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| Border crisis |
A president who shuts down
government in order to get his way on a controversial issue, such as building a
wall along the border with Mexico, and offers to reopen it as a concession when
and if his opponents give in, is treating the government of the United States
as a bargaining chip.
This, too, is the behavior of a dictator.
This, too, is the behavior of a dictator.
As is spouting lies over what Trump
terms an “undeniable crisis” at the southern U.S. border, which is in fact no
crisis at all.
Donald Trump is violating the Constitution. He is negating our system of government based on the rule of law. He is violating a president’s core responsibility to protect American democracy.
But the threat to American democracy
is not just from Trump’s dictatorial moves. And real threat to American
sovereignty is not coming from Trump’s fantasized hordes seeking to cross the
Mexican border.
It is coming from a foreign
government intent on undermining our democracy by propagating lies, turning
Americans against each other, and electing a puppet president.
We do not know yet whether Trump
colluded with Vladimir Putin to win the 2016 election. What we do know so far
is that Trump’s aides and campaign manager worked with Putin’s emissaries
during the 2016 election, and that Putin sought to swing the election in favor
of Trump.
We also know that since he was
elected, Trump has done little or nothing to stop Putin from continuing to try
to undermine our democracy.
To the contrary, Trump has obstructed inquiries into Russian meddling, and gone out of his way to keep his communications with Putin secret, even from his own White House.
To the contrary, Trump has obstructed inquiries into Russian meddling, and gone out of his way to keep his communications with Putin secret, even from his own White House.
He has also done exactly what Putin
has wanted him to do – threaten to pull out of NATO, pull out of Syria, and
accept Russia’s presence in Ukraine.
Perhaps Trump’s current attack on
American democracy through his assertion of a fake national emergency is
intended as to distract from this larger attack on America. No matter. Both
threaten the essence of the nation.
There is only one answer: Donald
Trump must be removed from office. Impeachment should start immediately.
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is
available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality
For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving
Capitalism," which is streaming now.