Executive Demands

I wrote this paragraph before the election: This election has been very stressful! There were times when I was extremely anxious and very angry at the same time. I cannot understand why people, especially people who think that they are Republicans, would vote for a man who tried to steal almost ½ million dollars from his employees as an Ohio United States Senator, nor why they would vote for a convicted felon, conman, thief for president. I thought that Republicans and conservatives highly valued integrity and personal honor as did our founding fathers. The Senate and the presidency were intended for the best of us. The holders of those offices were supposed to be the people who had shown good judgment, honesty in their dealings, and commitment to the good of their community and nation. Republican elected officials today are none of those things, especially the Senators.

I haven’t been able to write anything since the election. It upset me too much. But we will have to live with it. That is not the same as accepting that the people who voted showed good judgment. What matters now is whether our institutions and the people who serve in them will uphold the rule of law and the Constitution.

We are dependent now on the integrity of our judges and justices, the members of the military and their leaders, and the members of law enforcement. Judges must refuse to hear cases where there are not sufficient facts to justify trial more where the law is not actually been violated. Law enforcement officers and military must refuse to follow orders to perform illegal actions. The failure of the Supreme Court to uphold the rule of law and its willingness to make decisions not based upon the Constitution or existing law has resulted in giving the president United States the freedom to commit felonies without fear of punishment. Judges must push back against this. They must find that criminal acts are never official acts, and contrary to normal practice explicitly rule that Trump v. U. S. Is not a valid decision forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider it.

In the 2 ½ weeks since becoming president, Trump signed executive orders canceling funding for food and medical aid to people in other countries and undefined, unidentified programs in United States. The people who staffed the Justice Department’s anti-terrorism efforts have been moved to other jobs leaving the department either understaffed or staffed with people with no experience. He is still on course to place tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada which all the experts say will result in inflation, lack of necessary parts for American manufacturers, and higher prices and less food in the grocery stores from these two countries. His copresident Elon Musk has unilaterally shut down the agency providing aid to those in need overseas, play civil servants on paid leave, meaning they’re getting paid for doing nothing and there is no one left to do their job. Whether the continued gutting of the staffs the United States government will have the negative impact on our lives it seems to me would be the natural consequence, remains to be seen. We can only hope that there are enough people with integrity and skills left in our government legal system to keep America from collapsing.