The People. Of, By, and For

Tag: news

  • The Dangers of Distorting American History Perspectives

    The Dangers of Distorting American History Perspectives

    On March 27th, 2025 the executive order for “Restoring the Truth and Sanity to American History” was signed. At first, I thought to post the text of the order in its entirety to let it speak for itself, but truthfully I don’t want to give it a platform, no matter how small and insignificant this one is. I encourage you to go and read it for yourself rather than take my word, or anyone else’s word, as the framework for what you believe. All I can offer are my thoughts which are filtered through the biases of my world view and upbringing, as are everyone’s. 

    This executive order reads as if written by someone who is personally offended that the truth of history shows that White males weren’t always the benevolent and righteous actors they want to think they were. They specifically call out two exhibits that discuss racial oppression and one that celebrates trans athletes. It reads as though the writer believes that those exhibits are direct personal attacks rather than the illustration of a perspective on history.

    This idea that only one picture of history has space to exist is dangerous and disgusting. It is an attempt to deny the existence of other perspectives. Just because someone’s experience shows white males in a negative light does not mean it is invalid. Celebrating black history, or telling the truth of black history in America is in no way, shape, or form a bad thing. 

    I cannot overstate how repugnant and hateful it is to couch this history as insane lies. And from the Office of the President of the United States? This is just a green light for racists around the country to feel emboldened. 

    The United States is, and always has been, a work in progress. Part of what makes this country so great is the admission that we have gotten things wrong along the way, but we still endeavor to fix them. As a nation we strive to further broaden the definitions of freedom and liberty that the country was founded upon because we recognize that the men who originally framed it were imperfect. The constitution is framed as a living document for the express purpose of being able to change to meet the needs of an evolving society. Enacting change in an effort to further expand equality to all people is exactly what it means to be American. 

    History is not meant to make you comfortable and secure. It is there to serve as a record of what decisions led to what outcomes. This information should then be used to make course corrections or improvements to further an equality before the law for all people. 

    The reaction to history that makes us uncomfortable is not to try and erase it or eliminate those voices from society. The reaction is to understand why it makes us uncomfortable, what that says about us, and then enact change to better align with who we are as a person. Simply refusing to believe something, or claiming it’s revisionist because it hurts your feelings is as dangerous as it is unintelligent. If Black voices speaking about racism makes you uncomfortable you should be asking why that is the case. 

    No human is without mistakes. Many of the beliefs that would make us shy away from the truth of our nation were ingrained in us before we were capable of understanding ourselves. We have the freedom to choose to be better. To choose to deconstruct our biases. To choose to embrace the most American ideal of them all.

    Progress.

    — The People. Of, By, and For

  • States’ Rights: A Tool for Discrimination

    States’ Rights: A Tool for Discrimination

    States’ Rights.

    In the last few years we have seen a resurgence of the mantra “States’ Rights” or “States are entitled to rule themselves and the Federal Government should stay out of it” from the GOP. Specifically, they have used this argument to justify overturning Roe v. Wade and to dismantle the Department of Education. On its surface, especially if we want to take an extremely fundamentalist reading of the Constitution that the 10th amendment unequivocally reserves the right for States to govern themselves in all things not enumerated to the federal government, or denied to the States, by the Constitution, this is not an unfounded position to take. This would include things like education and medical procedures. 

    The problem is that the argument of “States’ Rights” has never been about anything other than the States ability to discriminate. It has always been a clarion call for white, male supremacy. 

    In 1824 Andrew Jackson lost the presidential election to John Quincy Adams in a contested election that was decided in a contingent election by the House of Representatives in 1825. As no candidate had won an electing majority of the electoral college votes the House decided the election as is laid out in the US Constitution. Adams went on to name Henry Clay, another candidate, as Secretary of State in what Jackson supporters began to call the “Corrupt Bargain”. They alleged that Clay had “sold his support” to Adams in exchange for the position and this deal defeated Jackson in the house even though he had garnered the most popular votes and a larger share of the electoral votes during the general election in 1824. 

