, this will be a coward’s war, neighbor sniping neighbor rather than armies facings armies. Internecine small scale skirmishes decided in large part by which side local law enforcement leans towards.
There are people, many of them. who think what Donald Trump and that unelected rich guy from South Africa with nothing better to do than hang out and supervise the executive branch of the U.S. government are doing is just what the doctor ordered for an ailing nation.
I contend they’re traitors bent on handing our country to the deep state of rich white Christians who penned Project 2025, a manifesto contrary to and incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.
Had the U.S. Senate not capitulated to Trump, not once but twice, Trump would have been ousted from office, sparing this nation the criminal second term of Donald Trump pursuant to the 14th Amendment. Had Justice John Roberts not capitulated and convinced the other MAGA Justices on the Supreme Court to grant sitting presidents immunity from prosecution on behalf of the first convicted felon to hold this nation’s highest office, our president might have faced justice for the crimes he committed.
Perhaps this nation would have been spared the approaching tempest.
Instead, tomorrow, our bone-spur afflicted commander in chief is scheduled to talk with Russian President to broker peace between an sovereign democracy and the dictator who ordered the invasion and he is expected to capitulate to the dictator, continuing the betrayal and shakedown he subjected our ally Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to before a national television audience.
You can bet that when master negotiator Trump has thrown Zelensky under the bus, the last chip to bet with, Putin will smile, pat comrade Donnie on the head and demand more.
He has without provocation declared economic warfare on our closest allies, presumably based, as is typical for Trump, on that for which his own nation is guilty — neither Mexico nor Canada are responsible for the flood of fentanyl.
And now Trump is brazenly defying court orders to detain and deport people, parading them being marched bound and bent, into a waiting airplane.
What’s that? If they’re here illegally, they’re not afforded the protections of our laws and constitution? Hmm … “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Unless I’m mistaken, the word “any” trumps words that establish limits, such as “blue eyed,” “blond haired,” “American,” or even “citizen.” Back to that “all people” conundrum, eh? Damned that 14th Amendment.
And, oh my, is he actually detaining people legally in the U.S. without due process for (“gasp!”) exercising their first amendment rights to free speech?!
Speaking of the first amendment, how about that Pam Bondi, eh? Far tougher than the traitor Bill Barr, she’s ending the weaponization of the Justice Department by conducting mass firings of career public servants loyal to the constitution instead of Donald Trump, who she accepts without question as the nation’s top lawman, and for her faith and loyalty, he appoints her as head of his task force to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”
What? Forgive me, what about “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?”
Personally, I think an elected official, particularly the president, should be held to a higher standard. So while you MAGA proclaim me your deviant du jour, exhort me to shut up and play nice, I’ll be doing all in my power to see that justice is done.