Every public official, including federal workers, military personnel, and elected officials up to the vice president, swear an oath to the Constitution of the United States. The oath is required by our Constitution and is found in Article VI, Clause 3. Their oath is a solemn promise that reads, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
The president takes a slightly different oath that reads, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
What we are collectively witnessing today are Republican public officials, including Supreme Court judges, forsaking their oath in favor of allegiance (or at least silence) to President Trump’s assault on our Constitution, especially our basic rights and the rule of law spelled out in it. Specifically, they are empowering and enabling him to strip away our Constitutional protections such as birthright citizenship, free speech, the right to assemble, the right to choose our own path to happiness, equal rights under the law, a free press, and due process. I find it alarming that they are blatantly ignoring the entire purpose upon which our country and its Constitution was established.
Our Constitution begins with “We the people” (not a monarch) are responsible for creating a more perfect union wherein we establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for our common defense and promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our future generations. We do this by electing representatives to pass laws, confirm federal judges and high-level public officials, and to keep the executive branch in check on our behalf. Sadly, we elected a Republican majority who are using the fact of their narrow election win (based on false pretenses) to forsake the Constitution and their oath to protect and defend it.
I watched in horror as Senator Mitch McConnell ignored the pleads of young activists to have a conversation with them about their concerns. He refused to even look at them as he hightailed it to an elevator. Most Republican representatives are refusing to face their constituents at Town Hall meetings because they don’t want to hear people voicing their anger over their betrayal of their oath to the Constitution and their refusal to hold Trump accountable for blatant violations. Republican representatives are clearly not representing “we the people”. They are in lock step with the President, pursuing the interests and agenda of white Christian nationalists and wealthy campaign donors.
It’s become obvious that they will allow Trump to declare himself king as he violates the Constitution, enacts cruel policies, and enriches himself. Their collective strategy is to erode the Constitution along with the systematic silencing of any who may attempt to stand up for it. They use their megaphones on Fox News and social media platforms along with insults and lawsuits to silence journalists. They coerce oppositional law firms by cutting off their access to government buildings. They defund intellectual centers that provide scientific research if they refuse to promote their white nationalist agenda in their classrooms. They fire any government employees who insist on upholding the value of “liberty and justice for all” otherwise known as DEI. And they make a spectacle of arresting vocal citizens and lawmakers using humiliating brutal force when challenged.
Unfortunately, they have a majority on the Supreme Court thanks to the unethical maneuverings of Senator Mitch McConnell. It’s the same Court that ruled that Donald Trump could break the law so long as he is acting in his official capacity as president. So much for the long-held view of the Founders that no one is above the law. Now the president is. This past week, they voted 6 to 3 to disallow federal judges to issue nationwide bans on clearly unconstitutional executive orders. They expect “we the people” to sue for our individual constitutional rights if they are violated by executive orders. In other words, if our Constitutionally guaranteed rights are violated by executive order, it is up to us to file a class action lawsuit to insist upon restoring them. Their decision left Trump’s unconstitutional ban on birthright citizenship in place in those states that haven’t challenged it. Imagine a child being born “state-less” unless his parents have the ability to sue for his or her citizenship. Many class action lawsuits are in our immediate future. In fact, some were filed (or amended) within hours of this Supreme Court ruling. This past ruling is no less ridiculous that their ruling that the immigrants who were illegally arrested and deported without a hearing have to sue for their due process rights. In other words, our Constitutional rights are no longer guaranteed, but up for debate if we have the time and money to insist upon them in court.
These are dangerous times for Americans who don’t fit the white nationalist’s agenda or who are not independently wealthy. The Republicans are working to enshrine a two-class system where people will fall into one of two categories: low wage earners, uneducated, chronically ill, beholden to the generosity of others, subjected to a military draft, and with unprotected Constitutional rights. The other category are the wealthy. These folks have no limits on their accumulation of wealth even if it means destroying the earth in the process. They protect their Constitutional rights because they have the financial means to do so. They can buy healthcare, education, and clean up after natural disasters. They can buy their way out of military service by sending their kids to private school and they can purchase expensive bunkers to protect them from any bombs that may fall. They will have the time and means to vote in elections.
I’m convinced that Republicans believe that discriminating against certain people will lead to their desired class systems. Their policies are designed to maintain or propel ambitious white Christian men to economic wealth with all the political and social power in the country. As seen by the cabinet picks, qualifications don’t matter; whiteness and loyalty do. They want white women to return to white men as their domestic servants in exchange for economic and social protection. They want to enact legal discrimination to eventually force people of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ folks into a permanent underclass without civil rights, wallowing in untreated illnesses, poor living conditions, lack of education, subject to over-policing and prison slave labor, and perpetually desperate to earn poverty wages to at least exist. And they want LGBTQ folks to simply disappear.
The problem is that white male superiority is a myth. They aren’t now nor have they ever been the smartest, the most talented, the most courageous, the most innovative, nor the most driven. White Christian nationalists lack an understanding that human traits are spread across the human race without regard for color or gender. What those white men in the past possessed was access to weapons and a willingness to use them against others to force their will upon them. They lacked empathy, decency, and foresight. Their perverted thinking only led to endless wars, bloodshed, and human suffering.
The White Christian nationalists in our government are no different from the Taliban who are forcing their perverted religious will upon an entire population through violence. But notice how their country is unable to prosper. When you silence the intelligent, the talented, the innovative, and the driven within your population, you not only make people miserable, but you make prosperity impossible to achieve. The same will be true of these white Christian nationalists. They will destroy this nation and many lives if we allow it.
Today, I call upon my readers to join me in financially investing in one or more of the law organizations working to stand up for our Constitution and our individual Constitutional rights. These include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Lambda Legal , Democracy Defenders Fund, The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University, and Democracy Forward.
In addition, it is important to never agree in advance to give up our rights or to subject ourselves to a king. Support the “No Kings 2.0” protest on July 4th organized by local chapters of Indivisible by promoting it, donating to it (I do this), helping to organize, or taking to the streets. There is also a “Free America” event organized by Women’s March on the weekend of the Fourth of July and a “Good Trouble Lives On” scheduled for July 17th. We are in this together and we must act as “we the people” to protect and defend our Constitution on Independence Day 2025 and beyond.