Discusses Newtown “Hands Off” Rally
To the Editor:
I am writing to express my dismay regarding the recent hands off rally. My concern rests on the seeming lack of understanding by those attending the rally regarding the nature of the existential threat posed to our democracy by our current president. I went, expecting this to be the focus of the rally. Instead, I found myself at a form of Democratic pep-rally, which missed the real threat.
The threat to democracy is not that the president is not a liberal, or that he opposes liberal causes. The real danger here is the consolidation and abuse of power by the current administration.
Liberal and conservative policies and programs are certainly valid topics for discussion and debate in this country and I encourage and fully support that. But, in our current situation, this cannot be our primary focus. Something bigger and more nefarious must be tackled first.
When the founding fathers sat down after the American Revolution to decide how we govern ourselves, they were acutely aware of the dangers associated with power. Our Constitution is the foundational document by which that question is addressed.
They distributed power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches in a series of checks and balances to prevent the over-accumulation of power in any one entity. The Constitution further establishes the law as guardrails between which the road of our democracy is intended to travel.
At this moment, all of these most basic tenants of our national identity are under attack by this president and his administration. This is what we should be protesting. The first step in problem solving is always problem identification. Get that wrong and you find yourself addressing the wrong issues.
It is important that the focus of our response to this attempt to steal away our democratic way is to address the baseline problem, which is the over accumulation of power in one man whose disregard for constitutional protections is fundamental to his Project 2025 agenda.
This road to dictatorship must stop. His effort to minimize congress through intimidation can no longer be tolerated. His attacks on federal judges and the courts can no longer be tolerated. His declarations of artificial emergencies allowing him to usurp power can no longer be tolerated. These are the foundational issues that we need to address as a nation and rise up in protest against. If we fail to do that, democracy itself is at stake.
Richard Dennis
Newtown
Thank you Richard. You are so right, the basic tenants of our Democracy are under attack, right before our very eyes. The end justifies the means will result in our loss of individual freedoms and the American way of life.
Right. Which begs the question we should all be asking of everyone we know who is passionately pushing a cause, whether it be conservative or liberal in nature, which is: Would you accept an authoritarian system if it were to promote your agenda?
In too many places and times to count, people have naively believed that they can allow such a thing but have it only be temporary, just until the agenda is firmly rooted. But beware, if it’s far left or far right it can never really take root, so the authoritarians can never really let go.
Randi Kiely