Thoreau's Relevance to America Today

One hundred and sixty-four years ago today, on May 6, 1862, Henry David Thoreau succumbed to tuberculosis and died at his family home in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 44.

Thoreau remains relevant today and will continue to be for future generations because of the timeless questions he posed and the solutions he offered for living a meaningful life. “Walden; or Life in the Woods” is the 1854 book he is best known for, but the work most applicable to our times during Donald Trump’s catastrophic presidency is his 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience.”

Thoreau’s thesis was that citizens had a moral obligation to oppose their government’s unjust and inhumane policies, even if doing so required difficult sacrifices. That’s what nearly 100,000 ordinary Minnesotans did when they braved freezing temperatures in January in Minneapolis and risked their lives to protest the illegal detention and deportation of immigrants and the killings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by heavily armed ICE agents.

By his example, Thoreau taught us to live by the courage of our convictions. Slavery was the evil of his time. The Civil War began in April 1861, thirteen months before his death. Thoreau was active in the Underground Railroad in Concord, helping enslaved people escape to Canada. “I do not hesitate to say,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectively withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority …”

There may not be slavery in America today, but Trump’s reckless and imperial presidency is no less evil to our polarized country. The “No Kings Day” protests against Trump would have pleased Thoreau. In the most recent one held in March this year, an estimated 9 million Americans participated across all 50 U.S. states, making it one of the largest single-day mass demonstrations in American history.

I joined about 10,000 of my compatriots in San Jose, California, where one sign in a sea of signs summed up why we were protesting: “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.” As Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience: “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” His subliminal message to us was to hope and act but not to hope more than we acted.

Trump is destroying civilizational norms and ruining America with irreversible damage by his predatory “Might is Right” and “Law of the Jungle” policies at home and abroad. He has imposed tariffs as sanctions and punishments on our allies and has threatened to commit war crimes against countries that refuse his rapacious demands. He unleashed a war of choice against Iran that continues to batter the global economy. Ordinary Americans and people around the globe are struggling to meet basic needs amid skyrocketing food and energy prices, with no end in sight. Thoreau’s call to action is as potent now as when he made it almost two centuries ago: “All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.”

On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary, the semiquincentennial, of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “The American government,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “-what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?”

Under Trump, America has been hemorrhaging integrity, dignity, decency and empathy at a horrific rate. It is our duty to stop this hemorrhage and restore America’s moral weight. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is to vote for candidates in the consequential November midterm election at the House, Senate, state, and local levels who put country and Constitution above loyalty to a demagogue.

"No Kings Day" in San Jose, California, on 18 October, 2025

More than 10,000 of us San Joseans gathered in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, October 18, 2025, to protest Donald Trump’s authoritarian presidency. I saw Americans from all walks of life and representing all age groups, from babies in strollers under the loving care of their parents to children, students, working moms and dads and veterans in wheelchairs to a 105-year-old woman with a walker and holding a sign that read, “I am 105 and striving to survive worst president since I’ve been alive!”

Downtown San Jose resonated with our irreverent, vigorous voices demanding the rule of law, an end to immigration raids, mass government layoffs, deep budget cuts for essential services, and Trump's illegal use of the power of the federal government against his political and legal adversaries. 

One poster summed up the reason why we were protesting, along with our fellow Americans, estimated at 7 million, roughly one for every 50 Americans, in 2,700 cities and towns across all fifty "Red" and "Blue" states and beyond: “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.”

We met at noon at St. James Park, and after about 45 minutes of full-throated slogans denouncing Trump, we walked through the busy streets of downtown San Jose, including in front of City Hall, supported by loud honks from motorists passing by. Smiling and friendly policemen guided us along our route to keep the rally orderly and prevent traffic jams.

Authoritarianism and fascism are on the rise throughout the world as a democratic recession takes hold. In the United States, the rule of law is vanishing as Trump bends the judiciary to his will, supported by a genuflecting Republican Party. There is no independent judiciary anymore. Threats against the right to speak and assemble freely, undermining higher institutions of learning through threats and blackmail, and the unethical grab of power by all three branches of government, dictated by Trump, are crippling our country.