    Southern slave owners latched onto the narrative of the “Corrupt Bargain” and began to characterize the Federal Government as a distant, out of touch body that was trying to push their ideals onto them with no regard for their “culture” or needs. They said that States’ Rights mattered more than anything else in this nation. They threw their support behind the populist candidate Andrew Jackson and elected him in 1828 to the Presidency. This began the movement in the South proclaiming that the states, and the states alone, should determine what was and wasn’t legal in their states, specifically slavery. They were still extremely upset at the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that ended the proliferation of slavery in new states admitted to the Union. With the way the Framers had laid out representation in Congress, Southern democrat slave owners quickly saw that this would end their ability to influence domestic policy as they would lose their thin majority in the legislative bodies as more non-slave states were admitted. Thus began the campaign that States, and States alone, had the ability to determine their governance. They desperately needed to maintain their States’ Right to slavery in order to preserve their power over their hierarchical society. 

    The irony here is that Andrew Jackson sparked the Nullification Crisis over tariffs when he authorized the use of the military to enforce federal law in South Carolina. 

    In 1857, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, which is regarded as the worst ruling in the Court’s history. For now at least. With this ruling they codified that the US Constitution did not extend citizenship to Black Americans and that Congress had no authority to legislate against Slavery. This only emboldened the Southern slave owners to continue their rhetoric of the sanctity of States’ Rights and set the table for the secession crisis that led to the Civil War. It’s worth noting that Chief Justice Taney, who handed down the decision, was from a wealthy slave owning family in Maryland. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson.

    If you have never read the Court opinions from this case, and you’re a sicko for American history, I highly encourage that you do. It is incredibly racist and filled with tenuous logic to connect the decision that Dred Scott couldn’t be a citizen because he was the property of a white man to the argument that Congress couldn’t legislate slavery because it impeded on property rights which are determined by the States themselves. Taney used this judgment to overturn the Missouri compromise of 1820, which was not relevant to the case they were hearing. Instead using his decision that another human was property to leap to striking down a ruling that impeded wealthy slave owners like himself and his family. He unilaterally galvanized States’ Rights to discriminate and enslave other humans. 

    To be explicitly clear, the Civil War was about secession. And secession was about slavery. Any other reason offered is a lie. A product of Southern propaganda after the war during Reconstruction. 

    This is relevant today, some 200 years later, because “States’ Rights” is still about wealthy white men being able to discriminate against marginalized people. As it always has been. 

    The Dobbs decision, which effectively overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that federally protected the right to abortion, was ostensibly made to return the power to the States to make that decision for themselves. On its face, this isn’t a terrible decision if we take a fundamental position on the enumeration of rights. However, many States took this opportunity to completely deny reproductive rights, with some taking notes from laws codified in the 1850’s. There should be no surprise that there is a geographical overlap of this modern denial of rights and a history of slavery. The guise of “States’ Rights” was once again used by white men in power to deny the rights of who they view as second class citizens. 

    In March of 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing the shut down of the Department of Education. Again we see the championing of “States’ Rights” being used to justify this decision. To be fair, federal oversight of public education is not enumerated in the Constitution and thus we can take a fundamentalist argument for this being the correct decision. However, this decision does not exist in a vacuum where it can be isolated in such a way. In context, this decision comes as the last major domino of years of GOP efforts to undermine public education and drive students towards private schools. Specifically wealthy, and predominantly white, students. This is not to say that the DoE is without fault, or that they do a great and glorious job at providing for our nation’s students. Their most important function is providing oversight and regulating States to provide access to education for disabled and marginalized students, something private schools have no mandate to do unless they receive federal funding. By removing the DoE, they are removing this funding, and thus removing the obligation of Private schools to provide access to education for anyone who doesn’t fit their preferred image. Once again, the argument of “States’ Rights” is being used to discriminate against demographics that are not wealthy or white. 

    “States’ Rights” is, and always has been, about the rights of wealthy white men to deny the rights of people they see as beneath them. It is a constitutional smoke screen to disguise hierarchical institutions that benefit only a select few. A select few that know if the most American tenet of “all men are created equal” were to actually rule the land they would lose their protected access to power and wealth derived from the labor of the average American. 

    — The People. Of, By, and For

  • Schumer’s Mistake: A Lesson in Political Cowardice

    Schumer’s Mistake: A Lesson in Political Cowardice

    First, it has been a little over a week since the last post. I had a 9 day break from work and I couldn’t bring myself to stay minute to minute everyday with what is going on in this Country and around the world. So I didn’t. I needed a reprieve from the simmering rage that lurks below the surface of my being as I watch so many of my peers in this country sit idly by while we go careening into the abyss that is Trump’s authoritarian government. Unfortunately, my refusal to engage with the news did not mean that it stopped happening. 

