Courage

“I do not understand this adhesive that holds them so tight when they know that things are wrong.”

Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (and former chair of the RNC) talks with JT and MG about getting booted from the Montana Republican Party after speaking out against Donald Trump, when he thinks the viciousness in politics took a hard turn, and his continued efforts to speak out and be engaged.

Racicot was one of the speakers at the No Kings rally at the Montana Capitol in Helena on June 14.

Here’s the full transcript of Racicot’s speech:

In 1788, in an effort to support the ratification of the Constitution of the

United States, Alexander Hamilton conveyed his confidence to his

fellow Americans that the Constitutional Convention had “guarded

against all danger of…cabal, intrigue and corruption” in the election of

a president.

It appears however, that Hamilton never anticipated the ubiquitous,

unlawful, unconstitutional and unethical transgressions of Donald

Trump and his henchmen. If he had, he would never have given his

assurance that treachery by an elected president would be prevented

by the proscriptions in the Constitution. Hamilton didn’t account for

the craven defiance of the Constitution, and the disgraceful betrayal

of the oath of office that shrouds the presidency of Donald Trump.

On the 100th day of a second term in office, when asked directly if he

had a mandatory duty to preserve, protect and defend the

Constitution, the President muttered “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a

lawyer. I don’t know.” Absent delusion, deception, ignorance or all of

the above, how could Donald Trump not know or remember when

only three months prior he took the presidential oath of office and

solemnly promised millions of Americans, for the second time, that he

would “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,”

and would to the best of his ability “preserve, protect and defend the

Constitution.”

It is as predictable as night following day that Donald Trump will ignore

and transgress the ethical and legal boundaries of the law and the

Constitution at his whim and caprice. There is virtually no ethical

obligation or moral code that guides or confines his actions, his petty

insults, his blatant lies or his brutish behavior. Vengeance and

extortion are his weapons of choice to enforce his demands and his

only boundaries are the limits of what he wants, covets or

misappropriates including, without our consent, the soul and goodness

of America.

Simply put, the administration of Donald Trump is the most ethically

tarnished in the history of the republic. Hamilton’s guarantee that “the

convention had guarded against all danger of this sort with the most

provident and judicious attention,” turns out to be, with the dawn of

Donald Trump in the White House, a pale illusion.

Without regret, Donald Trump has dishonored the presidency with

incomparable regularity: unparalleled conflicts of interests, ethical

violations and interminable lies; defiance of court orders and continual

attacks on the judicial branch of government; merchandising cars on

the White House lawn; auctioning off tours of the White House for

support of his private business interests; calling for the disassembly of

the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) thereby failing

in his most basic duty to safeguard the American people imperiled by

natural disasters and unspeakable destruction; and accepting a $400

million dollar luxury aircraft as a gift in spite of national security and

ethical prohibitions.

We have a person occupying the presidency who has suggested the

“termination” of various articles of the Constitution that have

constrained his autocratic diktats; unlawfully approved the dissolution

of Congressionally mandated and essential government services;

suggested sending American citizens to foreign prisons; asked the

Secretary of Defense, as protestors filled the streets around the White

House “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or

something;” disrupted the entire world economy, to the punishing

disadvantage of the American people; unilaterally imposed an

incomprehensible tariff plan that changes from moment to moment

precipitating economic mayhem and chaos around world; extorted

law firms in an act of retribution to provide nearly $1 billion in free legal

aid to Trump Administration designees; and withdrawn billions of

dollars in funding from the nation’s universities in retaliation for what

he claims is “widespread political bias.”

And the next slight-of-hand? Donald Trump’s shameful and

misnomered “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which will bloat the national debt by

trillions; cut student loans and Pell grants; eliminate existing

allocations for Medicaid funding, mental health and food nutrition

programs; transfer massive Medicaid funding requirements to the

states; provide the Administration with loopholes to escape contempt

of court sanctions; and attempt to sell off public lands threatening the

landscapes we cherish, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

“We the people” have waited too long, in the face of overwhelming

evidence, to hold Donald Trump accountable, to stand up and to

speak out. Undoubtedly, in the hearts of decent men and women,

there is a certain sadness borne in the public realization and

declaration that the President of the United States is not equipped with

the composure, compassion, competence or conscience to render the

leadership so desperately needed in our country and the world today.

Nonetheless, the evidence is inescapably and inarguably clear:

Donald J Trump does not posses the character nor the ability to serve

as President of the United States.

The surreptitious consolidation of power by Donald Trump by

extending his constitutionally impermissible reach into every level and

matter of state, legislative and judicial prerogative is an ongoing and

insidious process sounding a death knell to our democracy. It is aided

and abetted by the silence of the titans of business, by those of our

fellow citizens who take solace from his rude and offensive behavior

and by the those Republicans in Congress who, with full knowledge of

the depth and breadth of the rot in the Trump Administration, remain

wholly unable to find the courage to do the right thing for the right

reasons. With their silence and their vote they may avoid the wrath

and rage of Donald Trump, but they also, most assuredly and

inevitably, risk the demise of the Constitution, our union and our

democracy.

George Washington advised, as he left the Office of the President for

the last time, to be prepared for those moments when “cunning,

ambitious and unprincipled men would subvert the power of the

people and usurp for themselves the reins of government.” If that

sounds familiar, it’s because it is. It’s happening right now.