On this “No Kings Day," we were asserting our rights to get our rights back from Trump’s blatant assault on the Constitution. He has deployed U.S. troops in our cities to round up people he deems undesirable, including American citizens.

Democracies do not die from without but from within. Today’s “No Kings Day" is proof that we will not let our democracy die from within, no matter how powerful Trump and the Republican Party may think they are. More than the Constitution and the rule of law, it is the ideas of liberty, freedom and democracy embedded in our hearts that are the most powerful weapons against authoritarianism and fascism.

What heartened me today in the beautiful and diverse city of San Jose was the sense of unity and duty that bound us together, participating in a march that was peaceful and family friendly The signs and props told the story more eloquently than any journalistic reporting could. Here are some:

“My dad fought fascism. So do I!”  “No troops on our streets.”  “Reject Fascism.”  “My dad was Antifa. The only one who called him a traitor was Hitler.” “Immigrants and slaves built America.” “Hate won’t make America great.” “The power of the people is stronger than people in power.” And, of course, the ubiquitous “No kings in America.”

Tyrants and dictators fear satire and parody because they reveal their weakness and emptiness. Comedians speak truth to power and so become thorns in their sides. Some signs - tactical frivolity and cosplay - played on this truth:

“Give us liber-tea. Hold the ICE.”

An elderly lady held this sign: “The only orange monarch I want.” Underneath was the picture of a monarch butterfly.

“Dear great pumpkin, please do something
about your evil cousin.”

“No kings. Only Burger King.”

A little girl wanted the world to know she was not being paid to participate in the "No Kings Day" rally.

A dire warning from a person who will not allow anyone to arrest him without due process.

And this sign affixed to a stroller from which is peering a baby girl: “A woman’s place is in the resistance.” 

I was touched by two women with this sign on their T-shirts, front and back, to help any diabetic patients in the rally if needed.

A smiling San Jose policeman keeps protesters safe

while ensuring a smooth traffic flow.

Lady Liberty lifts her lamp in the Golden State.

Inflatable frog ensemble, anyone?

There will be more rallies and demonstrations across America against Trump in the coming days as his illegal grab for power becomes more brazen. Any American concerned about the fate of democracy and of a government of the people, by the people, for the people, not perishing from our beloved country, needs to participate. Silence translates to support for Trump. Every time I participate in these rallies, I feel connected to something larger than myself. It is a transcendent feeling that makes life worth living. If you have held back until now, it is not too late. Mark your calendar for the next rally in a city near you, and join. The transcendent feeling you experience will inspire and empower you and connect you to the foundational values that made America.

Civil Disobedience in 21st-Century America

Henry David Thoreau’s (1817-1862) essay "Civil Disobedience," written in 1849, made the convincing case that a person is morally obligated to disobey unjust laws of the land.

Thoreau’s exhortation has stood the test of time. He advocated fearlessness in the face of tyranny and injustice. The two issues that engaged him were the immorality of slavery and the war President James Polk waged against Mexico. 

Thoreau showed his courage by not paying taxes to the U.S. government. It landed him in jail, and even though it was only for a night, it helped make his point that unless one was true to one’s conscience and stood up for one’s principles, life was not worth living. As Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” He also wrote, “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority were derived, and treats him accordingly.”

Two historical figures who continued Thoreau’s legacy, Gandhi in India (1869-1948) and Martin Luther King (MLK) in the United States (1929-1968), used nonviolent resistance to bring down the Colonial British Rule and expose the world to the cruelty and barbarity of racism, respectively.

These nonviolent movements were not driven by naive pacifists but by people fearless in their convictions, and even though violence was used against them in the most murderous way imaginable, the people prevailed in the end.

