Throwing Sharpies is No Way to Govern

WASHINGTON (01-25) – Now fully immersed in this dark new world of government disorder framed by Donald Trump’s theatrics and bravado in signing executive orders to “get the job done” accompanied by flying Sharpie pen photo ops, The Washington Post newspaper’s oft repeated clarion call, warning that “Democracy dies in darkness,” rings truer than ever.

Counterposed to that masthead slogan is one on Ralph Nader’s publication, Capitol Hill Citizen, promulgating that “Democracy dies in broad daylight” in expanding on the idea that we are now in the throes of democracy’s demise and death 24/7/365.

In a city filled with contradictions, both warnings expand upon the delineation of how this “Bull in a China Shop” approach to government also referred to as a “dumpster fire” is designed to erode our rights and freedoms through the stroke of Trump’s pen in attempting to nullify or change those things in the law and the constitution which he dislikes.

Unfortunately for him, not all of the people are fooled, enamored or misled by his shallow grandstanding made-for-TV showmanship as a busy automaton signature-signing machine at an autograph convention. While accompanied by an assistant who briefly explains each document being presented for his signature may make for dramatic TV, his rapid-fire orders reforming our democracy into his extremist vision backed by the desires of billionaire oligarchs and of Project 2025 adherents, leaves much to be desired. He has codified that we truly have the “best government that money can buy.”

One executive order that Trump signed involved the unconditional pardons for two METRO Washington, DC police officers involved in the coverup and death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, a Black man who was severely injured and later died as the result of his injuries during an unauthorized police pursuit initiated for the egregious crime of riding his moped on the sidewalk without wearing a helmet.

In a clear example of optics over substance while signing the pardons, Trump falsely claimed that Hylton-Brown was “illegal” when, in fact he was a U.S. citizen.

Indicating just how unprepared and completely ignorant of the facts he was, Trump explained that his signing of the order would overturn what he termed a “wrongful conviction.” Saying “I’m going to be letting two officers from Washington police DC, I believe they’re from DC…” then going on to describe the merits of the case as “I guess something happened where something went wrong, and they arrested the two officers and put them in jail for going after a criminal. A rough criminal, by the way.”

He finished his comments by proclaiming himself, in his usual bravado, as a “friend of police more than any president who’s ever been in this office.” He neglected to mention, however, that earlier this week he issued a blanket clemency releasing 1,500 convicted J6 insurrectionists some of whom were serving 18-year sentences for their part in the violent attempt to overthrow our government. While the police union praised Trump’s decision to grant clemency for the two convicted officers in the Hylton-Brown case, just days earlier they were distressed by the release of the J6 insurrectionists.

Trump’s testing of his presidential powers regarding changing the U.S. Constitution was also on full display, too, when he signed an executive order to eliminate the birthright provision contained in the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment which says “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Fortunately, presidents cannot rule by fiat to change the Constitution at their whim and Trump’s attempt to do so in this case is reminiscent of the egregious and blatantly racist 1857 Supreme Court decision written by Justice Taney in Dred Scott v Sanford that disallowed African Americans citizenship. Referring to Blacks as a “subordinate and inferior class of beings” the court claimed that the Constitution never intended to included Blacks as citizens.

Furthermore, the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v Wong Kim Ark, determined that Wong who had been denied entry into the U.S. in San Francisco, the city of his birth and whose parents at the time were subjects of the Emperor of China, ultimately decided that Wong had become “…at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States, by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”

Trump’s attempt to overturn the Fourteenth Amendment by executive order is clearly unconstitutional and is now being challenged by lawsuits filed in several states. The overview of the executive order signing fiasco is Trump’s clear intent to overwhelm, confuse, divert and divide people through his numerous orders covering a wide myriad of subjects, many of which resonate on an emotional level to demonstrate the fulfillment of his campaign promises and in reforming the government into his and his backers’ vision.

Even the touted massive deportation of illegals has been met with pushback as “repatriation flights” on American military aircraft transporting people back to Columbia while handcuffed like prisoners have been denied landing rights and have had to return and refuel in the air. As payback, Trump announced that a 25 percent tariff would be placed on all Columbian products entering the U.S. and that will escalate as denials to land continue.

The death of our democracy and the disassembly of the constitution and the rule of law by the stroke of a pen, while making for great theater, will not stand without more resistance and challenges. Part of that growing resistance has seen people across the city placing signs, stickers and other forms of visual communication in public places expressing their feelings in resisting the direction Trump is attempting to lead the country.

Peaceful civil disobedience, the exercise of First Amendment Rights and resistance as reported on TV, radio, in print media and online along with marches, protests, demonstrations and communicating with their representatives, have an impact to forge change and are crucial elements of citizen involvement in an open and free democratic society.

Initiated in many forms by ordinary people of no particular note, historian and author David Mc Cullough referenced in his book, Brave Companions, that, “…the little-known events of a given time and the people who are not in the headlines, can be what matter most in the long run. And the long run is the measure of history.”

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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