On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially changed the name, “United Colonies,” to “United States of America.”
And in 1777, it approved the Articles of Confederation in which Article 1 states: “The Stile (“name”) of this confederacy shall be, ‘The United States of America’.”
Others had already used the name, “United States” before it became official. Thomas Jefferson used it in one of his drafts of the Declaration of Independence.
But the Second Continental Congress made it official and the Articles of Confederation set it in stone.
Yet, in truth, there was nothing United about the states when our nation was formed. We have made progress toward that goal, but still have not achieved it.
The “United States of America” has always been an aspirational term rather than a descriptive one.
The word “aspiration” means a hope or ambition to achieve something specific, but it also means the process of taking a breath.
Our founders made unity, being the United States, both an aspiration or goal for the nation and at the same time the very air we breathe as a people.
Donald Trump doesn’t believe in any of that. He doesn’t believe in the United States, which is why he is seeking to undermine the rule of law which is the air, the oxygen, we breathe that keeps us a free people.
That is why he is defying the Supreme Court 9-0 ruling. The Constitution says the Supreme Court has the final word, is the nation’s final arbiter, on what the rule of law means.
We may not like its decisions, as I have not many times, but to be the United States of America we all have to agree to accept the Supreme Court as the ultimate interpreter of how laws are applied to every day life.
Not the president, not the Congress, not the states, not governors, not the police, not the military, only the Supreme Court.
But we now have a president who is saying NO to the rule of law. He is saying he is the final word on what is law and what it is not. In doing that he is also attacking the one thing that makes us the United States.
It is a traitorous move he is making against our country, and because of it, he deserves to be removed from office. Every member of the House of Representatives should vote to approve articles of impeachment, and every member of the Senate should vote to convict and remove him.
Just as critical, 100% of all Americans should stand firmly behind Trump’s impeachment.
It should have been done the first time, and certainly the second time, but this time the threat he poses is far more blatant and much more unequivocal.
Trump, of course, will not be removed simply because today’s Republicans are more committed to party than to country.
What they must realize, though, for the sake of the country, is that at this moment in history this conflict is not about politics, about being Democrats or Republicans or independents.
Trump has made political parties irrelevant. All that matters now is being a Trump supporter or not being a Trump supporter. Politically, that is all that matters.
Economist Paul Krugman says this is also true in regard to trade with other nations. Under Trump the United States has gone from the world’s most trusted trade partner to one no one should trust.
“America’s ability to fight a trade war,” Krugman says, “is severely damaged by our descent into authoritarian rule. A few months ago other advanced countries might have been inclined to take our side because of shared democratic values. Now we’ve become a country whose government claims the right to kidnap people whenever it likes and ship them to foreign gulags. Who wants to be allied with such a government? Who will trust such a government to keep its word on anything?”
Then he adds: “Of course, the fact that the collapse of democracy will contribute to our defeat in the trade war isn’t the main reason to be horrified at where we are. Losing real GDP is bad, but it’s much less important than losing our soul. As it happens, however, we seem to be on track to do both.”
This is the new reality about who we are as a nation thanks to Donald Trump’s second presidency. In every aspect of his responsibilities as President, he is refusing to follow the rule of law here at home and in foreign relations, ending what kind of nation we have tried to be since its founding.
The divide in our country is now between pro-Americans and anti-Americans, between people who believe in the United States and those who don’t, between pro-Trump and anti-Trump voters.
In a real sense, we have been thrust into a second Civil War by our own president.
Just as the first Civil War was an attack on our country’s unity, on what it means to be a nation united by the rule of law, so are we now facing that fight again.
This is not about Trump’s policies or direction for the country. This is about Trump taking over the country, establishing himself as supreme leader (America’s Fuhrer).
That is not an exaggeration or in any way hyperbolic. It is the what this second Civil War is about, with every person who opposes Trump standing for the rule of law and our way of life established by the founders.
We can even say that those of us who believe in the United States are fighting for the preservation of the Union against a man who wants to shred it.
I am writing as one who is from the South. That is my heritage, and I remain ashamed that my ancestors, whether consciously or not, tried to replace the United States with the Confederate States of America in order to preserve their right to own slaves.
I still don’t know what they could have possibly been thinking when they did that. And I wonder the same thing about everyone in the Trump administration and every American voter who supports him.
What can they possibly be thinking as they watch him launch an attack on a ruling of the Supreme Court and the rule of law itself? Where do they think all of this will lead? Can they possibly believe a dictator is better than the government we have?
Do they not see that if Trump gets to decide what the laws of our nation means, democracy will have died? Do they believe Trump is immortal and will rule forever. What will they think when President Jan Linn takes over and decides to remove them to a prison in another country? Is that the kind of America they want to live in where personal freedom is decided by the ruler of the land?
Apparently, they do because they remain loyal to the man who is seeking to bring it all about.
As for me, I dream of the day when Donald Trump will be gone, pray for it, in fact.
Until then, we have to cling to the hope that those of us who stand against him will prevail in this new civil war we are in, in order for the name “United States” to become once again the goal toward which we are moving and the air we as a people are breathing.
(It’s here! My new book is now available everywhere.)
linnposts.com 