Donald Trump has been pretending to be a king every day since his inauguration. His flurry of executive orders, tariffs, mass layoffs and mass deportations has had a sadistic, narcissistic, “Alice in Wonderland” quality to it: “Look at me! Who needs Congress?”
But it was not until lawsuits started flying and judges started handing down decisions that ran counter to Trump’s orders that things began to get real. The big question hanging over us now is not if but when Trump will go one step further and decide that he can do without the judicial branch, as well!
At the risk of being overly dramatic, I witnessed this step the evening of Feb. 12. Just as I was deciding I had had enough news for the day, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, came on to say, in so many words, that Trump need not obey any judicial decision that went against him because such decisions only proved that the judge issuing them is biased.
So, what now? Who or what becomes the enforcement mechanism when all the tools of the executive branch, including the Justice Department, are essentially owned by Trump?
This is where we come in. Those of us who value our form of government need to step up. As I keep saying, democracy is not a spectator sport. When all else fails, we, the people, become the enforcement mechanism of last resort. This is not something new in America. Street demonstrations, boycotts and the like were a common feature in defending civil rights, stopping the Vietnam War and protesting police brutality. Most of the time, these demonstrations were nonviolent and effective. Let’s get ready to roll.
Frederick Longacre
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