We face a similar situation in 21st-century America under President Trump, who has unleashed a vicious and violent assault on the foundational values and critical organizations of America, including the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and protest, funding basic research, revoking visas of and deporting international students from our campuses, instigating reckless trade wars, attacking healthcare, social security, climate change, environmental protection agency, national park service, national institutes of health, internal revenue service and many more.

Trump and his enforcers are not only deporting immigrants without due process of law, they are also abducting innocent Americans in broad daylight and locking them up in inhuman prisons here and abroad. Those who have seen videos of these abductions on social media are compelled to ask if America is turning into a failed republic where lawlessness rules under a despotic president whose thirst for vengeance and skill as an extortionist are visible to anyone without blinders.

Threat, intimidation, and divide and conquer are Trump’s weapons of choice. Several well-known but spineless law firms and cowardly universities like Columbia caved to Trump’s threats, surrendering their self-respect and principles to a president whose main goal in life is to ensure not only that the executive branch dominates and overwhelms the legislative and judicial branches but also unquestioningly his illegal commands.

Harvard, the world's leading university and 140 years older than the United States, forcefully said ‘no’ to Trump’s threats to dismantle departments promoting diversity and freeze federal funding. As Harvard president Alan M. Gerber said, "No government, regardless of which party is in power, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which area of study they can pursue."

Other institutions should take a cue from Harvard, not sacrificing principles at the altar of expediency, when Trump and his arrogant acolytes threaten to curb academic freedom and hinder the quest for truth.

So, who will continue the legacy of MLK in 21^st-century America, the America of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Manhattan Project, to name only two awe-inspiring milestones from our history, and save our nation from Trump?

The two who currently offer a ray of hope are Bernie Sanders, the 83-year-old Independent senator from Vermont, and his 35-year-old Democratic protégé, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York.

Recently, the two completed their “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour, comprising seven events in five days. The turnouts were exceptional, including deep-red states. About 150,000 Americans, angered by Trump's brazen abuse of the law, mass layoffs, the closing of humanitarian and essential services, and arbitrary deportations and abductions, attended. Los Angeles, California — 36,000; Coachella Valley, California — 35,000; Salt Lake City, Utah — 20,000; Nampa, Idaho — 12,500; Bakersfield, California — 4,450; Folsom, California — 30,000; and Missoula, Montana — 9,000.

What Sanders and AOC have demonstrated is that a majority of Americans are upset and angry with the reckless and destructive policies of Trump. They are eager to support worthy and competent leaders who can defeat Trump and the supine Republican Party in the midterms in 2026 and in the presidential election in 2028.

Americans have rejected the current, mostly old and feckless, Democratic leadership. They are looking for new, young Democrats with fresh ideas to take on Trump and the Republican Party. Ironically, an 83-year-old is drawing huge crowds, irrespective of party affiliations, to save America from Trump and his unelected and incompetent cronies. There’s a reason why. Bernie Sanders is not a prisoner of political correctness. He is fearlessly stating the truth, which is that America is turning into a cruel and lawless country under Trump. Unless we force a change in how our country is governed, this nation will degenerate into a kakistocracy and ultimately collapse. 

However, the stark truth is that Sanders is in the twilight of his career. An octogenarian has no chance whatsoever of becoming the next president. Same goes with AOC. She is young but Americans will not rally around a woman, especially one of color, to defeat Trump. That's the brutal reality. Democrats must field a young, white male with a reasonable reputation to take on Trump for a realistic chance of defeating him. 57-year-old Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, was a viable candidate but his recent bizarre podcasts with infamous right-wingers have diminished his prospects. He may recover but the field is open for the right Democratic candidates to emerge, hopefully in the next few months.

We have surmounted existential threats to America before, most notably a Civil War (1861-1865) that took almost 700,000 lives. What we need now is this: At least 5% of the United States population of 340 million, that is, 17 million Americans, must mobilize in all 50 States to defeat Trump and his unjust, inhuman, and immoral policies. Bernie Sanders and AOC are showing us how this can be done. The 50501 website ("Fifty Protests. 50 States. 1 Movement.") is one of the platforms we can use to mobilize across America.

