Democracy and personal freedoms will not survive with this present administration. They are already trying to rig the election process. Trump wants to supervise all elections , Nationlize all elections , have control over who counts the vote. Take the election power away from the states. Rig the voter calculators. The only way to defeat the despots who are presently engaged in sweeping the immigrants and dissenters out of the USA is to VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT. YOU HAVE GOT TO GET THE HOUSE AND SENATE IMPEACH THE DESPOTS.. Give them all the same due process they give others and ship them of to unknown lands. Weather you like it or not go blue just for the next two elections . Save a country worth saving. God Speed.
I think we need to flood social media with the similarities of our government now and at the time of the framing of the Declaration of Independence. My suggestion for doing that is very long, but I think very urgent:
In these troubled times, when the person at the head of our government seems to be intent on destroying it, we should remember why this government was established. Because of the actions of their king in Great Britain, the formers of our government in the United States of America saw the need for abolishing their former government and instituting a new government, one that has sustained this nation for almost 250 years. We now find that our government no longer has the checks and balances created to maintain a fair government of two parties and three branches—Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The people elect the President (Executive) and the members of Congress (Legislative), and the President appoints the Justices of the Supreme Court (Judicial), with the approval of Congress. At some point in our history, the Electoral College was established, supposedly to make our elections fair. At this time, the Electoral College seems to be the cause of the breakdown of a perfect system of government. (The people vote one way and the Electoral College votes the other way.) Because of this breakdown, both the office of President and some of the members of Congress were not voted for by the people of the United States of America. Thus, in the current Congress, a majority of the members are in the same party as the President, and when the President appoints Justices of the Supreme Court, they are easily affirmed by the Congress.
We now find ourselves with a President who does not follow the rules. He seems to see himself as the king of this country, and we are now in much the same situation as the framers of our government. So much of their Declaration of Independence could be said about this President:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
…
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
…
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
…
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
….
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE WIN EVERY UPCOMING ELECTION BY AN OVERPOWERING MAJORITY SO THAT WE CAN REPAIR OUR SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES.
The framing of billionaire influence as structural rather than individual is spot on. Most critiques focus on specific bad actors, but the system itself incentivizes buying political access regardless of who's wealthiest. That line about Buckley v Valeo laying groundwork for 50 years of dysfunction tracks—Citizens United gets all the attention, but the root problem goes deeper. I've worked in local campaigns and the small-dollar donor model actully builds more durable movements than chasing whales.
Democracy and personal freedoms will not survive with this present administration. They are already trying to rig the election process. Trump wants to supervise all elections , Nationlize all elections , have control over who counts the vote. Take the election power away from the states. Rig the voter calculators. The only way to defeat the despots who are presently engaged in sweeping the immigrants and dissenters out of the USA is to VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT. YOU HAVE GOT TO GET THE HOUSE AND SENATE IMPEACH THE DESPOTS.. Give them all the same due process they give others and ship them of to unknown lands. Weather you like it or not go blue just for the next two elections . Save a country worth saving. God Speed.
Sometimes I wish we would stop using the word transparency and just say truth. People want the TRUTH..all of it.
I think we need to flood social media with the similarities of our government now and at the time of the framing of the Declaration of Independence. My suggestion for doing that is very long, but I think very urgent:
In these troubled times, when the person at the head of our government seems to be intent on destroying it, we should remember why this government was established. Because of the actions of their king in Great Britain, the formers of our government in the United States of America saw the need for abolishing their former government and instituting a new government, one that has sustained this nation for almost 250 years. We now find that our government no longer has the checks and balances created to maintain a fair government of two parties and three branches—Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The people elect the President (Executive) and the members of Congress (Legislative), and the President appoints the Justices of the Supreme Court (Judicial), with the approval of Congress. At some point in our history, the Electoral College was established, supposedly to make our elections fair. At this time, the Electoral College seems to be the cause of the breakdown of a perfect system of government. (The people vote one way and the Electoral College votes the other way.) Because of this breakdown, both the office of President and some of the members of Congress were not voted for by the people of the United States of America. Thus, in the current Congress, a majority of the members are in the same party as the President, and when the President appoints Justices of the Supreme Court, they are easily affirmed by the Congress.
We now find ourselves with a President who does not follow the rules. He seems to see himself as the king of this country, and we are now in much the same situation as the framers of our government. So much of their Declaration of Independence could be said about this President:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
…
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
…
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
…
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
….
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE WIN EVERY UPCOMING ELECTION BY AN OVERPOWERING MAJORITY SO THAT WE CAN REPAIR OUR SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES.
Katherine Ammons Fitzgerald
The framing of billionaire influence as structural rather than individual is spot on. Most critiques focus on specific bad actors, but the system itself incentivizes buying political access regardless of who's wealthiest. That line about Buckley v Valeo laying groundwork for 50 years of dysfunction tracks—Citizens United gets all the attention, but the root problem goes deeper. I've worked in local campaigns and the small-dollar donor model actully builds more durable movements than chasing whales.