There is a serious constitutional crisis, confront Trump NOW, November will be too late.

The American Constitution is being ignored by Trump’s increasingly illegal federal administration, whose objective is a far right ethno-nationalist dictatorship.

Acting now to confront the Trump administration is essential, so a full spectrum of opposition can be put in place before November. There is already a full constitutional crisis, as Trump is beyond any of the restraints enshrined in the Constitution:

1. The courts cannot control him. A 60 year old conservative movement has managed to install enough right wing supreme court justices, that the Supreme Court has become a forum for legal apologists of the Trump regime. If court decisions go against him Trump ignores them anyway, which is unconstitutional, because the President is required to uphold the law. This proves that the law without the power of enforcement is powerless.

2. He cannot be impeached. A two-thirds majority is needed in the Senate to remove him. Trump has near total control of the Republican Party, who have slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Congress members take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, they are required by their oath of office to impeach a President whose actions are blatantly unconstitutional. The vast majority of Republican members have placed party loyalty, fear and greed above their oath of office.

3. Congress cannot withhold funds to make the administration powerless. The Republican party majority means budget bills will get passed in the House and Senate. Democrats can attempt to filibuster in the Senate, but this leads to a government shut down, which hurts their voters most.

4. Elections cannot remove him. He intends to take over federal elections in selected blue cities (“nationalize elections”) this November, which the Constitution declares must be run by the states, not the federal government. This action would be unconstitutional. This provision was intended by the founders to stop a President and his regime creating a dictatorship. This is exactly what Trump intends to do.

When the mechanisms in the Constitution to prevent abuse of power have been made powerless, then this is a serious constitutional crisis.

There are already enough grounds to justify a formal indictment of Trump and his top lieutenants. This also includes some Republican members of Congress, some Supreme court justices and members of well funded far-right political organizations. Who can remove and put on trial these serpents?

There are no constitutional measures that can be taken, because they have all been made ineffective. Trump is performing an elected coup. He won the 2024 Presidential election, and is using this power to dismantle American democracy from the inside.There is an unfortunate parallel to Hitler’s actions in 1933 when he became Chancellor.

If the Constitution cannot save America, then it is reasonable to invoke (proximate) concepts close to it:

The Declaration of Independence (1776) which gave rise to the Constitution (1787) and so on to its 27 amendments to date.

Paragraph two of the Declaration of Independence, contains this important statement:

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.“

It is insufferable for American democracy after 250 years of development, to be destroyed in the name of the MAGA movement; which was created to purposely deceive millions of ordinary people enraged by status anxiety caused by income inequality, to give away their democratic rights to a serial confidence trickster backed by the group of oligarchs who are actually the main drivers of their anxiety.

It is the duty of Americans to throw off this False President and his incompetent and unscrupulous gang of subordinates, who are powered by the money of the morbidly rich and their smart but cynical think tanks. The Constitution does not provide a direct mechanism to avoid Trump’s planned dictatorship at this stage in its progression.

Other means will need to be planned for and employed NOW!:

1. The Military prevents armed coup against elections. Many sectors of American society swear a paramount oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, that is to actively protect it from harm, and to support it. It would be reasonable, using orders from the highest level of the military willing to honor this oath, to at the point where Trump plans to commit by an armed coup against state run elections, to arrest Trump and his gang, and to protect state run elections from this unlawful federal interference.

All prominent politicians who value democracy should openly be calling on the military to do this NOW in the event of Trump planning an armed coup against state run elections. Acting against a rogue federal administration who is acting against the Constitution would be lawful, as doing nothing would be breaking the oath to actively defend the Constitution. Making this call NOW deters backers of the regime who may defect rather than stay on the path to certain ruin and defeat.

2. Citizens organize militias to protect elections. Given the consequences of the possibility that the military may not act, citizens should be reasonably entitled to organize militia to protect state run federal elections, from unlawful and unconstitutional interference from a rogue federal administration. These militia should be placed under the orders of the highest state official willing to honor their oath to defend the Constitution.

These militia would be organized NOW and only mobilized when and if they are required. These militias need to be organized NOW to deter backers of the Trump regime who may defect rather than staying on the path to certain ruin and defeat.

