Trump vs. the Declaration of Independence
Today is July 4, and we appropriately celebrate the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration is best known for its ringing affirmation of the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But it also contains a long list of grievances against King George III, by which the signers justified their decision to break from Britain. Sadly, many of these are relevant to Donald Trump’s abuses of power today:
“He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
As I describe here, this wasn’t just a matter of protecting the American colonies’ supposed right to control immigration policy themselves. It was also about the universal human rights of would-be migrants to choose where they want to live. Many of the leaders of the American Revolution saw the new nation as a refuge for the oppressed of the world. In his famous General Orders to the Continental Army, issued on the occasion of the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, George Washington stated that one of the reasons the United States was founded was to create “an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.”
Trump’s policies are utterly at odds with these principles. He has launched a massive assault on nearly every type of legal migration, including trying to bar virtually all refugees (except white South African Afrikaners), closing the door to people fleeing communist oppression, deporting Iranian Christians fleeing radical Islamist persecution, stripping legal status from Afghans who fled the Taliban (including many who aided the US during the war), and more.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
Tariffs are, obviously, a type of tax. Trump is using bogus invocations of emergency powers to impose massive tariffs that exceed anything seen since the Great Depression. And he is doing so without anything approaching proper congressional authorization. His abuses in this regard are reminiscent of the monarchical abuses of King Charles I
Article from Reason.com
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