Constitutional Crisis in Situ
Given
the instability
many witnessed,
there were
early whispers
within the cabinet
of invoking
the 25th Amendment,
which would start
a complex process
for removing the president.
But no one wanted
to precipitate
a constitutional crisis.
So we will do
what we can
to steer
the administration
in the right
direction until
— one way or another —
it’s over.
— Anonymous / NYT
[found poem]
This is an extraordinary development today: the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times: I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. Whatever its origins.
Those who contributed to letting this Trump travesty get this far must be prosecuted. The greed and corruption of power are crimes against citizenry. This must not be forgotten.
But first, all people of reason and conscience must unite to save this democracy.
Public intellectuals of integrity from across the political spectrum have been sounding the alarms in various ways. One of our political parties has been completely corrupted and the other hobbled for too long by hypocrisy and lack of vision. We are in constitutional crisis, and we must seek national remedy.
Our national disease is metastatic and more complex than Trump, but he is the first malignancy to remove.
In 2016, the rotting stench of our political and governance systems became too much to bear, and while since then some of us have given in to cynicism, despair or denial, many Americans have become civic-minded and engaged in the work it will take to right our course. This is taking many forms on many fronts, including new leadership rising from within the Democratic party and beyond, and from collaboration and synthesis from social creatives and other pro-citizen intellectual and advocacy work from various points along the political continuum. I have my views about which are most effective, but we can leave that for another day.
The singular truth to hold foremost in our minds right now is that the majority of Americans recognize that this wretched and dangerously chaotic regime is a threat to the survival of our democratic republic, and we must rise to this occasion just as generations before us have been called to act.
Do not fall for the false narrative that our only choice is between doing nothing, and impeaching Trump and then being stuck with Pence/Devos. Our choice of actions is far greater, the moment we discover our own agency and power together. We must expand our discourse and act with intention.
We will need to call on moral courage and integrity and on bold and disruptive ideas to reboot this democracy. We must embark on a great civic wisdom and collaboration project with empathy, love, strength and clarity of thought and action. We must be wary of the machinations of the charlatans like Steve Bannon, and digital deceit and disinformation campaigns -- both foreign and domestic -- seeking to divide us in order to maintain political and financial control.
There is history to guide us about other peaceful, citizen-led transitions of power to restore democracy. Of course this work will involve our current electoral processes, however flawed, and ensuring a massive voter turn-out for the midterms. But our work does not end there.
I'll put together some of what I know. I invite you to research these other peaceful, citizen-led transitions of power.
By the way, the quote in the image above is from a man who served four presidents and won the Medal of Freedom for his contributions to our common good.
Get in touch. Let's discuss.