3. Preparing focused strikes and protests against the regime. Boycotts and labor strikes against the corporate backers of Trump’s regime need to be expanded. They need to know that they will pay a heavy price for backing the regime, unless they withdraw their support NOW.

There needs to be labor strikes against the companies who provide the infrastructure and services required for the Trump’s regime’s illegal activities. Mass protests in prominent locations such as Washington need to be organized NOW to show the supporters of the regime the scale of the opposition against Trump’s plans.

4. In any crucial fight like this, people need to know that the future if they succeed will be much better than the past. Victory requires a future worth fighting for.

In the State of the Union address in 1941, President Roosevelt stated the Four Freedoms that America would champion at home and abroad after WW2 was won:

1. Freedom of Speech and Expression. (and thus Representative Government)
2. Freedom of Worship.
3. Freedom from Want.
4. Freedom from Fear.

It is fair to say that these goals were achieved with much more success inside America than abroad. All four are under threat at home with the growth of inequality, indebtedness, and now the looming Trump far-right ethno-nationalist dictatorship.

The problem that has made Trump’s MAGA movement possible is record inequality and record private debt (when measured as % of GDP). Compounded by both parties in America’s two party system adopting neoliberal economics. Ethnic-majority working and lower middle class Americans became enraged as their economic and social position slid downwards (status anxiety). Illegal immigration coupled with a move by the Democrats to progressive equality values and regressive economic values, gave Trump the opportunity to turn status anxiety into a far-right MAGA movement to capture votes for the Republican party,

It must be recognized by mainstream politicians that the democratic system cannot be sustained with this level of inequality and private debt. As a matter of pragmatism rather than ideology the government needs to reduce inequality, by creating money to build an economy that rewards fair shares of income to all Americans. This will allow private debt to be paid down. Government debt will be paid down by creating money. The resulting inflation will be controlled not by interest rate increases but by increasing progressive taxation.This is practical economics not socialism.

The trite neoliberal explanations of the failure of incomplete Keynesian economics in the 1970s need to be revisited. The government needs to be prepared to actively manage economic shocks (e.g. In the 1970s, oil and food supply shocks, turmoil after the abrupt dismantling of the Bretton Woods system).

The global fight against system collapse is even more difficult than defeating the domestic one against Trump’s planned far-right dictatorship. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has not reached its peak value. The global population has not yet reached its peak, even with declines in fertility rates. Demand for resources in general due to lifestyle coupled with population has not reached a peak, while the quantities of unexploited resources are declining. In addition there is a global wave of increasing autocratic far-right ethno-nationalism that impedes human rights and the solving of these pressing global threats.

American foreign policy has oscillated between denying and pursuing these four freedoms abroad. Indeed the idea of the “democratic development state” was denied with freedoms 1 and 3 being seen as incompatible, since a representative government would put voter’s demands for consumption over development. A similar case has been made against the “democratic sustainable development state”. To claim democracy is incompatible with principles is paradoxical, since democracy itself depends on principles, and is in any case subject to the limits of legal principles. All four of Roosevelt’s freedoms are under threat abroad, due to a global rising tide of autocratic far-right ethno-nationalism, growing climate chaos and over consumption of natural resources.

A fifth freedom needs to be added in these times:

5. Freedom to live in an environment that has a future.

Something that was lost for many people in the 1980s, when the warnings from the previous two decades became mainstream. This fifth freedom means living well with less waste and pollution. In this scenario of sustainable development there are no developed or undeveloped countries.

There are three philosophical-historical lessons of our age that are central to a future worth fighting for as I see them. Firstly, the denial of these five freedoms beyond the border - of whatever type national, political, religious or social - undermines these freedoms within the border. The reason is that shared humanity stretches beyond borders. If the concept is undermined outside the border, it is undermined within the border where it is essential to social cohesion. If it is invigorated abroad then it is strengthened at home.The alternative is to rely on ever rising aggression to provide social cohesion. Secondly, the denial of personal or societal responsibility undermines the cohesion of the community that exists within the naturally divided self. We become obsessively self critical or self indulgent and so loose touch with shared humanity. Thirdly, that civilization in its fullest sense is the ultimate good, personally and collectively.

---