As Americans, we share a deep pride in our country and our ideals of freedom for everyone, no matter where we live or what’s in our wallet. Our founding fathers understood human nature and created a system based on the highest morals. They rejected a government that gave unlimited power to any man. Instead, our government is based on the rule of law. This foundation has enabled our prosperity.
But now, our prosperity, health and welfare are at risk. The President is acting like a dictator – the modern-day equivalent of a king. His reckless approaches, including the most recent tariffs, are creating chaos and threatening the stability of our economy. Further, Trump has released a tornado of executive orders, seeking to grab power as if he was a king. He deports people without due process and sends them to brutal overseas prisons. If there’s no due process, he could do this to you or me. None of this is moral.
The unelected president, billionaire Elon Musk, meanwhile, is recklessly destroying government services and treating tens of thousands of public servants with cruelty. His actions undermine the lives of everyday Americans by putting our personal data at risk, threatening healthcare for veterans, and gutting funds for our clean air and water, to name just a few examples. This is not moral.
The MAGA members of Congress are even failing to exert the power given to them by the Constitution. This is not moral.
The Trump/Musk presidency is using tactics straight out of a playbook for dictators: a charismatic leader who promises to solve all our problems; blaming and dehumanizing whole groups of people like all Democrats and all immigrants; and the endless repetition of lies, requiring us to doubt what we see with our own eyes (the January 6 th rioters become “a day of love”). Rather than stability, we have crisis. This is not moral.
Fortunately, history tells us that everyday people are the ones with power to create change. ‘We the People’ can come together to prevent the reckless, incompetent and inefficient destruction of our government. ‘We the People” want safe food and medicines, safeguards for workers, and healthcare for our veterans, our children and our elders.
This Saturday, from 1 to 2 p.m., you can join together with others at the HANDS-OFF event
at the Mount Vernon square. For our freedom and our future!
Janet Chandler
Mount Vernon, Ohio