Jesus! It says it right there in the second paragraph of our founding document.
“…that whenever any government becomes destructive of those Ends [and while I don’t know why they capitalized Ends, I do know that the Ends are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, by the consent of the governed], it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”
Guess what? Our government has reached that point. The Trump administration and their tech cronies hate Life. They really hate Liberty. And their version of Happiness is an unhealthy mix of fear, greed and rampant sadism.
We’re quickly becoming one of those countries where it’s the government VERSUS the people, not a government OF the people, definitely not one FOR the people. I guess it is still BY the people, but these guys are the very worst people.
Skipping the first paragraph, which is really good, because Jefferson was an amazing writer and he had help from Franklin and Adams, pretty brilliant guys themselves, the very first line of that classic second paragraph is the most anti-Trump screed ever written. “…all Men are created equal…” I can’t make out anything about a border wall keeping out poor people. I don’t see any mention of brown skinned people being less than equal (Yes, I get the historical irony of African slaves in this equation). And I can’t help but notice this tidbit:
“…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.”
Again, that could’ve been written about Trump and his droolingly defiant sycophants…but with a more understandable system of capitalization. Absolute Despotism IS his goal. A long train of Abuses and Usurpations IS his platform.
Essentially the Declaration is a wonderfully poetic list of all the reasons the king of England sucked.
Now I challenge you to go and read the rest of the Declaration, the part you didn’t have to memorize in grade school. Once more, it could easily be a long anti-Trump Facebook post, were we nearly as talented with the pen as our founders.
If you don’t want to read the rest of this document, I understand. You’re busy people. But I’m going to list the original beefs with George III (whose demented mental state was also quite Trumpian) anyway, because they just fit too neatly not to.
1) He has refused to Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. [Screw the environment, I’m going to set up Fascist data centers and detention camps.]
2) He has forbidden his Governors to pass other Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. [He just threw a temper tantrum and almost vetoed a bi-partisan bill to slightly reduce housing costs, which are historically high, in order to peer pressure Republicans into passing a voter suppression bill.]
3) He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those people would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only. [Bullying Congress and hijacking the Supreme Court to give him unlimited power, and withholding disaster aid from Blue States seems relevant here.]
4) He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures. [It IS unusual for a platform to be decided in Davos, Switzerland, but that town does look comfortable…for robber barons. And he’s been trying to selectively edit public records all over the place.]
5) He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. [Not totally relevant since he hasn’t dissolved Congress, but damn, would he ever like to.]
6) 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 mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within. [He’s done his best to rig Republican primaries with moronic beta-male sycophantic MAGA losers. He invented a war, exposing us to dangers without, and invented a masked militia within answerable almost entirely to him.]
7) 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. [A thousand times yes. His hated of brown-skinned immigrants is legendary. Calling other countries shit-holes is pretty discouraging to Migrations hither.]
8) He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. [Dear God yes. Ignoring judicial rulings, trying to gather all power to himself.]
9) He has made Judges dependent of his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their salaries. [I don’t think he’s cut the paychecks of federal judges, though I’m sure he’d like to, but he has tried, repeatedly, to bend their rulings to his evil Will.]
10) He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance. [OK, he’s mainly torn down a Multitude of Offices, but he has sent out Swarms of Officers to harass our People, attempting to shut down that most American of practices, dissent.]
11) He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures. [Oh god yeah. What do you think the masked militia IS, but a Standing Army. And how many blue state governors have tried to kick them out?]
12) He has affected to render the Military independent and superior to Civil Power. [See #11. He’s tried to corrupt the military, but fortunately for us and our future, the American military is full of men and women with a sense of honor, a word Trump wouldn’t understand even if it plopped down on his lap on an underage sex island.]
13) He has combined with other to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws, giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: [He has combined with a cabal of rich tech lunatics to implement a surveillance state, entirely contrary to our Constitution and Bill of Rights, even though by Constitution Jefferson didn’t mean a piece of legal paper, but I do.]
OK, the next bit comes after the colon following Legislation:
A) For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us [extremely well-funded masked militia]:
B) For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of those States [Have any of the people murdered by Trump’s militia gotten “justice”?]:
C) For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World [Does the word “tariff” come to mind?]:
D) For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent [Tariffs are essentially back-door taxes on poor people, and we know how he feels about poor people.]:
E) For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury [He hasn’t done this yet, but my guess is he wants to.]:
F) For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offenses [deporting brown people who just wanted a better life to Salvadorian torture prisons feels relevant here]:
G) For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies [somewhat true now, he does want absolute Rule and an arbitrary Government based on his erratic whims]:
H) For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments [Amen. OK, not so much the Charters, but abolishing our Norms, such as foreign aid, disaster assistance, checks and balances, feels eerily similar to me]:
I) For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate us in all Cases whatsoever. [Superseding state laws on militia presence, preservation of public land, air quality or anything holding corporations responsible whatsoever]:
J) He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. [He’s trying to criminalize dissent. He’s set up conditions so that any protestors against his immoral militia have received 50-100 year prison sentences for exercising their First Amendment rights. Seems the same to me.]:
K) He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and Destroyed the Lives of our People. [Don’t you miss those inappropriately antiquated crazy uncle jokes at Thanksgiving? Now he just rants about Communists and insults your hippie aunt. The teasing has an almost-threatening edge to it now. And while I don’t think he’s ravaged our Coasts, he has Destroyed the Lives of our People.]:
L) He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat 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. [OK, the mercenaries are domestic, but his Cruelty is certainly unparalleled in our history, and Death, Desolation and Tyranny would make a good title for his biography. Perfidy is his family motto.]:
K) He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. [He didn’t recruit his masked militia on the high Seas, but he did help create an economy shitty enough that they had to become Executioners of their Friends and Brethren in order to feed their, possibly equally-masked, families.]:
L) He has excited domestic Insurrection amongst us…[I’m skipping the rest of this one, because its latter part reads these days as just anti-Indian racism, and I can’t totally parallel that part, but Lord knows he’s incited domestic Insurrection. What do you think MAGA rallies are?]
“A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.” [Amen!]
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS (almost ¾ of us, who aren’t still in his Cult), Assembled (at least online), appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World (that’s God, by way, someone else who really hates Trump and vice-versa) for the Rectitude of our Intentions do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies (states mainly but they hate him in Puerto Rico and American Samoa too), solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies (states) are, and of Right ought to be, FREE (from Trump) AND INDEPENDENT STATES (independent of his Heritage Foundation Fascist nonsense); that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown (Orange Hairpiece), and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain (MAGA), is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War (Didn’t he say he wouldn’t do that? How’d that work out?), conclude Peace (He doesn’t know that P word, other P words for sure but not that one), contract Alliances (reform the ones he’s destroyed with other democracies), establish Commerce (just not the internal spy companies he likes), and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do (like help the needy, live free of fear from our own government and pursue happiness). And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
First off, damn our Founding Fathers could freaking write, couldn’t they? Trump is, of course, functionally illiterate so maybe he never read them. That would explain a lot.
It’s time to free ourselves once more. I do feel the need to say that I am NOT advocating violence, even against this Tyrannical loser. Thomas Jefferson is. Benjamin Franklin is. John Adams is. I’m not. We don’t need violence to defeat our Tyrant of the Moment. We do, however, need constant vigilance, we do, however, need to ensure that our military is willing to disobey their Commander in Chief when he, inevitably, tries to turn their guns on us. We need bravery galore. We need sweeping oratory that inspires the better angels of our Nature to resist with every fiber of our being this angry piece of shit whose giant sagging ass is currently sitting in the White House, our House, the PEOPLE’S HOUSE.