Liberty threatened by Trump’s narcissism and Constitutional ignorance

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump displayed a shocking level of ignorance about the document he is sworn to “protect and defend,” the Constitution of the United States. While this fact alone serves as a threat to liberty, it’s Trump’s Constitutional ignorance and indifference–manifested before, during, and after the 2016 election–that makes the threat most troubling.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly threatened freedom of speech and the press by expanding libel laws in order to silence the media using lawsuits if they published unfavorable stories about him. And he created a Nixon-esque “black list” of media outlets who were prohibited from covering his campaign.

Side note: Noticeably absent from his black list was Trump Pravda (Breitbart News) where Steve Bannon worked before becoming White House Chief Strategist, and FOX News where Trump choir boy Sean Hannity works. Hannity was a strong supporter of the black list.

Since his inauguration, Trump’s attacks on the First Amendment have increased. Using his worn out “fake news” defense, Trump has continued his black list approach to handling the media–something he promised not to do before the election–by banning unfavorable news outlets from White House briefings. Trump has also recently started a small-scale, state-run media outlook on his Facebook page, hosted by his family, that delivers only Trump-approved news about the White House.

Not content with just the First Amendment, Trump has expanded his assault on the Constitution to include the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Just last month, Trump and the DOJ issued a new directive expanding civil asset forfeiture laws, making it possible for local, state, and federal law enforcement to increase their power to seize personal property without due process.

Also last month, we witnessed an attempt by Trumps’ bogus Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to gain access to the private information of every registered voter in America because he can’t bear the fact that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Which brings us to today where we learned earlier this week about another attempt by the Trump administration to violate our Constitutional rights, and the motivation is, as always, the reality that not everyone loves Trump. According to a story reported on The Hill, Trump’s DOJ is demanding that web host provider Dreamhost surrender the personal information of over 1.3 million visitors to a website it hosts that was used to organize protests against Trump during his inauguration.

Trump’s narcissism, mixed with his ignorance and indifference of the Constitution, is the stuff of tyranny and fascism. And that, my friends, is a direct threat to Constitutional liberty.

 

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.

His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.