May we awakened Americans do everything we can to save our nation from a dangerous demagogue through mass rallies, lawsuits, strikes, boycotts and other potent forms of protest, from sea to shining sea.

Making Our Votes Count for America

As the November 5 presidential election draws closer, reviewing our recent history, if only as a reminder, can give the perspective we need to cast our votes, not as Democrats or Republicans or belonging to Red, Blue, or Swing States, but as Americans.

In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to become the 45^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 304 to 227, even though Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million.

In 2020, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump to become the 46^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 306 to 232 and the popular vote by almost 7 million. Trump refused to accept the verdict of the American people and incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, by his armed supporters at the U.S. Capitol, a date which will live in infamy alongside Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

Four years on, and for the third time in a row, Donald Trump is running as the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States, this time against the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. We are reliving the old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Antisemitism, Islamophobia, dehumanization of immigrants and conspiracy theories continue to fester in our country. To the more than 67 million viewers watching the Harris-Trump debate on September 10, the former president asserted the debunked claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets. At a news conference three days later, he threatened to enact the largest deportation of migrants in the nation’s history if elected. Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of Ohio, said this about Haitians in his state: “Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work.”

America has rarely been as polarized as it is on the eve of the 2024 election. Partisan politics is crippling us. We are grappling with the same foundational values of our nation such as democracy, the rule of law, checks and balances, and the peaceful transfer of power as during Trump’s presidency. Add to these other issues like reproductive freedom (supporting legal abortion despite the moral reservations some of us may have about it), climate change, affordable healthcare, housing and clean energy, gun control and artificial intelligence-generated misinformation, and we understand why the 2024 presidential election may be among the most consequential elections in living memory.

The contrast between the views of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on these and other issues couldn’t be starker, available online and in print to discerning Americans weighing who to vote for, especially the undecided and the callously indifferent among us. As Taylor Swift wrote in her Instagram message endorsing Kamala Harris to her fans, “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

The presidency is not only about policies and procedures or tariffs and trade but also about civility and morality, honesty and integrity, among other character codes. We will do well to remember and act on Ronald Reagan’s vision for America: “We shall be as a city upon a hill.” We will do well to remember Abraham Lincoln’s words from his first inaugural address in 1861 as a Civil War loomed: “We are not enemies but friends … touched by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln’s words did not prevent a Civil War from erupting and dragging on for four ruinous years, with a death toll of over 600,000 Americans, about 2% of the U.S. population then. While a modern-day Civil War may be far-fetched, attempts by anyone to overturn the 2024 election if the results are contrary to expectations by inciting another insurrection can cause an unbreachable and permanent rift among us that can dangerously weaken our Republic.

So, when we vote on November 5 or earlier by mail, not just as a right but as a sacred obligation, we must summon the courage and the wisdom to place joy over anger, humility over hubris, compassion over cruelty, law over anarchy, science over ideology, democracy over authoritarianism and most of all, country over party.

From the Battlefield of Gettysburg to the Storming of U.S. Capitol: Will American Democracy Survive?

A year ago today, America faced an existential crisis similar to the Civil War that raged from 1861-1865. But in a sense, the insurrection of January 6, 2021, in which ex-president Donald Trump tried to orchestrate a violent takeover of the country, was a greater threat to America than the Civil War because of its intent and purpose. The Republican Party, in thrall to a morally bankrupt psychopathic demagogue, went along with Trump’s incitement to the rioters to “fight like hell” to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the 2020 presidential election. The live-streamed attack on the U.S. Capitol, the bastion of our democracy, by the murderous mob known as Trump fanatics, aided and abetted by the conspirator-in-chief and by Republican sycophants, brought America to the brink. 

It may sound like a cliché, but Providence saved America from ruin on January 6, 2021, a day that, like December 7^th, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, will also live in infamy.

