President John Adams declared, "we are a nation of laws, not men." It's no longer true.
TAT readers,
I don’t know exactly why, but this week I’m more frustrated and downright angry with this outlaw administration and Republican Party than usual. As most of you know, I despise political parties on principle, although I vote like most independents, for the best choice, based exclusively on the behavior of candidates and parties. I have not voted for a Republican since President Bush senior’s first run for the White House. I believe he came to the Oval Office, exceptionally well-qualified for the presidency. He led the effort to remove Iraq from Kuwait during the first Gulf War, with a mastery of foreign affairs not seen since. Bush Sr. led the free-world through that crisis as well as our beloved JFK managed the Cuban Missile Crisis while that I was in elementary school.
“A government of laws, and not of men” ― John Adams
Today’s Republican Party is intolerant of experience, integrity, honor and intelligence, preferring culture wars, corruption and I dare say treason, to honoring our constitution. Selling out US national security to our most dangerous adversaries while destroying alliances with tried and true allies, is by definition, aiding and abetting the enemy or simply put, treasonous. Because of them, we are no longer a “nation of laws, not men.” Without law, there is no America and we damn sure better do something about it while that we still can. While the GOP is dismantling our national security community, they are concurrently abusing so many of our laws, that I’ve lost count.
DOJ refuses to obey or enforce the law and our current SCOTUS, backs them regularly. To make matters even worse for us, “we the people” are being harassed, assaulted and arrested unjustly all the while the GOP protects our oppressors from the local level, all the way through our Supreme Court. They refuse to even investigate the murder of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who all of America watched being murdered by DHS officers, for simply exercising their constitutional rights. This violates that other iconic American founding value that states, “we are all equal before the law.” The entire administration violates multiple of our constitutional rights daily and aggressively. A perfect example of this can be seen in all DHS immigration activities where they abuse our First Amendment Rights so egregiously, that they are better titled, the DFC, The Department of Fascism and Corruption.
"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure." Thomas Jefferson
Let’s look at a couple of examples from the Bill of Rights. For the record, our founders, particularly Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and James Madison, long considered the “father of our constitution,” were explicit in expecting our laws to be understandable by ordinary citizens. Jefferson went so far as to say that not only are laws required to be straightforward but added that making them too complex would allow lawyers and courts to interpret them in convoluted manners that could justify anything and everything.
What triggered my deep frustration today, is that the entire nation watches this administration, the Republican Party and their oligarchs, daily break the law, violate our most precious constitutional rights, and all while the DOJ applauds and supports their crime wave. A large percentage of this crime involves the enrichment of the Trump White House and family. The stock trading by members of congress and the grotesque looting of our treasury via massive markups in contracting, passing bills that reward corruption and the insane self-serving lawsuits used to coerce businesses and individuals into paying extortion fees to our mobster POTUS and his billionaire buddies.
A particularly painful wound for the American people is that the administration is denying us the rights and privileges carefully laid out in the constitution, our Bill of Rights and amendments to the constitution. Below are a couple of examples.
"The First Amendment provides several rights protections: to express ideas through speech and the press, to assemble or gather with a group to protest or for other reasons, and to ask the government to fix problems. It also protects the right to religious beliefs and practices. It prevents the government from creating or favoring a religion." - The National Archives
Daily we witness aggressive violations of our First Amendment rights via a wide variety of administration actions. Jailing protestors during ICE raids violates violates two parts of the First Amendment, the right to free speech and right to assemble. Our free speech rights are being denied via censorship, coercion of networks to be “more White House friendly.” Stephen Colbert’s firing and the attempt to do the same to Jimmy Kimmel were stunningly audacious. Much of our personal and business digital media is being “moderated” by soulless tech companies that huge corporations hire to censor negative press about them.
Administration threats to deploy ICE, the Army and other federal law enforcement agencies at the polls for the midterms, is another assault on our free speech. Their intent is to discourage Americans from expressing ourselves at the polls, especially certain elements of US society like, minorities. In fact, all voter suppression laws and actions, are a violation of our free speech rights. Republicans in particular, have legislated countless such laws nationally over the past decade or so. As a Texan, I’m well aware of how drastically Republicans suppress voters, especially in non-white, poor and immigrant communities. If there was a gold medal for voter suppression, Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Republican Party would have it.
Now Trump and the GOP are attempting to blow up our voting rights again, in blatantly unconstitutional ways such as, meddling with mail-in votes, placing armed forces at the polls and demanding voter data from the states and more. The Constitution is quite clear, that states, not the federal government run their elections. The GOP’s record speaks for itself, that neither laws or the constitution our laws are based upon, are not impediments to their lawlessness.
It’s not just our freedom of speech being violated either. Freedom of the press is drying up faster than a puddle in the desert.
"Since returning to the White House in 2025, President Trump has extended the war on the press he launched while running for his first presidential term. He has censored government data, attempted to dismantle US public broadcasters, weaponized independent government agencies to punish media that criticize his actions, halted aid funding for media freedom internationally, sued disfavored outlets, and applied pressure to install cronies to lead others. Press freedom in the United States continues to decline as a result of these actions." - RSF/ Reporters without Borders
Another of our Bill of Rights abuses by the Trump administration, is their violations of the Fourth Amendment.