    Perhaps most dispiriting, at least it’s where I’m going to start this week, Chuck Schumer and a cadre of senate democrats bent the knee to their liege in the making by choosing not to vote against the GOP Continuing Resolution for the budget. This is the first step in Trump’s effort to pass a budget which guts many services that work and advocate for the average American and add an estimated $4.5 Trillion to the national debt, all to service expanding tax cuts for the wealthiest few in the nation. The hypocrisy of the debt growth alone is enough to want to light things on fire. 

    Schumer’s defense of his decision was to avoid a government shutdown which he felt would lead to even less oversight on the dismantling of our government that is taking place. A fair point to make, and one I can’t poke holes in or dismiss. However, despite how valid avoiding a shutdown for that reason may be, Schumer capitulated to vote without getting anything in return from the GOP. He asked for no concessions, no guarantees, made no attempt to bargain at all. He threw away what little leverage the opposition party (read democrats) had and gave the GOP everything they wanted with no fight. 

    The precedent set is grim when taken in context to say the least. 

    Schumer has shown that the GOP can get anything they want without asking, or even pretending to work in good faith to compromise. We could see in the run up to the vote that the GOP propaganda machine was positioning the narrative that it would be the Democrats’ fault if the government shut down. Anyone with half a brain cell who chose to look at what was happening could see that the only course of action the Democrats had to try and protect the American people was to vote no and play hardball for concessions or guarantees. Yes, their no vote would lead to a government shutdown, but it is the prerogative of the party in charge to reach some semblance of a bipartisan agreement to pass their initiatives. If you want your shit passed, don’t try and pass overwhelmingly unpopular bills that bring harm to your constituents.

    Instead, the GOP played schoolyard bully and Shcumer rolled over and gave up his lunch money without even saying “please no”. Except it’s not his lunch money at stake. It’s our, the average working American, livelihood. Without Social Security, medicare/medicaid, and many other services on the chopping block Americans will suffer. And when you look at the data, a large percentage of those suffering will be Trump/GOP voters. As much as I am empathetic to struggle and suffering on an individual scale, this is EXACTLY what they voted for when they let propaganda blind them with racism and misogyny.

    Now the American People will pay the price for Schumer’s cowardice and any leverage that the Democrats may have had to try and protect the people is gone. Next time there is a vote for something important, maybe avoiding another shut down, all the propaganda machine has to say is “Well they voted for the CR but they won’t vote for this? They must hate America”. And in the back channels of Capitol Hill, where these deals are hammered out, there will be zero reason for the GOP to even pretend to be making an effort at bipartisanship. Chuck Schumer did not want to take the drastic step of refusing to capitulate, instead trusting that the “establishment” would continue to act as guardrails to reign in the out of control, petulant, want to be dictator in office and his party. 

    Schumer, and the rest of us, need to come to grips with the fact that the “establishment” is dead. It died on the steps of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 after a long, drawn out battle against oligarchs and authoritarians in this country and their desire to see liberal democracy burn at the stake for their wealth.

    The guardrails are gone. We are watching as the President of the United States threatens judges who rule against him and insinuates that he doesn’t have to follow their judgements. We have to begin treating this as the threat that it is. The Founders and Framers, for all their faults, knew what tyranny looked like. The American Experiment was founded on the express principle of standing up to tyranny. The Experiment is failing. 

    — The People. Of, By, and For

  • The American Paradox

    The American Paradox

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

    The opening lines to the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence define what it means to be an American. That all of us are created equal and are entitled to rights that are protected by the Government that operates at the consent of us, The People. It was written by an enslaver, Thomas Jefferson.

    This is the American Paradox. Our freedom and liberty comes, and has always come, at the expense of others. Namely Black and Brown Americans and Women. The travesty of modern America is that many still cling to the ideal of White Male Supremacy, as though including others in equality before the law is somehow encroaching upon individual freedom and liberty. 

    It is undeniable that at the time of writing “all men are created equal” only meant White, Male, and owning property to the founders. This was consistent with the prevailing worldview where everyone else was considered a second class citizen, if considered a person at all. 

