DECLARATION OF UNITY

In the days and weeks following each tragedy or near tragedy in the US, there is always a constant offering of “hearts and prayers” from politicians of both parties, and usually Donald Trump telling everyone it was the Media’s fault, the Democrats’ fault, or the fault of the victims, and his court jesters in Congress agreeing with him.

It has been only days since the worst antisemitic slaughter in our national history, but nothing has changed. Regardless of whether your political leanings are Left or Right, Trump and the party he has shaped around him have become the antithesis of all that was good, honest and pure about America. After two years of the Trump Administration, we really do need to “Make America Great Again;” so let us renew our nation together.

First, we must recognize that whatever our politics and religion, our cultural and racial heritage or our personal values, we are all Americans. We voluntarily share the values upon which this nation was founded. We who want to return to civility and moral rectitude love America and are willing to “suffer the slings and arrows” of political venom to make a difference. Secondly, we must summarize, in a clear manner, the reasons why we believe change is not only needed, but mandatory for our republic, indeed our nation, to survive.

 To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, “the history of [President Trump] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object, the establishment of a tyranny over the United States.” Although he had nearly three million fewer votes, he was thrust into the Presidency by an archaic system which was originally designed to protect us from those like him, making him a minority elected president. In fact, due to partisan Gerrymandering, it has been estimated that the majority in Congress represents a mere 18% of the population.

 In the two years since Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency;

He has called Mexicans rapists, murders and drug dealers, and implied that everyone else crossing our border from the south is either a gang member or Middle-Eastern terrorist.

He has called for a general ban on Muslims from entering the country.

He has appointed poorly qualified but wealthy, loyal Oligarchs to his cabinet to be sure there was no internal insurrection while leaving the nation incompetently governed.

He has watched children die in shooting after shooting, worshipers killed in church, synagogue, and mosque, but succumbed to the lure of NRA dollars rather than call for, or even allow the most rudimentary steps to curtail the problem such as universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

He has repeatedly attacked and attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, favored by most Americans, which brought lifesaving healthcare to millions, to fatten the pockets of his insurance industry cronies.

He has unilaterally withdrawn from treaties meant to protect both our security and our power, leaving us less powerful and more vulnerable around the world.

He has lied to the American people, with impunity, more than 5000 times since is inauguration.

He has intentionally created fractures among alliances it took the United States almost a century to build, and which made us the one indispensable nation in the world, to return to a pre-World War II brand of isolationism while courting despots and dictators; in at least one case in return for help in getting elected President.

He has repeatedly engaged in infantile ad hominem attacks and incited violence and insurrection with his rhetoric while blaming everyone else including Democrats, the Media and even the victims for the violence perpetrated against them.

against anyone or anything that stood against him politically and attempted to define the Media as the “Enemy of the People,” for merely telling the truth because it was not what he wanted to hear.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by firing, requesting the resignation of, or otherwise intimidating anyone who might get at the truth of charges against him, including one who was less than 24 hours away from collecting his retirement after many years of faithful service to our nation.

He has assaulted our intelligence and law enforcement agencies and favored those of other governments because of their constitutional devotion to independence.

He has trivialized the victims of sexual assault, at times even mocking them.

He has acted against the right of individual States to determine their own laws and standards in contravention of Constitutional guarantees.

He has decried as unjust, the ruling of a judge against him, merely because of his ethnic heritage.

He has abused his pardon power to nullify court decisions that affected those that stood with him and hinting that he would even pardon himself if needed, which would effectively make him a despot – above the law.

He has imposed unneeded and harmful tariffs against our allies and trading partners to benefit his corporate cronies.

He has espoused a brand of Nationalism, leading to the rise of “White Nationalism” and withdrawn our influence around the world to the point of increasing isolationism.

He has repeatedly denied Science, and empowered agencies to pollute the air and water, reduced federally protected lands, and attempted to stifle alternative energy growth in the U.S. so that his close friends in both the energy sector and Saudi Arabia can profit from their oil as long as possible, while virtually ignoring the brutal murder and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist by the Saudis; undercutting our most basic American values.

He has been criminally negligent with the security of our nation, giving aid and comfort to our enemies such as Russia, North Korea and China, while insisting that he use an unsecured cell phone, knowing with certainty that China and others can listen in on his calls and glean access to national secrets, thus putting the lives of our intelligence and military assets at risk.

He has been willing to shut down the government to extort money to build a useless wall (which Mexico was supposed to pay for) on our southern border, that will protect us only from non-violent refugees seeking asylum, but continue to allow drug dealers and other criminals to use other methods to maintain their nefarious business.

He has kidnapped children, hardly out of the cradle, from their parents at the border, separated them, and never even kept records to make reunification a possibility.

He has refused to protect the lives of people, referred to as “Dreamers,” children who were brought to this nation as infants and know no other nation, from deportation; in some cases, deporting US service people after risking their lives in multiple tours of duty for our nation.

He has refused to accept ANY responsibility for the outcome of his actions, despite repeated calls to do so while abusing his power and taxpayer money to support his vacations and political travels.

Finally, having sworn an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he has repeatedly tried to ignore it when he found it to be an impediment to his personal power.

“A [President], whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.[1]” We, therefore, Democrats, Republicans and Independent citizens who love our nation and desire to see it prosper, hereby pledge “our lives, our fortunes, and out sacred honor” to returning to a civil but strong government that protects ALL Americans without regard to race, creed, color, and place of national origin, and to once again becoming the economic and moral center that leads the world; making the twentieth century merely prelude to the twenty-first.

[1] U.S. Declaration of Independence.