A Declaration of Resistance

(I’ve been working on this a few days and was going to post on July 4th, but with news of the past week it seems more time-sensitive than that.  It’s scary what I DIDN’T have to change!  Also, this is my first post on the new BMG so I hope this does what I expect it to.)

When in the Course of criminal events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with their leader and to assume among the powers of the earth, the free and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of their fellow citizens requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Resistance.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that no President is above the law, that he is endowed by the Constitution with certain limited powers, that among these are proposing legislation to Congress, signing or vetoing legislation according to his will, and seeing to it that duly enacted laws are faithfully executed. — That to restrain these powers, other institutions of government are established by the people, serving as a check on the abuse of executive power, — That whenever any President becomes destructive of these ends, it is the prerogative of those institutions to impeach or to declare him unfit, and to install a new President, laying his foundation on such principles and exercising his powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Presidents duly elected should not be removed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by removing the leaders to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such leaders, and to install new leaders for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of our fellow citizens; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to call for the removal of their President. The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over Americans, and to weaken and embarrass the United States in the world. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid country.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands, to be set aside for public use.

He has mocked the Administration of Justice by questioning the impartiality of judges on the basis of political affiliation or even ethnic background.

He has vacated a multitude of Offices, and failed to appoint new officers necessary for the functioning of an efficient government, or has appointed officers who seek to weaken or eliminate the departments or agencies they have been assigned to lead.

He has failed to divest himself fully of business interests, and has refused to allow public inspection of documents which would show his interests therein.

He has continued to receive material gifts from foreign governments in the form of patronage of his businesses, in direct violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

He has willfully ignored concerns raised regarding connections of the National Security Advisor with one or more foreign governments, and terminated the acting Attorney General who raised these concerns.

He appointed a new Attorney General who has his own troubling foreign connections and has thus been forced to recuse himself on matters addressed herein.

He terminated a United States Attorney who was investigating federal crimes relative to his business interests.

He sought to pressure the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation into suspending an investigation into the foreign connections of the National Security Advisor, and when refused, terminated the Director before his term expired.

He has sought to misdirect what already appeared to be a perfunctory Congressional investigation, and to improperly intervene in the selection of a special prosecutor.

He has been utterly careless in the handling of classified information, discussing information in unsecure environments, or sharing information entrusted to us by our allies with hostile nations.

He has favored candidates for election in other nations hostile to our interests and values.

He has used executive orders to subject us to a legal code foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For cancelling provisions of the Affordable Care Act:

For opening public lands for commercial and environmentally harmful exploitation:

For cutting off our Trade and good will with all parts of the world, by abrogating agreements and treaties duly negotiated by his predecessors:

For aggressively detaining those suspected of not being in the country legally, without respect for due process or mitigating circumstances:

For allowing the use of religion as a defense and justification for discriminatory treatment against sexual minorities:

For weakening prohibitions on the political activities of religious institutions at the risk of their tax-exempt status:

For ordering the construction of a wall along our southern border without appropriation from Congress:

For limiting the time and effort required to study the environmental impact of certain infrastructure projects:

For restricting entry into the United States by persons from certain nations, largely based on the majority religion of those nations, even after being rejected by federal courts; these restrictions have not included countries where the President has known strong personal business interests.

For weakening laws designed to check the abuses of the country’s financial sector:

For scapegoating immigrant communities for criminal activity despite evidence that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes:

For reducing federal oversight and enforcement in the areas of environmental protection and education:

For weakening rules designed to protect the neutrality of the internet:

For investigating alleged instances of voter fraud in the late presidential election, despite there being no credible evidence that such took place.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring many of us out of his Protection.

He has deployed the use of force without Congressional authorization, and has threatened such use against additional nations, which will ultimately make America and the world less safe.

He has improperly employed his family members, who may have troubling foreign entanglements of their own, granting them clearances and compelling public funds to be used for their protection even for personal reasons.

He has excited domestic unrest amongst us, and has failed to admonish those who would perpetrate violence against ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, while concurrently reacting with hostility to peaceful demonstration against his policies and practices.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the leader of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our members of Congress. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by the President to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of his questionable election. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common patriotism to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. The Republican majorities too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Resistance, and hold them, as we hold the all elected officials, in esteem when they serve us well, and when they do not, in contempt.

We, therefore, the people of the United States of America, from a wide variety of socio-economic and demographic backgrounds, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of all of our fellow citizens, solemnly publish and declare, That Donald J. Trump, President of the United States is unfit to hold office, that he has committed acts of treason, bribery, and other high crimes or misdemeanors, that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the current President, and that all political connection between us and him, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a co-equal branch of the government, Congress should proceed without delay to impeach and remove him from the presidency, and to do all other Acts and Things which Congress may of right do to restrain the presidency from further abuses. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to the Resistance our voices, our votes, and our sacred Honor.