    What we see in today’s political climate is an effort to return to this worldview. The GOP has convinced a large portion of working class Americans that things like DEI initiatives, women’s rights, and rights of marginalized people are a direct attack on their freedom and liberty. This fear is then used to stoke those voters to vote directly against their own personal interests. Nothing about the current economic realities or outlooks benefit these average Americans. In fact, they are doing incredible harm to their ability to live a financially secure life. 

    The GOP conned them into voting for white supremacy disguised as “safeguarding their liberty”. And for the hateful racists who voted for and cheered on hoping for a return to antebellum era hierarchical stratification, they are not the white, male, property owning group the GOP is trying to enrich. Trump and Co. are using their racist ideals to leave them behind with the same groups of people they think they are better than. To be nothing more than a disposable labor resource with which to enrich themselves. 

    To be blunt, the retention of the idea that freedom and liberty is dependent on the marginalization of “the other” should be seen as unequivocally un-American. 

    This Nation has demonstrated a great capacity for societal change. We ended slavery in the face of being told it would mean the end of the American Experiment. We created a social safety net in the wake of the depression caused by the unregulated rich. We said that all couples, straight or gay, had the right to marry. This is just to name a few, and each time there were loud voices screaming that the change would mean the end of America as we knew it. But that was the fucking point. America as we knew it no longer served the realities of our society, so change was needed. Just like in the 1760’s when the founders realized that the colonies as they knew it needed to change in order to fit their burgeoning society. Enacting change, radical change, to serve the needs of its people is what it means to be American. 

    We are duly obligated as a nation to recognize this American Paradox of inequality masquerading as freedom and to enact “radical” change to bring it in line with a modern worldview. Just as our founders did.

    If the Constitution is a living document, able to be amended and changed in order to serve the needs of a changing society, then so too should the Declaration be. Though it may not have been originally written as inclusive of all humans, in today’s day and age the only morally correct interpretation, that is in the interest of every American, is every single person in this nation is created equally and afforded the same rights. The tenets of what it meant to be American were written in line with what the current worldview at the time meant. It only serves as logical that as the world view changes, that definition changes with it. Therefore, clinging to white supremacy is un-American. I will die on this hill. 

    — The People. Of, By, and For

  • Free Speech: The Most American Ideal

    Free Speech: The Most American Ideal

    Update 3/14/2025:

    I don’t know if this is new information period, or just new information to me. Either way, it defies words. The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture, which 75 cents of every dollar paid goes straight to the Trump Family’s pockets, is in conversations over a deal with the US arm of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange. This is the same company whose founder, Changpeng Zhao, is petitioning President Trump for a pardon for his part in the anti-money laundering case levied against Binance in 2023. They were convicted of laundering money for sanctioned entities like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas. The President of the United States of America, who is unconstitutionally detaining an American green card holder under the guise of being “sympathetic to Hamas”, is actively negotiating a deal with a company convicted of providing funds to Hamas.

    _____________________________________________

    In the early night hours of March 8th, 2025 the democratic principles of freedom in the United States were dealt grievous, and potentially irrevocable, harm. Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holding permanent resident married to a US citizen, was arrested from his apartment by plainclothes ICE agents. He has not been charged with any crime, and to date there is no evidence to support that he has committed a crime at all. The only thing Mr. Khalil has done is to exercise his right as someone under the jurisdiction of the US Constitution to express his opinion. His right to free speech. 

    He was arrested because Donald Trump and his administration didn’t like what he was saying. 

    This is not a pro Palestine or pro Israel debate, which itself is a whole other destructive can of worms to open. Set all of that aside. This is a conversation about the First Amendment to the Constitution that has been held sacred for centuries in this country. 

    For reference, the First Amendment states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

    Mr. Khalil was arrested for leading a peaceful protest movement at Columbia University. This was a pro-Palestine protest that ran immediately counter to the staunchly pro-Israel establishment government. Again, this is not a discussion of that conflict, however it is important to understand the context of what is being used to justify the aggressively unconstitutional move by the Trump administration. For context, Miriam Adelson donated $100 Million to Trump’s 2024 campaign in exchange for assurances that he would support Israel’s desire to annex and take control of the West Bank. This is the same woman who has been quoted as saying that Trump deserves a “Book of Trump” in the Bible for his support of Israeli interests.

