If You Don’t Want Kings, Take Off the Partisan Blinders

The well-orchestrated “No Kings” protests across America – while motivated more viscerally than rationally – helped illuminate the darker side of our current president.  A side that rejects the conservative ideals and principles he claims to embrace.  Principles anchored in in natural rights, rule of law, minimum government and maximum freedom.

Trump has certainly done some things that align with conservative ideas, like appointing Tulsi Gabbard, who courageously defends our civil liberties in the face of an intelligence community that wages war daily on the American people.  Like tapping RFK Jr., who boldly challenges the corrupt Big Health-Big Government Establishment that is making Americans more sick and less free.  The No Kings demonstrations ignored these heroes, underscoring how deeply partisan these “spontaneous” events really were.

But I have challenged my GOP friends to take off their own partisan blinders long enough to apply their conservative convictions equally to politicians from both parties.  Do that, and they’ll soon discover that the prideful, profane, power-obsessed Donald Trump is not a principled conservative at all.  

How long, for example, will loyal Republicans shut their eyes to the shocking tactics of Trump’s ICE agents?  Dealing constitutionally – and humanely – with illegal immigrants is a necessary federal calling.  But in the words of constitutional scholar John Whitehead, ICE has “metastasized into a domestic terror force… fueled by profit-driven incentives and outlandish quotas.”  Whitehead describes them as “masked, militarized, lawless bounty hunters who are willfully trampling our First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.” Free societies do not treat people this way.  Left unchecked, the corrosive effects of these police state tactics will pave the way to tyranny.   

Meanwhile, Trump is punishing colleges that allow too much free speech, and launching military campaigns in Democrat-controlled cities.  Internationally, when Trump isn’t bombing countries we aren’t at war with and blowing into oblivion small boats “suspected” of carrying drugs, he’s assuming unconstitutional power to impose trade-war tariffs without Congressional approval – a taxation without representation that lands squarely on every American consumer.    

Another indicator of “kingly” presidential power is the use of unconstitutional executive orders to create so-called “administrative law” that bypasses Congress.  Liberal Democrat Joe Biden, during his four-year term, issued 162 such orders – an average of 40 per year.  At last count, professed conservative Donald Trump has signed 210 executive orders in less than a year.

If Republicans are serious about constitutional rights and reining in government, they should be at the head of the parade, sounding the alarm over Trump’s ever-increasing abuse of power.  But because of politics, most aren’t.  Partisan blinders keep them from seeing or acting.

Are the Democrats any better?  They are just as blind to governmental oppression when their party is in charge.  But because the Democrat/socialist core philosophy advocates a top-down, imperialistic model of government (trust force, not freedom) our Democrat friends actually have a much harder time recognizing blatant abuse of power.

Case in point.  Where were the liberal Democrats when for three years, Joe Biden locked down our entire country, shutting businesses, schools, churches, and our fundamental right to free associations and free choice?  All of this was based on a governmental propaganda campaign of fear and intimidation, and an official policy of lying about the nature of COVID, the efficacy of the masks and the serious health risks associated with forced vaccinations.  We may never know the full extent of the harm Fauci inflicted – while Democrats chose to “see no evil” and further empower the dictator. 

And how about the brutal federal roundup American citizens were subjected to, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time of January 6?  Did Democrats feel the slightest sense of compassion for these people and their families when the swat teams and armored bearcats showed up in the middle of the night, pounding on their doors?

America is a constitutional republic, where something called The Bill of Rights establishes in great specificity, absolute legal limits on the powers of government.  We call it rule of law.  Freedom is not a political gift, and the Constitution is not an optional contract.  We have liberty because God bestowed it, and we require our government to defend it.  Let’s take off our partisan blinders and hold every politician – Democrat and Republican – accountable to their oath of office, and to We the People, who hired them to serve, not to rule.