Question Trump

I wrote a letter to the editor published by the Herald-Leader in January, headlined “These are frightening times.”

As if on cue, we were soon presented with Stephen Miller, an aide to President Donald Trump, who stated, “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” Trump celebrated his statement with approval.

In my January letter, I asked, “Are we not those who uphold the Constitution? Are we not those who understand there is no freedom without equality? Are we not those who understand that freedom entails the freedom to dissent, the freedom to criticize; the freedom to have meaningful redress of grievance from our government?”

So, based on his approval of Miller, Trump’s answer to my questions is a resounding “no.”

I was not asking Trump, but rhetorically asking each individual American without regard to political affiliation, appealing to the conscience of individuals to have the courage to go beyond partisanship and be American enough to stand up to the fascism that is Trump, which is at this point only deniable by those in denial or those few fascists hoping to keep the rest of us fooled.

The answer we need to force Trump to hear from all Americans in a unified voice is an unqualified and absolute “yes.”

We have a guaranteed inalienable right to question the president. It is enshrined in nearly every part of the Constitution, which gives ultimate responsibility of our governance to the people not to the president. It never protects our country to separate its citizens from their inalienable rights, it is the epitome of an attack when this is done.

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Question Trump."