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Historian Heather Cox Richardson described what our nation has experienced this past year politically this way:

“The hallmark of the first year of President Donald J. Trump’s second term has been the attempt of the president and his cronies to dismantle the constitutional system set up by the framers of that document when they established the United States of America. It’s not simply that they have broken the laws. They have acted as if the laws, and the Constitution that underpins them, don’t exist.”

One example of how true her assessment is was a June ruling by Massachusetts District Judge William Young, declaring Trump’s termination of hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, targeting research on health equity and LGBTQ+ health, as “arbitrary and capricious.”

“I am hesitant to draw this conclusion,” wrote Judge Young, “but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out.”

He further stated that the grant terminations were “designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health – we’re talking about health here — the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this … I ask myself, how can this be? Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?”

Those are the questions we must answer in the coming New Year. ”How Can this be?” “Have we fallen so low?” Have we no shame?”

Heather Cox Richardson gave an unequivocal answer to the first one. “How can this be?” is the result of the election of Donald Trump to a second term

But the answers to the other two are now in our hands. Have we fallen so low as a nation that we are willing to put up with the lawlessness and assault on our constitutional democracy rather than remove Trump from office?”

Have we no shame to such an extent that we are willing to allow a convicted felon who is also a convicted sex offender, convicted fraudster, and instigator of an insurrection against our government continue in office for another three years?

A slim majority of voters did a terrible thing to our country when they elected him again in 2024, tragic even, but we who knew the truth then and have seen our worst fears realized this past year cannot let what they did stand.

This is the year we simply must defeat House and Senate Republicans in such large numbers that we gain the power to impeach, convict, and remove Trump from office.

I’ve heard people say it can’t happen. I said the same thing before he was elected again. I was wrong and so are the people who are now saying there are not enough Americans who care about their country’s future to remove the gravest threat to it we have ever faced.

Not to impeach and convict Trump is the equivalent of refusing to defend America against a foreign invasion. He has betrayed his oath of office and betrayed everyone of us in the process.

We cannot let this stand.

Nor can we wait three years. Trump will have done too much damage by then. Nor can we wait for the Supreme Court to save us. The conservative majority have clearly shown they support Trump more than they do the Constitution.

No, we must save ourselves, and patriotism demands that of all of us help. For this reason I suggest we make 2026 the Year of the Eagle.

The eagle has symbolized freedom, liberty, and justice and the strength to maintain each of them since 1872 when our founders chose Charles Thompson’s design for the Great Seal of the United States of America.

Donald Trump has now caged the eagle, and will eventually destroy everything it symbolizes unless we are strong enough to do our duty and do what must be done to rid ourselves of him.

It will be a struggle. There will be pain, anger, conflict, and even violence, but it’s the price all of us must pay to put an end to the damage those who elected Trump to a second term did when they chose corruption over character.

It’s more than a struggle. It is our chance, our opportunity, our responsibility, to do whatever it takes to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution that guarantees that everyone of us enjoys everything the American Eagle symbolizes.