My letter to Congress: Do something

The U.S. Capitol. (National Park Service photo)

By Sheri J. Williams

When are you going to do something about Trump and his cronies as they dismantle democracy?

By no means a complete list, to date Trump has done and continues to do the following: 

• Ignore the U.S. Constitution by declaring birthright citizenship illegal.

• Deprive the House of Representatives of the power of the purse by impounding funds allocated by Congress and cancelling approved spending set by law.

• Terrorize American citizens (and undocumented immigrants) by directing masked ICE agents to arrest law-abiding persons and send them to foreign prisons without due process.

• Dismantle public education by cutting funding for universities and the Department of Education.

• Corrupt our legal system by extorting free legal help from major law firms to pursue his political agenda.

• Squash free speech by suing reporters, news outlets and broadcast stations, and threatening their licenses.

• Imperil life on this planet by cancelling work on projects to combat climate change.

• Dumb down our government by installing his incompetent cronies to run its most critical functions.

• Bend the DOJ to his will so that he can prosecute and persecute his political enemies.

• Protect child molesters and deny Epstein’s victims their rightful reckoning by refusing to release the Epstein files.

• Lie constantly about nearly everything, especially the economy, and fire anyone who dares to tell the truth.

• Violate the mission of the military by sending U.S. troops when neither wanted nor needed into American cities to police American citizens.

• Subvert the will of the American people by seeking to eliminate mail-in voting and demanding gerrymandered districts to change the outcome of the next election.

• Intimidate political opponents by starting frivolous investigations into their finances to distract and impoverish them.

• Imperil the health of Americans by giving RFK Jr. control of vaccines, the CDC and public health.

• Deny women the right to control their bodies and seek appropriate (and sometimes life-saving) medical care by curtailing access to abortion.

• Destroy our economy with punitive tariffs and senseless deportations of the very workers who perform the more routine jobs that American citizens do not want.

• Attack the Federal Reserve by filing lawsuits so that he can install his preferred board members to manipulate interest rates in order to make him look good, thereby destroying the world’s faith in the American economy.

• Eviscerate the standard of living of ordinary Americans by closing down essential public services and using the funds to give tax cuts to the already rich, particularly the ultra-wealthy.

I understand that Trump still has a base of supporters that will vote as he directs them, no matter what. That base is surely dwindling as his policies are harming the economy and disrupting the peace amongst citizens. You are swimming in the wrong direction against the tide of rational voters. Trump and his acolytes cannot gerrymander minds.  People notice how their lives are going under an administration. And. They. Vote. Accordingly.

Does anyone there have the guts to push back against this death march of democracy?

• Sheri J. Williams is a Juneau resident.