    Mahmoud Khalil had the audacity to speak against those interests.  

    This must be seen as the proverbial act of “crossing the Rubicon”. This must be the point at which all Americans realize that their fundamental rights as citizens are under attack and stand up against it. The way in which free speech is codified in the US Constitution is a uniquely American ideal. The Founders and Framers saw the freedom of expression of any and all ideas, and the protection of the individual to do so, was so important that it led the Bill of Rights which specifically limited federal government power, judicial overreach, and insured personal rights and freedoms of the individual. 

    Before this is written off as unimportant because Mahmoud Khalil is “some foreign national political dissident” and “they would never do this to real citizens”, let us remember that the US constitution, and the rights afforded therein, apply to anyone and everyone that find themselves under its jurisdiction. This includes illegal or undocumented immigrants, to say nothing of a green card holding permanent resident. 

    On Tuesday March 11th, 2025, President Donald Trump used the Office of the President and the South Lawn of the White House to film a commercial for the richest man in the world and his recently struggling car brand. During this waste and abuse of government time and office, Trump said that boycotts of Tesla were illegal and anyone doing so was, and I quote, a “domestic terrorist”. 

    Does anyone want to guess what Mahmoud Khalil is being accused of despite the lack of any and all evidence? 

    “First they came for the Communists

    And I did not speak out

    Because I was not a Communist

    Then they came for the Socialists

    And I did not speak out

    Because I was not a Socialist

    Then they came for the trade unionists

    And I did not speak out

    Because I was not a trade unionist

    Then they came for the Jews

    And I did not speak out

    Because I was not a Jew

    Then they came for me

    And there was no one left

    To speak out for me”

    – Pastor Martin Niemoller

    Americans must set aside their politics, their racism, or any other belief they hold that creates separation and unite in one voice to vehemently defend their rights as citizens. 

    Mahmoud Khalil is being illegally detained for exercising his right to free speech in an effort to set precedent for arresting those individuals that disagree with the Trump administration writ large. Even if you don’t believe it is that serious, which I believe is incredibly naive and misguided, it is not a risk you should be willing to take. 

    Our literal freedom as individuals is at stake.

    — The People. Of, By, and For

  • Post Truth

    Post Truth

    We live in a post truth world.

    There is no other way to explain how the man who, as evidenced clearly by multiple investigations, cut deals with America’s greatest enemy, Russia, to influence and manipulate the 2016 presidential election was not resoundingly labeled the traitor he showed himself to be. 

    There is no other way to explain how the man who, as clearly shown by all available evidence, used his position as President of the United States to compel a foreign nation, newly elected Ukrainian president Zelensky, to do his bidding and influence the 2020 elections so that he would stay in power was not thrown from the office for so clearly eschewing the foundational principles of the nation. 

    There is no other way to explain how a man who, as explicitly shown by all evidence and multiple investigations, incited an insurrection on this nation’s capitol aimed to overturn the certification of the election for the next President of the United States because it meant he would lose the implied legal protections of holding the highest office, was not punished for the sedition he so clearly committed.

    We live in a post truth world where the President and leader of a “populist” movement can be openly bought by the rich elite and billionaires of the world to do their bidding, yet working class White Americans will bleed themselves dry to defend that he has their best interests at heart. The only way that this can be seen as true is if their best interest is purely their ability to exercise supremacy over women and minorities. 

    I would like to think that if the Founders and Framers could see what has become of the democracy they risked their lives for, they would build the gallows themselves. 

    The highest office in the land, the “leader of the free world”, is committing treason against the institutions and people he is sworn to protect. Instead, using his power to enrich himself and his sycophants. Did the Movement Conservatives that backed Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan foresee that their ploys to manipulate voters would lead to the dismantling of American democracy?

    Every politician in congress who is too afraid to vote against these policies and enable the destruction of the constitution, and every principle this Nation stands for, is a fucking coward and an oath breaker. They willingly sacrifice the interests of their constituents, the fundamentals of democracy, in order to stay in office. An office that loses power and relevance with every step they cede to rising authoritarianism. 

    And they dare to call themselves Patriots. 

    When will truth matter more than being able to be racist and misogynist? When will truth matter more than doing harm to our disenfranchised fellow citizens? When will truth matter more than loyalty to a man who would happily see you die if it got him another dollar?

    – The People. Of, By, and For