A republic is a fragile thing. It is hard to build, and incredibly easy to tear down. On Feb. 18, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.” Section 7 of this order states the following:
“The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties.”
This in effect establishes a constitutional dictatorship. Since the founding of the U.S., the Supreme Court has the final say on the interpretation of the law for all branches of government. The executive branch, headed by the president, is tasked with enforcing the law as it is made by Congress and interpreted by the Supreme Court.
By granting the president and the attorney-general the exclusive right to interpret the law for the executive branch and all its employees (which includes all of the president’s cabinet heads and all federal law enforcement agencies), Trump has further eroded the foundations of republican government.
Some have argued that Trump’s assault on independent federal agencies is an attempt to weaken the power of the federal government and in so doing grant more power to the states. This is not the case. Trump attacks the power of the federal government to centralize its power in his own hands and the hands of his cronies. Trump is attempting to destroy the institutional authority of the government with his own personal authority.
All trends indicate that the Trump administration is laying the foundations for a total coup of the federal government. Vice President J.D. Vance recently declared that “we cannot just ignore the president’s desires.” When did the president become a king?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has, since Trump took office, massively expanded its illegal operations against both U.S. citizens and immigrants. This is not all that surprising; ICE has always been nothing more than a gang of deputized blackshirts; stupid and cruel thugs who do nothing but violate the sacred freedoms of Americans and non-Americans alike.
Take the detainment and deportation of individuals who are here legally, such as Mahmoud Khalil, whose only “crime” was protesting the U.S. government’s foreign policy with regard to Palestine. This “crime” had his permanent resident status revoked by the State Department, and was taken from his New York City home by ICE. He was transported to a detainment facility in Louisiana, far from his friends and family. He was denied contact with his family, and he is now being deported.
Or take the case of multiple individuals, including U.S. citizens, who have been deported to prison labor camps in El Salvador. Recently published satellite images show close ups of one of these facilities. In the center of one is what looks to be a pile of human corpses.
People are being deported by the Trump Administration under no criminal charges, and are very possibly being murdered in concentration camps in El Salvador. It should be remembered that Auschwitz, the most prominent of the Nazi death camps, was not located in Germany, but rather in Poland. How many more atrocities have to be committed by our government before we are willing to acknowledge what is happening before our very eyes?
This is all a dark foreboding of what will soon become the norm if the American people don’t take swift and decisive action to rid their country of tyrants and oppressors.
We had a republic. We have now lost it. There is no going back to the old status quo. That is what created the conditions that led to where we are now. The only option is to fight for a new and revitalized social order that is based on genuine popular power, organized from the bottom up. We must fight the rising tide of fascism, and bury the fascists once and for all. Will you fight for a new world, or watch helplessly as this one slips from your grasp?