So, what now? What can we ordinary Americans do to ensure that January 6, 2021, never repeats, that the rule of law will still prevail in a viciously polarized country, that the tradition of peaceful transfer of power will continue to endure as the hallmark of our democracy?

Not much, really, unless the midterm elections this year propels Democrats to significant majorities in both Congress and Senate. How likely is that to happen? Not very.

The immediate issue at hand is applying the rule of law to the Trumpers who scaled the walls and smashed the partitions in the Capitol on this day last year.

 

Over 725 people have been arrested but only 71 – about one-tenth - have been sentenced so far. They include a company CEO, an architect, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, a gym owner, a former Houston police officer, a wealthy Texan realtor who flew her private jet with friends to join the insurrection, and a University of Kentucky student. One of the most notorious, Florida businessman Robert Palmer, was sentenced to 63 months in prison. Palmer’s tears of repentance did not sway the judge. “It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers is going to be met with certain punishment,” said the judge.

 

The elephant in the room, of course, is the ringleader and his acolytes. Unless Donald Trump and Republicans like Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others pay the price for their mendacity, instigation and active support of the insurrection, merely sentencing the fanatics and the foot soldiers will make a mockery of the law.

 

So far, not only has nothing happened to Trump, his star seems to be rising even higher among Republicans since his defeat. That is the reason why America’s experiment with democracy and the rule of law continues to be under assault, with no assurance that democracy will hold the fort.

 

From Lincoln’s Gettysburg exhortations to Martin Luther King’s march from Selma to Montgomery and beyond, America has faced one crisis after another with courage, resilience and fierce loyalty to the foundational values of our nation. 

When historians peel away the layers leading up to the insurrection of January 6, 2021, they will find at its core one dominant idea: The fear of white supremacists, overwhelmingly Republican, that America is slipping away from their grasp. The original sin of America is not slavery but white supremacy. This supremacy monster has now bared its fangs in its possibly final attempt to put all non-whites in their places and reinstall white supremacy back to the throne.

 

Will this work? The tragic truth, given how hyperpolarized America is now, is that we don’t know. 

Yet, if Providence has been kind to America whenever it faced an existential crisis, perhaps Providence will be kind to America this time too. But, as the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. It is up to us ordinary Americans who, despite our differences, still believe in our country as a shining city upon a hill, to make sure that government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

A Bangladeshi-American Reflects on the Insurrection

I became a naturalized American citizen in 1985, joining about 150 about-to-become-Americans from around the world to take the oath of allegiance in a spacious room in the old City Hall of San Jose.

On January 6^th, when armed insurrectionists, incited by president Trump and his enablers, stormed the US Capitol, I re-read the oath I took over three decades ago. One sentence stood out: “I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

It is the last word of that sentence that riveted me, for it was clear watching the horrific events unfold in our Capital that what most threatens our country now is domestic terrorism by white supremacists.

While lawmakers weigh various options to prevent a rogue and reckless Trump from causing even more carnage in the last days of his presidency, I find myself asking, “As an ordinary citizen, what can I do to defend my country against domestic terrorists in these terrifying times?”

Here’s what I am committing myself to, and I hope my fellow-Americans, by birth or naturalized but perhaps silent until now, will make similar commitments.

First, I will join hands with as many organizations as I can across America who are determined to root out the evil of racial superiority through legal means. In that regard, irrespective of creed and color, we must always remember that it was blacks who were most instrumental in delivering the presidency to Joe Biden in the November 2020 election. His campaign was on life support until South Carolina’s congressman James Clyburn offered his impassioned support in February last year that propelled him to the front of the pack. Biden never looked back after that.

What about Democrats flipping the Senate only a day before our Capitol was desecrated? The wins by Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were mostly due to massive voter enfranchisement effort led by Stacey Abrams, whose ‘Fair Fight’ group helped register 800,000 new voters in just two years, despite insidious voter suppression tactics used by Georgia’s Republican establishment.

