Back in early March, Rep. Al Green of Texas was censured for interrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress. He was escorted from the chamber after repeatedly voicing his objection, shouting, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!”
On Monday, as a senatorial response to Green’s objections, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, began an all-night marathon speech in opposition to Trump’s executive orders. “These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said at the start of his speech. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them. In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy and even our aspirations as a people for — from our highest offices — a sense of common decency,” the senator concluded.
This outrage against the authoritarian policies sweeping the country join with those currently echoing from the tour by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and this duo’s complaints lead a chorus of outrage gaining momentum in the nation.
Related: OP-ED: Nothing is outlandish in the Trump universe
Not only do we support the stances taken by these elected officials, but we applaud the growing number of judges who are stifling, if only temporarily, the executive orders issued by Trump. The most recent action by California-based U.S. District Judge Edward Chen applied a pause to Trump’s plan to lift protections from deportation for more than half million Venezuelans, citing that the decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision “smacks of racism.”
In three words, Judge Chen has succinctly captured a motive at the base of many of Trump’s policies as they arise from his den of iniquity. His full-bore attack on DEI is perhaps the most glaring evidence of this erasure.
I know I’m beginning to sound like a one-trick pony on Trump’s actions (a neigh, so to speak, to his relentless drumbeat of negativity) and I am, to a large extent, emboldened by the brave efforts to thwart Trump by the judges and a few elected officials. And I know I’m not alone in standing fast to protect the fragility of freedom and our constitutional rights. Can I get an amen on that?