Think you're safe? Trump's Attack on the Constitution is an Attack on You

It threatens you and yours, whether you choose to believe that or not

The Trump Administration has decided to ignore a federal court order and kidnap and deport people the administration claims are foreign gang members. I hope you’ve followed the news. If you haven’t, Heather Cox Richardson’s summary is the best I’ve seen.

To advance his scheme, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Most historians consider it a terrible mistake by the president who signed it into law, John Adams. The law applies only in wartime. It was never enforced by Adams. It was used during WWII to imprison tens of thousands of Japanese Americans, a tragedy President Ronald Reagan formally apologized for in 1988.

In case you wondered, Trump deported the 300 to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Conditions there are brutal and inhuman. You can read about it here.

This may seem like a distant, abstract issue to you. And Trump is relying upon us to think that deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members is a good thing no matter what. By the way, Trump has offered no proof that the deported are actually gang members. There was no due process.

American citizens cannot afford to believe that Trump is on their side and will abuse only those they don’t like or have already demonized. Tyrants are never on your side, no matter who you are. That’s why we call them tyrants.

The matter at hand will wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court. We can hope it rules against Trump. If it doesn’t it will make the federal judiciary irrelevant. If Trump pursues his obvious goal and simply ignores SCOTUS, we can speak no more in America of the “rule of law” that protects us. Like kings of old, Trump will act as the sole source of law. What is says is law. What he does is legal because he does it.

Imagine you have a son or daughter who attends a protest on a college campus. Trump has already told us he disapproves of campus protests. And he is claiming the authority to disappear your child without notice or due process. Let that sink in. Your children are very much at risk. So are you.

You may think of yourself as a law-abiding citizen who has no need to be protected. You don’t break any laws so you’re safe. You may believe only criminals and n’er-do-wells need to worry. That is another terrible mistake.

In fact, the law exists to protect the innocent. It’s what you rely upon every minute of your life whether you know it or not. Once it’s gone, you are as vulnerable to abuse as any other.

Tyranny is contagious. When Trump violates constitutional rights, other wannabe despots feel empowered to do the same. Suppose you and your neighbor get in a spat over your playing of loud music. It’s a typical neighborly disagreement. But your neighbor calls the police. In yesterday’s America you didn’t have much to worry about. In Trump’s America you do.

Officers, anxious to mimic the muscular authoritarian actions of their heroes, decide to make an example of you. They don’t like your music, anyway. Who are you going to turn to? Trump has already taken action against law firms who represent clients he disagrees with. It won’t be long before local authorities do the same. Judges who rule against him are threatened with impeachment. It won’t be long before similar scenarios appear locally, in your town among your neighbors.

I know it’s not easy to imagine the implications for us. Can’t we just get on with our lives without worrying all the time? Surely someone else will handle this emergency and protect us from the despotism that threatens to end the American experiment in democracy.

There’s a popular statement from German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoller that gets to our circumstance. You have no doubt come across it. Niemoller was an early Nazi sympathizer. But after Hitler came to power in 1933 he became an outspoken critic. After the war he confessed the tragedy of his own early inaction:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.