Fourth Amendment "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - Constitution Annotated - Congress.gov
One egregious example of Fourth Amendment violations are the warrantless searches conducted by DHS, ICE, CBP and other Executive Branch law enforcement. When the Bill of Rights was ratified as the first ten amendments to out constitution, American’s memories of British occupation which included constant intrusions into their private homes and lives without warrants, was still fresh in their minds. It’s in our DNA to jealously guard our privacy and the sanctity of our homes from government intrusion. The administration has triggered our anger pointedly, by stealing so much of our personal data via DOGE and other associated efforts. What the administration doesn’t steal, they buy from enormous data owners like, Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Both the government and big data owners know so much about everyone of us who are not living off-the-grid. They know what we like, what we say digitally, where we are and a million other things, just from data-harvesting… often illegally. Like everything else, data can be helpful in our lives and conversely, extremely detrimental. This is why oversight and legal restraints about the collection, use, analysis and sharing of our personal information are critical to maintaining our privacy. The worst offenders in the data wars are often marketers who abuse our data to try and influence us to buy their products and services. This administration is demolishing rules, policies and laws governing the use of our data.
"On the day of his second inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order standing up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On the Administration’s telling, the Elon Musk-led DOGE was created to address (broadly unsubstantiated) claims of fraud, waste, and abuse of government resources. But since its inception, DOGE personnel have unlawfully forced their way into sensitive databases across the federal government, including at agencies that provide critical services and handle vast stores of sensitive data. This includes the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and many others." - EPIC’s Fight Against the Administration’s Privacy Abuses - Electronic Privacy Information Center
Although the Bill of Rights is about our personal and collective civil rights, the administration and the Republican-led congress are additionally targeting the body of the constitution itself. Our losing war with Iran, which continues to prove that there is no ceasefire, is a flagrant violation of the constitution. Only congress can declare war and the recent GOP insanity about the War Powers Resolution, is proof-positive of their willful intention to break the law. Just this week on Tuesday, the GOP-led Senate finally developed a little bit of a backbone and passed a War Powers Resolution, limiting Trump’s power to wage war, only for Trump to storm into a meeting with Republican Senators on Wednesday, convincing them to reverse their votes and vacate the resolution. I have no idea how Republican congressmen can get around without any hint of a spine.
I’ve done a few hours of reading just to be able to pare down this essay to a manageable size. I was already familiar with much of the material, but the sheer quantity of material regarding both our laws and Republican violations is staggering. It’s safe to say that this administration and congress wake up every single day, with plans to violate the law and the constitution it’s based on. When this era of American history is written, just the corruption alone will fill a whole series of books.
Summary
As I close out this essay, I want to reinforce and expand on a couple of topics covered. First, I want to express that it is our constitution that makes us Americans. It’s not only law, but the basis for all American laws outside of the constitution. In nearly two and a half centuries, that most extraordinary document has held our nation together, through thick and thin. It has been amended over the years, precisely as our founders intended and now includes twenty-seven amendments. One of those amendments I did not mention in the body of the essay, the Fourteenth which grants birthright citizenship, is being challenged. At this point, I have little faith in our SCOTUS, which has a track record of supporting the Trump administration’s attempts to rewrite the interpretation of our constitution, so that it serves an all-powerful Executive Branch and elite wealth exclusively.
Our founding documents, especially the constitution, detail what it means to be an American and how our government is intended to work. The epic dishonesty of right-wing SCOTUS justices, calling themselves “originalists” offends me to the core. They are hellbent on altering our founder’s intentions in order to support oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and a wannabe king. Mitch McConnell, the architect of this court will be known in all future history books, as the man who sold-out our constitution. Without Mitch, this administration most likely would have never occurred. Chief Justice John Robert’s so-called “immunity” ruling and Citizens United decision were the nuclear weapons modern Republicans used against all the rest of us.
Finally, our Bill of Rights defines us as Americans. We grew up believing in the permanence of those inalienable human rights. It was our personal armor to protect ourselves from the predators of democracy. I don’t just read those rights, all my life I’ve defended them and done my very best to embody them. I don’t believe that I am alone either. Even today, I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans also embody those rights. In my youth, rank and file Republicans and Democrats didn’t have culture wars about our rights, even though not all Americans benefitted from them equally. This is no longer true. These days, I am stunned by Republican congressmen who during hearings don’t even know their basic constitution or are intentionally lying about what it says. Regardless of political persuasion, we must all come together and stop the selloff of our republic. Those who still support this administration and version of the Republican Party, will not. We outnumber them two to one. We can do this, but it will take all of us.
I’ve done a good bit of soul-searching to understand why I am so frustrated and angry with Republicans for the past decade. The revelations from all that soul-searching have come into sharp focus these past few weeks. It has to do with identity and this may apply to many of you as well. I believe that the reason that those of us who are so furious with today’s Republicans and oligarchs, is because we see being American as a key part of our identity. Not that fake Americanism of today’s GOP but the version based on the freedoms expressed in the Bill of Rights. Those rights are key parts of our identity. When the critical elements of our identity are repeatedly assaulted, it forces us to evaluate our own survival. Being forced by outside events to ponder your own survival often prompts that fight, flight or freeze response we’re all familiar with. Apathetic voters or those afraid to speak up are in a “freeze response” while that the rest of us are in “fight” mode. The one response I don’t see anywhere in the resistance, is “flight.” That’s about the most American thing ever!
Cheers for the rest of your weekend,
Paul