To what, ultimately, as citizens of a Republic, do we owe our loyalty to as political agents? Is our first loyalty to the institutions of our Republic or is it to those elected within the system?

Our political system was created, based on principles that were designed to be adaptable to the degree that the reality that the world changes in unpredictable and unknowable ways. No one could know  when the Constitution was crafted that the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure could one day apply to the government getting your DNA from a tossed cigarette butt. Nor could the Founders know that an overwhelmingly rural nation in which we had no standing army and relied on the citizen militia for defense (and that many people used their highly inaccurate weapons to hunt for food) would become an overwhelmingly urban nation and that weapons technology would develop military grade weapons of mass slaughter that would become available to the masses. (AR-15’s etc).

But the adaptability of the system  was supposed to limit changes resulting from elections  within constraints that honored that the fundamental principles of the system would be respected. Freedom of the Press, Speech and Freedom of Assembly establish that, whatever transient  government is constituted through the electoral process, it MUST respect those structurally essential fundamentals.  The Great Britain that we separated ourselves from had MORE freedoms than most other country in the world at the time. Our nation was created partly to enshrine and guarantee more freedoms for more people than Great Britain afforded to its citizens. But our Constitution did not provide all freedoms to all people: it was structured so that as perceptions of Freedom expanded in later generations, those basic guarantees could be extended to more and more people. Our Founders were wise enough to know that they did not know everything. The inclusive circle, greater than that that came before us was set up so that it could expand.

The current Republican Administration is led by a man who is either unwilling or unable to respect the most fundamental principles undergirding our Republic. He is an individual whose personal behavioral inclinations are oriented towards dictatorship. “We are a nation of Laws, not Men.” His Narcissism places his own vaunted sense of his rectitude and his power above the laws designed to constrain just those impulses in a leader. This Republican Administration is a fundamental threat to the existence of our nation.

Now is the time to demand, as rational actors. the reassertion of our belief in the system’s perfectibility. Now is the time to assert firmly that we value the underlying system more than we support the “victor” who is the very antithesis of our Republic’s values and virtues.  He has attacked the electoral process and the press. He refused to say that he would accept the result of the election if he lost the election. He has asserted that the free press is the enemy of the people. He asserted that, if elected, he would try Hillary Clinton and “lock her up.” His chief aide, Steve Bannon has said that this administration’s job is to completely deconstruct the administrative state. He and his administration lie–they lie with alacrity, brazenness and enthusiasm.  And he has irrefutably allied with our greatest and most powerful enemy, Russia, to rig the election and shape his foreign policies going forward. He has expressed his admiration for the leadership qualities of the most powerful thug on the planet, Vladimir Putin. That fact alone should bring pause to every single American citizen.

There are legal and extra-legal options open to us. The fight has to be enjoined within the system, and also on the streets: Civil Disobedience is the option available to people whose righteous indignation demands bringing pressure to bear from outside the system. Every single Black and White person who broke the segregation laws of the Jim Crow era was expressing their “right to stand for right” in defiance of unjust laws. (MLK) Clearly now there are powerful currents within the Press, the Intelligence Community and the Legal System to counter the most destructive actions and behaviors of this Republican Administration and its minions. And there have been powerful and defiant actions in “The Street.”

That this current Republican President seems to have the unshakeable and enthusiastic support of around 37% of the country should not deter us. Those who elected him and who now fervently support him were and are a shrinking minority in the country. It should be clear to all people who still have faith in the system, currently under multi-pronged assault, that the country will become either more representative of the values of those currently in power or will revert back, with firmness, resolve and courage, and with essential  correctives, to what it was originally intended to be.

The choice is ours, and remember this:

We are right. They are wrong. Period. 

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/president_trump_approval_ratin.html