Second, I will connect with our elected officials to convince them that while we revere our Constitution, we should not treat it as an immutable, timeless document. The history of amendments, beginning with the Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10), adopted in 1791, to Amendment 26, adopted in 1971, show that we can treat our constitution as a living and breathing document that can change to meet the challenges of the times.

The anachronistic electoral college is certainly something to be looked at, but one area that needs urgent consideration is the power of the Executive branch of our government.

The constitution was written by patriots for whom it was an article of faith that the highest office in the land will always be held by an American of character, decency, reason and sanity. The last four years have shown how a president, bereft of such qualities, can exploit the constitution for his vile and demagogic purposes. Unless we close the loopholes that give unlimited power to an unfit president with his personal mercenaries, more carnages and assaults on our defining values will continue under future Trumps.

Evil triumphs when good people do nothing, as Edmund Burke wrote over two centuries ago. I know I can do more, but these are my two immediate action items to help me keep my promise as a Bangladeshi-American to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Another December Day that Will Live in Infamy

On Monday, December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt addressed the nation after Japan launched an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7. The United States entered World War II by declaring war on Japan on that fateful day but what we most remember from that famous address is how the president labeled December 7: “A date which will live in infamy.”

Seventy-nine years later, in a traumatic twist of history, we experienced yet another December Day which will live in infamy in our nation's history.

On December 8, 2020, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from casting their electoral voted for Joe Biden. Biden had won these states in the November presidential election. The Texas lawsuit essentially asked the Supreme Court to declare Trump the winner in those four states and hand over the presidency to him for a second term.

That the Supreme Court threw out the absurd lawsuit three days later is not the point. It was expected and was obviously the right thing to do, even though Trump had packed the court with his hand-picked nominees.

No, the reason why this date will live in infamy, 79 years after the first one, is because 126 Republican Members of Congress (more than 60 percent) and 17 Republican Attorneys General signed the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Think about that for a moment! People who swore to uphold the law and the constitution chose instead to support the baseless claims of a demagogue that the election was stolen from him, even though more than 7 million Americans voted for Biden than Trump, the largest difference in U.S. history.

For four years, Trump had assaulted the foundational values of America, aided and abetted by his sycophants, Republican Congressmen, Senators, Attorneys Generals and white supremacists. Trump’s criminal negligence in combating the lethal coronavirus has so far resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 Americans, more than the number of Americans who lost their lives - 291,557 - fighting in the four years of WWII after Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan following its deadly attack on Pearl harbor.

The difference between the two infamous dates couldn’t be starker. A foreign nation attacked America in December, 1941, forcing America to declare war. The cause was just, the right to defend the country moral and the nation united.

Seventy-nine years later, majority of the Republican Members of Congress and Attorneys General of 17 states declared war on America from within, threatening secession and evoking the specter of a Civil War.

These “By Hook or by Crook” Americans who so brazenly betrayed our democracy must not be forgotten for their treachery. We the people have the power to vote them out of office when it is their time for reelection.

Here are the names of the traitors, the quislings, the domestic terrorists, who have betrayed their oaths by supporting the unholy and undemocratic demands of a rogue president:

First, the attorneys general, supposedly the chief law enforcement officers of their states, who joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in their treacherous lawsuit:

Eric Schmitt, Missouri; Steve Marshall, Alabama; Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas; Ashley Moody, Florida; Curtis Hill, Indiana; Derek Schmidt, Kansas; Jeff Landry, Louisiana; Lynn Fitch, Mississippi; Tim Fox, Montana; Doug Peterson, Nebraska; Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota; Mike Hunter, Oklahoma; Alan Wilson, South Carolina; Jason Ravnsborg, South Dakota; Herbert H. Slatery III, Tennessee; Sean Reyes, Utah; Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia.

 

Second, the House members, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise (La.); Jim Jordan (Ohio), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Kevin Brady (Tex.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.), head of the Republican Policy Committee; and Mike Johnson (La.), who organized this betrayal of the U.S. Constitution.

