The President of the United States ordered the United States Military to fire tear gas and rubber ammunition into a crowd of peacefully protesting Americans, on American soil. Reporters, who Trump has decried as “The Enemy of the People” were assailed and beaten by his government. This is the lowest point of the lowest presidency in the history of our country.
Peaceful assembly and free speech is the cornerstone of this democracy. There is nothing more American and more cherished than the First Amendment of our Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees that the government cannot retaliate against its citizens for protesting injustice.
This administration’s outright disdain for the Constitution was featured on Monday. The top law enforcement agent in the United States, US Attorney General Barr, ordered the beating, shooting, trampling, gassing, and clearing of peaceful Americans so that the President could walk over to a church, unwelcome, and use it for a bible-clad propaganda fashion shoot. And then he left.
The President of the United States has no awe, no reverence, and no appreciation for the Constitution. He has no respect–at all–for the founding documents, our founding fathers, for our history, for who we are as Americans. We protest. In the exact same vein of the civil rights movement, of the gay rights movement, of the suffrage movement that gave women the right to vote. Americans protested until we ended the war in Vietnam. We now protest the government’s aggression and impunity in harassing, beating, and murdering black people. We protest institutionalized white supremacy.
We The People have the absolute right to protest and petition their government because We The People built this government specifically so the government answers to us. That is America.