You know about the atrocities. Armed ICE agents are making communities across our country less safe and considerably more dangerous, particularly in Minneapolis. Masked agents in unmarked vehicles are pulling people out of their cars, grabbing neighbors off the streets, using tear gas, pepper spray, and chokeholds, and shooting innocent people who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest.
Meanwhile, a great many Americans are sitting at home, disturbed, afraid, feeling hopeless and helpless.[1] And that’s exactly what Donald Trump and his regime want — to cower us into submission. Let’s not let him get away with that.
Let’s all of us stand up and push back against Trump’s autocratic rule. It’s up to the American people to reclaim our democracy. Throughout our history, mass movements have consistently been successful in overcoming the forces working against our right to freedom, justice and equality. Whether it was the Abolitionists, the Labor Unions, the Civil Rights activists, the Women’s Rights advocates, or many other movements since we declared our independence from the King of England, the American people prevailed.
Now is the time to come to the aid of our country.
We cannot trust the politicians to save us. When we all stand up and fight for the principles that are the foundation of our nation, the Republican Congress will be compelled to re-establish its Constitutional oversight authority over the Executive Branch and re-instate the rule of law that Trump has trampled on.
One thing we all can do is take an active role in opposing America’s want-to-be king. Talk to your family, friends and neighbors. Find out how they feel about what is happening in our country. Encourage them to get involved. The bigger our movement is, the greater our ability to succeed.
Anyone who is not helping in one way or another to stop Trump is reducing our chances of success. During Hitler’s reign in Germany, there were a great number of Germans who did not support him but neither did they resist his murderous regime. They were labeled ‘Good Germans’ whose failure to actively oppose Hitler gave Nazism more legitimacy, influence and overwhelming power.[2]
We are already well on our way to following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany. Trump’s use of ICE as his personal police force to terrorize Americans, immigrants, racial minorities and anyone else who opposes him reminds us of Hitler’s Gestapo. He says that nothing except the dictates of his own morality can stop him.[3] But the only morality Trump has is that which benefits him personally.
We, the People who believe in democracy are the only ones who can stop Trump.
If we are to win this battle for the soul of America, we must come together and build a massive democracy movement. As Benjamin Franklin famously stated at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”[4]
I know it’s cold and you are exhausted. But so were those valiant patriots who fought the British at Valley Forge and our brave troops who stormed the Normandy beaches. We must honor them by joining together now to defeat Trump. Join a protest, rally or march in your community and help build a massive, non-violent movement to save our democracy. In Santa Fe, come to the Plaza on January 20th, at 10:30 am and let your voice ring out for freedom. As Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed, “Together, we shall overcome.”
Bruce Berlin, J.D.
A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), and his new memoir, From Camden to Kathmandu. (See bruceberlinauthor.com) He is the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com. Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=what+%25+of+Americans+are+not+actively+involved+in+political+change&oq=what+%25+of+Americans+are+not+actively+involved+in+political+change&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRiPAjIHCAIQIRiPAtIBCTMzMzk0ajBqNKgCA7ACAfEFmq252a6wTzI&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_German
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010632450/trump-international-law-greenland.html
[4] https://www.google.com/search?q=ben+franklin+on+hanging+together&oq=Ben+Franklin+on+hang&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMggIAhAAGBYYHjIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjINCAkQABiGAxiABBiKBdIBCTE1MzE2ajBqNKgCA7ACAfEFzte0VL2_czI&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Breaking Big Money's Grip on America 