 

The rest, in alphabetical order of their home state, are:

Alabama (Robert B. Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne), Arizona (Andy Biggs, Debbie Lesko), Arkansas (Eric A. “Rick” Crawford, Bruce Westerman), California (Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock), Colorado (Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn), Florida (Gus M. Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Ross Spano, Michael Waltz, Daniel Webster, Ted Yoho), Georgia (Rick Allen, Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, Douglas A. Collins, Drew Ferguson, Jody Hice, Barry Loudermilk, Austin Scott), Idaho (Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson), Illinois (Mike Bost, Darin LaHood), Indiana (Jim Baird, Jim Banks, Trey Hollingsworth, Greg Pence, Jackie Walorski), Iowa (Steve King), Kansas (Ron Estes, Roger Marshall), Louisiana (Ralph Abraham, Clay Higgins), Maryland (Andy Harris), Michigan (Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg), Minnesota (Tom Emmer, Jim Hagedorn, Pete Stauber), Mississippi (Michael Guest, Trent Kelly, Steven M. Palazzo), Missouri (Sam Graves, Billy Long, Vicky Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason T. Smith, Ann Wagner), Montana (Greg Gianforte), Nebraska (Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith), New Jersey (Gregory Steube, Jeff Van Drew), New York (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin), North Carolina (Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer, Mark Walker), Ohio (Bob Gibbs, Bill Johnson, Robert E. Latta, Brad Wenstrup), Oklahoma (Kevin Hern, Markwayne Mullin), Pennsylvania (John Joyce, Frederick B. Keller, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Glenn Thompson), South Carolina (Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William Timmons, Joe Wilson), Tennessee (Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Charles J. “Chuck” Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, John Rose), Texas (Jodey Arrington, Brian Babin, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, K. Michael Conaway, Dan Crenshaw, Bill Flores, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Kenny Marchant, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Ron Wright), Virginia (Ben Cline, H. Morgan Griffith, Rob Wittman, Ron Wright), Washington (Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse), West Virginia (Carol Miller, Alex Mooney), Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany).

Don’t forget these traitors who put politics and party above country. We have the power to give them the boot through our voting power.

We are counting on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to restore decency, civility, Rule of Law, justice and democracy to a traumatized nation after four years of nonstop misrule by Donald Trump. It won’t be easy, and it certainly will not be accomplished overnight. But given their experience, expertise and sincerity of intention, we know that Joe and Kamal can accomplish these goals with our continued support and activism.

We are Counting on You, Kamala

Unsolicited advice is a bane of life. Still, as a Californian and a concerned American, I take the liberty of giving some advice to the democratic VP nominee Kamala Harris, born in Oakland 55 years ago to biracial parents.

The first concerns the presidential campaign.

Go for broke, Kamala. Take the gloves off because Trump sure as hell will. You must be proactive, not reactive. Take the fight to him by anticipating his foul tweets, his misogynistic and racist remarks, his attempts to suppress the vote and confiscate mail-in ballots. But complement that by invoking the better angels of our nature, by convincing Americans that we are that “shining city upon a hill” and not the dystopia Trump has wrought. You nailed it when you said this election is a battle for the soul of our nation. Bring your prosecutorial chops to expose the existential threat Trump poses for America.

Trump will likely contest the election if defeated but ultimately the law of the land will prevail, and he will have to leave if Biden wins.

What then?

Your priority should be to help President Biden rebuild America from within. To that end, your first task should be to restore normalcy to our lives. Four years of nonstop hysteria and hypocrisy, of magical thinking and mendacity by the President have left us dazed and depressed. We crave a return to decency and decorum. We want to breathe the fresh air of democracy, not the fetid air of authoritarianism.

Next, help President Biden treat the Covid-19 catastrophe with the seriousness it deserves, with doctors and scientists dictating policies. Despite the economic hardship and the horrifying death toll, Americans will make the necessary sacrifices if convinced that the administration is using dependable data and sound science to stop the killer pathogen. You persuasive powers will be instrumental in making this happen.

