Declaring Independence from Trump
In The United States of America, July 4, 2017.
The unanimous Declaration of the fifty United States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people of a Republic to reject an incompetent leader who shows no respect for the checks and balances that have maintained that Republic and lies with impunity on a daily basis, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes that have impelled them to that rejection.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Healthcare, Education, and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Head of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to seek a reasonable means of removing him or her, and to reestablish the sort of Government envisioned in the nation’s Constitution. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that leaders should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that Humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by changing leaders. 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 a leader, and to provide new Guards for their future security, — Such has been the patient sufferance of our People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to change the leadership of their Government. The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the citizens of these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:
He has used his office repeatedly and without a hint of shame to enrich himself and his family.
He has, over and over and over again, attacked the free press, an essential bulwark of the American democratic system, and worked to subvert public confidence in this essential institution.
He has encouraged violence against reporters and opponents.
He has had his top minions threaten television hosts with the prospect of the publication of a tabloid newspaper story about them unless they would grovel to him and promise to stop criticizing him.
He has, along with his sycophants, seceded from the world of fact, persistently presenting “alternative facts,” which are simply not facts.
He has fired the FBI Director, who was investigating Russian interference in the sacred American democratic process, lied about his reason for doing so, then admitted it in a televised interview, and bragged to Russian officials about how his action would impede the investigation.
He has refused to release his income tax and other financial records that would show the extent of his ties to Russian and other foreign financial interests.
He has invited the Russian foreign minister and ambassador into the Oval Office and passed along to them Top Secret information that was provided to the United States by the intelligence service of an ally of the United States.
He has, when confronted with overwhelming evidence that a hostile foreign power invaded our democratic institutions and sought to affect the outcome of a national election, refused to take any steps to protect our nation from continuing attacks on our system of self-government.
He has falsely accused his predecessor of not having been born in the United States and lied about having investigators in Hawaii finding evidence to support his ridiculous claim.
He has falsely accused his predecessor of having “wiretapped” him.
He has falsely claimed that three to five million people voted illegally in the 2016 Election.
He has sought to lessen democracy in our nation by making it more difficult for citizens to vote.
He has engaged in sexual assault and bragged about doing so.
He has, again and again and again, shown himself to be the most virulent misogynist ever to occupy the Office of Chief Magistrate of our country.
He has based his campaign on sexual assault, in the broad meaning of an attack by one sex on the equality, dignity, and even humanity of the other.
He has called women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” slobs,” and “disgusting animals.” He has ridiculed women for menstruating, taking too long to go to the bathroom, and said “it doesn’t really matter what [the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” And on and on.
He has demonstrated his extreme masculine insecurity in numerous ways, including bragging before millions of television viewers about the size of his male organ.
He has modeled the worst imaginable behavior for the nation’s youth — and all our people — by routinely bullying, lying, mocking women and minorities, and more.
He has promised to provide a healthcare program that would expand coverage, provide “insurance for everybody,” lower costs, and assure there would be no cuts to Medicaid, but has instead backed a wealthcare program that would provide huge tax cuts for the richest people while causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their health insurance, millions more to pay higher premiums and face higher deductibles, remove the requirement that people with pre-existing conditions be offered health insurance at the same rates as others, undermine Medicaid, and more, held a victory celebration at the White House when the bill passed the House of Representatives, then called the bill he had celebrated “mean,” and then supported a very similar “mean” bill in the Senate.
He has expressed admiration for numerous authoritarian rulers around the world, including Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi, the Philippines’ Duterte, Turkey’s Erdoğan, Egypt’s el-Sissi … He has even had words of appreciation for North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
He has called to congratulate Turkey’s authoritarian ruler, Recep Erdoğan, when he won, in a highly dubious referendum, the essential abolition of democracy in that country.
He has heaped words of great praise on the utterly repressive monarchy in Saudi Arabia.
He has abandoned human rights as a significant factor in American foreign policy.
He has brought disrepute, distrust and ridicule upon our nation around the world, with approval of him falling to 22 percent from his predecessor’s 64 percent and views of the United States around the world have fallen from 38 percent favorable over unfavorable to only 10 percent in the short time he has been in office. In Russia, however, his favorable rating is 42 points higher than was that of his predecessor.
He has endangered the future of the planet by pulling out of the worldwide Paris climate change agreement, in the process lying about its requirements for the United States and other countries and falsely asserting that it would result in a loss of jobs in our country.
He has repeatedly attacked the judiciary, a co-equal branch of our Government.
He has assembled his Cabinet for the purpose of requiring everyone in it to praise him, kiss his posterior, and be a complete sycophant to this self-fancied Emperor.
He has mocked a disabled person.
He has attacked his opponent in the election for being too close to Wall Street and promised to be a champion of the common people, but appointed many top Wall Street people to his own Cabinet.
He has appointed a National Security Advisor who was an agent of foreign powers and kept him in his position, with access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets, long after he was presented with evidence that said man was susceptible to being blackmailed by Russia.
He has, on numerous occasions, said one thing and then, the next day, or even the next hour or the next minute, the exact opposite, without acknowledging — or apparently even realizing — the contradiction.
He has publicly called upon a hostile foreign power to subvert American democracy by hacking and releasing private emails of political opponents.
He has repeatedly acted like a child, throwing temper tantrums, making baseless, vile, ad hominem attacks on numerous people.
He has completely disrespected and defiled the Office of President of the United States by his buffoonish behavior.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A self-imagined Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these United States, solemnly publish and declare, that we are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent People; that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the would-be Tyrant currently in the White House. There are many ways in which this Necessary End can be accomplished, among them: impeachment, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, and an overwhelming demand from We, the People, that he resign. 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.