4th of July Thoughts on America

One of the places I work has a wall of photographs of significant people who have been a part of that place. One of the photos is a man named Samuel Nelson.

In the mid-1800s, from teeny-tiny Cooperstown, Samuel Nelson rose to the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from 1845 to 1872 on that court and sided with the majority on arguably the worst decision that court ever made, Dred Scott, in which they ruled “that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slaveowners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property.” (from The Supreme Court: The First Hundred Years) The Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens of the United States.

When my children were younger, we listened to a Brite Music CD (actually, I think our first version was on cassette) called “Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By” by Janeen Brady. They learned the foundations of our government through the songs. One song is just the preamble to our Constitution — and I’ll bet that most of my older kids could still sing it. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men (and women) are created equal.”

The song (from Take Your Hat Off) that I’m thinking about these days is called “Checks and Balances.“

“The government works like a great gigantic triangle.
No one holds all the power; that’s made quite clear.
There are three branches of power in the great big triangle.
That’s why a dictator never could make it here.
Checks and balances, checks and balances, checks and balances.”

Probably ten or twelve years ago, I read Ron Chernow’s biography of George Washington: Washington: A Life. One of the things that stood out to me from that book was the way George Washington, as the first president, surrounded himself with people of varying opinions. It made our government stronger to have these strongs minds batting ideas back and forth as they came up with the principles that have guided us for two centuries.

This week’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity should alarm any American of any party. It yields waaaaaaay too much power to the president. Checks and balances are lost. Do we need another amendment to the constitution to overturn it?

Then, of course, we have a man who has said he would be dictator on his first day in office. Oh, you may think he’s trying to be funny and you may actually believe it’s just about closing the border — but look at how he dealt with people IN HIS OWN PARTY who weren’t cowtowing to him. Can I mention Liz Cheney here?

The denigrating name-calling ostracizing nastiness reeks of narcissism and despotism.

I say all this as a Republican. I am conservative. But Donald Trump scares me a lot.

We are in deep trouble.