Today the President of the United States, Our Dear Leader, called for the execution of Democrats in Congress who advised military personnel not to follow illegal orders.
Trump’s unhinged rants accused two Senators and four Representatives, all of whom had worn the uniform or served in intelligence roles, of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.”
In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
The Constitution was written precisely to guard against a Chief Executive unleashing such threats against a co-equal branch of government. Before the Bill of Rights was even conceived, the original text of the Constitution in Article I, Section 6, guarantees members of Congress the right to speak freely and openly without fear of reprisal, immune from prosecution or civil suit “for any Speech or Debate in either House.”
America’s Founders had good reason for caution. Two centuries before the American Revolution, a member of the British Parliament named Peter Wentworth was jailed in the Tower of London (where he would eventually meet his end) for daring to criticize Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth from the floor of the House of Commons. It took another hundred years before the English Bill of Rights of 1689 would codify such fundamental liberties as free speech, the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, the guarantee of regular elections, and the right to jury trial, all of which would become key reference points in drafting the U.S. Constitution.
This long, hard-won struggle to limit Executive Power, to establish a government where not even a Monarch or President is above the law or permitted to call for the arbitrary arrest of his critics (let alone their summary execution), is now in danger of being toppled by a Megalomaniac armed with all the power of the federal government and equipped with the temper of two-year-old.
“Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders,” the six Congressional Democrats stated in a video directed at military personnel. "No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution." This simple assertion, supported by both tradition and the Uniform Code of Military Justice to which all soldiers swear allegiance, prompted Trump to retaliate with a reposted demand to “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD.”
Donald Trump has signaled his eagerness to defy the law and violate the Constitution from his first day in office: ruling by emergency and decree, ignoring court orders, accepting bribes, and signaling he intends in a third term to become Dear Leader for life. Danger lights have been flashing for months. The direct threat to hang his political adversaries for urging adherence to the Constitution should turn those flashers red.
