MAGA Republicans in their zeal to protect the Second Amendment, have forgotten there is an amendment that precedes it. For those in that group not good at math, we are talking about the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights) prohibits the government from restricting five fundamental freedoms: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. It protects against government censorship, allowing individuals to express opinions, practice religion, and assemble peacefully without fear of government punishment.”
When the United States government prohibits peaceful protest, arrests journalists covering these protests, bans books it doesn’t like, dictates to universities and other schools the curriculum they are allowed to teach, threatens the news media with financial ruin if it continues to publish or cover news it doesn’t condone, and actually kills people exercising their right of free speech, that means we no longer have a First Amendment.
When the courts are powerless to correct the lawless actions of an elected official, we no longer have an effective judicial branch of government. When the Congress, by lack of action, fails to use their power to enforce the rights guaranteed to its citizens, we no longer have an effective legislative branch of government.
Without either a judicial branch or a legislative branch of government, we are left with an authoritarian dictatorship. We need not fear the collapse of American democracy before our 250th birthday, that ship sailed during the Insurrection of January 6, 2021. That ship finally disappeared over the horizon on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump granted blanket clemency to all people involved in the insurrection.
The American experiment in democracy had failed. When the founders outlined this novel, unproven system of self-governance in 1776, it would last 241 years before unravelling. On January 20, 2017, the architect of its demise would begin his task of removing those freedoms that got in his way. He spent four years chipping away at that democracy. His reelection in 2024 would send him back to complete his unfinished task. Democracy was doomed.
Today, with SS-like troops marching through our streets killing our citizens with reckless abandon and without repercussions, America’s 250th birthday celebration will be hollow and devoid of true patriotic emotion. The prideful songs of our once great nation will be but a funeral dirge for what could have been. It will be the job of future generations to see what they can build from the ashes of this failed experiment. Those of us who remember what it was like to live during the successful period of our American experiment, can only wish them well.
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