RISING UP: A CALL TO ACTION TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY

We are citizens from all across the country of different political stripes who believe in freedom, liberty, and the rule of law. We have come together to express in the strongest possible terms that we believe in democracy and insist that it can be and must be consistent with human rights, civil liberties, economic justice, equality of opportunity, and a national commitment to both protecting our sacred environment and creating well paid jobs that provide dignity and security for American workers.

We hereby declare that we cannot in good conscience give our moral consent to the illegitimate Trump administration which lost the popular election by over 2.5 million votes and whose racist, xenophobic, and misogynist policies promote bigotry and undermine our democracy and all that we hold sacred. Though dismayed that Trump won in the Electoral College, which sadly is a noxious vestige of our nation’s slave history, we nonetheless take heart in the fact that Trump did not receive anything near a mandate to govern. 

We believe it is our constitutional right to vigorously protest these policies and to struggle for an America that works for all of us and not the few at the top. On inauguration day we will be holding protest rallies in cities and towns across the country to send a powerful message to President Elect Trump that America is not his play toy and that we will stand strong in opposing any and all of his policies that promote bigotry and inequality, endanger the environment, weaken social security, and undermine the institutions of our democracy and the common good.

We are facing one of the most dangerous moments in U.S. history. We are confronted with a profound moral choice. We will either passively assent to the smooth transition of power from the administration of the first elected Black president to that of a blustering demagogue named Donald Trump who is an unstable, impulsive, authoritarian, con artist with megalomania tendencies; or else we will rally in solidarity to steadfastly and vigorously oppose the profound danger his administration presents to our democracy and the planet.

Here is just some of what is at stake:

Trump has chosen the racist, anti-Semitic, ultra white nationalist Steve Bannon as chief strategist, a man who will use his influence to create a policy that promotes aggressive military action, support for far-right leaders abroad, and cracking down on dissidents at home.

Trump has chosen Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, a man who cheered the 2013 Supreme Court decision gutting the historic Voting Rights Act which required Federal pre-clearance of changes in voting laws in those states with a history of voter discrimination. As one of the most strident anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT voices in the Senate, long fought for progress in civil rights and voter protections will be severely undermined. 

Trump has chosen billionaire Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, who as a former partner at Goldman Sachs has deep ties to Wall Street and who ran a hedge fund which played a major role in the housing crisis by operating what amounted to a foreclosure machine which made him fabulously wealthy at the expense of those whose homes were foreclosed.

Trump has chosen Andrew Puzder as Secretary of Labor, a fierce critic of unions and government work place regulations that protect worker safety and insure fair wages. Puzder also opposes raising the minimum wage, expansion of overtime pay, paid sick leave, and the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has chosen right-wing billionaire Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education who is public enemy number one to our public education system. She is a longtime backer of charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools and will support policies that will focus on defunding, privatizing, and ultimately destroying public education in America.

Trump has chosen Georgia Congressman Tom Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Price is a leading critic of the Affordable Care Act and instead supports privatizing Medicare. He is opposed to gay marriage and has worked to outlaw abortion nationwide, including in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the woman. 

Trump’s choice for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson who has absolutely no background in housing and urban policy, is opposed in principle to HUD’s fair housing rule which requires local communities to assess patterns of income and racial discrimination, and is someone who believes poverty is a lifestyle choice.

Trump’s choice for Secretary of the Interior is climate change denier Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers who is the recipient of mega bucks from the oil and gas industry and who has voted consistently against common-sense environmental protections, rules governing fossil fuel drilling on public lands, and virtually anything which might be a hindrance to big oil and gas companies making ever more money at the expense of the environment.

Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency is another climate change denier named Scott Pruitt . As Attorney General of Oklahoma, Pruitt repeatedly sued the EPA to stop the agency from doing its job. He will now be presiding over an agency he is committed to destroying. We can be certain that the quality of our air and water will be degraded under his watch while the oil and gas industries reap handsome profits.

Trump has chosen Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State, a man with no formal foreign policy experience who is CEO of ExxonMobil, the wealthiest corporation in the world and the company that presided over a decades long disinformation campaign and coverup of the link between fossil fuels and global warming.  The choice of Tillerson confirms that the so called Washington swamp of lobbyists that Trump pledged to drain will now be populated by corporate titans and Wall Street insiders.

And Trump has nominated former Texas Governor Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy to head the very department he famously called for dismantling.

As president, Trump’s well documented verbal attacks against the press and media present a grave threat to one of the fundamental pillars of our democracy without which we can never have an informed and engaged electorate.

As president, Trump’s vast financial holdings all over the world can never be separated from his role as president which will insure that his administration will be embroiled in conflicts of interest pitting what is good for Trump against what is best for the nation.

As president, Trump’s childish infatuation with the military generals he is nominating to top posts in his administration, coupled with his own authoritarian nature and thin-skinned tendency to lash out at any and all who criticize or disagree with him, promises to make the world a more dangerous place. Is this the man you want to have access to the nuclear codes? We think not.

President elect Trump is a clear and present danger to our democracy and the health of the planet. This is what is at stake and why we the undersigned cannot assent to the legitimacy of a Trump presidency and will use all available means afforded us under the constitution and in our democracy to steadfastly and vigorously oppose his dangerous policies and work instead to reinvigorate our democracy and the health of the planet.