Finally, help the more than 160 million Americans out of work with meaningful financial assistance. I teach at a community college and have observed firsthand how students, some of them first in their family to attend college and some who are essential workers, are struggling to survive the health care, economic and educational crises brought on by the abject failure of Trump to contain the coronavirus. While a few students had to drop out to care for loved ones or take on risky jobs, most forged on. As one student wrote in a chat during a Zoom session: “Soon I hope to see light at the end of the tunnel.”

There are many, many more urgent issues that need to be addressed but for now, and for the first 100 days of the Joe Biden Presidency, these will do.

When you were campaigning for the Senate, Kamala, your motto was, “Fearless for the People.” Your scope has now widened but your motto should remain the same. As attorney general of California, you showed your mettle taking on big banks, pharmaceutical companies and transnational criminal organizations preying on vulnerable Americans. That battle must continue.

It’s time to clean house, the White House, through the agency of truth, accountability, justice and the rule of law. You have it what it takes to get the job done. Two literary figures who grew up in Oakland in early 20^th century – Gertrude Stein and Jack London - were also known for their feistiness, organization skills and social activism. Knowingly or unknowingly, you are continuing that legacy, honed by your grandmother, a skilled organizer, and your grandfather, an active member of the movement to win India’s independence from the British in the 1940s.

As a woman of color, born of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, you represent the cosmopolitan interracial democracy of America. Your story, as Joe Biden said, is America’s story. If elected, we are counting on you, Kamala, to take us from four years of darkness to the light of grace and good governance.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

From 1957 to 1971, “Papa Doc” Duvalier ruled Haiti with an iron fist. His dreaded Tontons Macoutes (“bogeyman” in Haitian Creole) were sunglass-wearing killers who slit the throats of thousands of Haitians deemed insufficiently loyal to Duvalier The dead were often left hanging in marketplaces as "examples" for anti-Duvaliers. Abducted Haitians simply disappeared under the Duvalier regime.

Under Argentina’s brutal military junta in the 1970s, over 30,000 Argentinians were kidnapped and killed during the “Dirty War.” The junta used its military might against its own people. The state-backed torture and terrorism was supported at the time by the United States. Years later, mothers and grandmothers demanded answers to the fates of their children and grandchildren but the answers never came. The dead could not speak.

Almost half-a-century later, under president Trump in 2020, sunglass-wearing federal forces, nameless, faceless storm-troopers in the style of Nazi Germany, have descended on the streets of Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Oakland and other cities across the United States, tear-gassing and abducting American citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest. War veterans - Americans who fought to defend American values in distant lands - are being mercilessly beaten. The abducted are being hauled away in unmarked cars. When mothers tried to act as buffers between the protesters and the storm troopers, they were beaten and bloodied.

We Americans have gotten used to scenes of carnage in what we call Third-World countries, lawless dictatorships where people gathering to protest inhuman conditions are mowed down with machine guns. We watch these carnage and feel superior because of the durability of our democracy, the checks and balances that temper executive power.

Surely it cannot happen here, we tell ourselves, as we sip on our morning coffee. This can never be Haiti or Argentina. We can never turn into a fascist nation.

Well, think again. Our streets are turning into war zones. Why? Because Trump, badly trailing Biden in the polls for the November 3^rd election, is determined to hang onto power by any and all means. So this most lawless president is trying to pass himself off as the law and order president by sending federal troops to kidnap and kill Americans racial and systemic injustices.

A monster is bent on destroying America. It is up to us, the voters, to reject Trump on November 3^rd, and put a stop to the murderous madness he has unleashed across the nation.

But after Trump is defeated, we have to ensure that no American president can flout the rule of law with such impunity as he did, no matter how many sycophants he managed to surround himself with. Our vaunted “Checks and Balances” type of government came up short when confronting a sadistic president. One of the first things President Biden must do is to ensure that such murderous transgressions can never happen again without immediate accountability.