Greg Gallagher

Mandan

When such manifest chaos, corruption, and cruelties are thrust upon the American people by this Administration, when its efforts are spearheaded by an unelected, unconfirmed, self-serving oligarch itching for power, and when it positions itself beyond the independent review of Inspectors General, Congressional oversight, and a now-kneecapped Department of Justice, you stand in the thick of a full-fledged constitutional crisis.

When any member of Congress remains silent amid the harms being perpetrated upon people within their charge, whether it be from implied agreement or cowardice, they stand complicit and have denigrated their role as leaders, having diminished the oath of office they solemnly affirmed: to support and defend our Constitution.

We stand at the precipice of inflicting real — perhaps irretrievable — damage to our democratic Republic. With all its marvels and whatever its imperfections, our Constitution is a precious yet fragile living document, one that binds us together and to which we swear our allegiance. Its Amendments reveal a Republic struggling yet striving toward the fuller, rightful inclusion of all people. It is our collective duty to support and defend our Constitution, especially now that it is under attack by our current president and those who stand alongside him in his negligence, corruption, and disdain for the rule of law.

What we are witnessing now is the wholesale surrender of personal integrity and political courage from those Republican leaders who know better, ever calculating, ever fearful. Our democracy is too precious to surrender, to cast aside for the likes of any petty tyrant or autocratic regime. It is time to decide in which direction our future lies: democracy or fascism. We each need to choose on what side of history we will stand.

I choose a democratic Republic. I do protest. I do resist. I am so resolved.