I am heartened to hear about the Constitution Week declaration by our County Commissioners.
And so timely.
Our Constitution is currently under direct attack by those who have spent years combing it to find every weakness, every loophole — not to strengthen those weaknesses, but in service to their quest for absolute power.
And that quest for power is fueled by the dehumanization of the “wrong” kind of people and institutions: undocumented immigrants, trans people, “lunatic and evil” Democrats, “antisemitic” universities.
Some of the ways our constitution in under attack:
• Disregard of due process
• Executive order to cancel birthright citizenship
• Ignoring the power of Congress to control spending.
• Inhibiting of free speech – at universities with the threat of losing research funding; law firms with threat of loss of access to federal courts; media outlets through the threat of loss of FCC approval
• Violation of the emoluments clause
• Dictating how states should run elections
Our Constitution’s strength lies in the foundational idea that we are a nation of laws. Yet this administration demonstrates that laws do not apply to friends of the administration.
• Pardon of Jan. 6 rioters that violently attacked the Capital and hundreds of police officers, resulting in serious injury and death.
• Illegally fired all members of FBI that investigated the Jan. 6 rioters
• National Guard deployed to cities under false pretenses
• Declaring national emergencies in order to circumvent laws
• Corruption: deals with foreign countries to benefit the Trump family are being made adjacent to policy decisions that benefit the foreign country.
• Using the military to summarily execute suspected drug traffickers
So, yes, let’s have Constitution Week to celebrate our Constitution, while we also remember that our Constitution is under attack right now.
Mary Witalec
Brighton
