In the past, politics took a back seat to other interests of mine. The appalling 2016 presidential campaign and Donald Trump’s surprise victory convinced me that politics as usual is no longer a viable position for a concerned citizen.

The new Congress will pass retrograde legislation. Trump will eviscerate federal agencies and issue absurd executive orders. But we must not let this game of legal cat and mouse discourage and distract us from our primary objective. We need to persuade a majority of Americans that we must remove Trump from office as quickly as possible. I am advocating for removal because I believe that Trump is dangerously unfit to govern. Electing him to this powerful position has placed our Republic in grave danger.

The United States Constitution provides a number of checks on Presidential power, including at least two ways to remove a President from office. The first, impeachment, is highly political in the sense that only Congress has the power to invoke it. The second is based on Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. It allows for the removal of a President who can no longer discharge his duties but is unable or unwilling to step down. The Vice-President, along with “a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,” can declare the President unfit and install the Vice-President as Acting President.

Our responsibility as citizens is to persuade as many Americans as possible that Trump must be declared unfit and removed from office. If pressure grows strong enough, our political leaders will have to respond. (There is no Constitutional guarantee that a duly-elected President will be allowed to serve a full 4-year term. Richard Nixon learned this the hard way.) Further, I argue that time is of the essence. Remember, the Third Reich consolidated its power relatively quickly after the Germans elected Hitler in 1932. My understanding is that within five months the dictatorship was essentially in place.

How did I arrive at this conclusion? I recommend reading The Mafia State, a short essay by Chris Hedges in which he describes metaphorically how parasites have been allowed to take over our economy and body politic. The essay is chilling and, to me, very convincing.

Former CIA Director John O. Brennan reacted to Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe with this statement:

“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America … America will triumph over you.”

My advice to Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 or support him now: wake up and repent your foolish ways, before it’s too late.

[Last updated on 9-Aug-2018]