‘We the Constitution’ group seeks to police Trump abuses
A left-leaning group calling itself “We the Constitution” claims that the Trump administration is endangering the nation’s Constitution by defying “legal rules, standards, principles, and norms.”
The group, made up of 21 U.S. policy professionals calling themselves the Shadow Cabinet, claims its mission is to protect the Constitution by showing the administration that a large number of Americans are unhappy with its actions.
The campaign prompts visitors to its website to “sign” an online copy of the Constitution, which sends Trump a message on Twitter with each new signature.
From the organization’s website:
Americans will be urged to support and defend the Constitution of the United States “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” by visiting shadowingtrump.org or twitter.com/ShadowingTrump from their smart phone or tablet to sign the Constitution with their finger if they agree that the Trump Administration is sabotaging the rule of law.Once people write their “John Hancock”, the We the Constitution site will prompt individuals to invite their entire network to sign alongside them. Then any signer can zoom-in to locate their signature or search those of their friends in an ever-growing scroll of citizenship and activism.Each signature also prompts the distribution of an auto-filled message to @realDonaldTrump on Facebook and Twitter, to wit, “We demand that you now respect the ethic of ‘with justice for all’ for individual rights and stop regularly violating laws & norms because, in America, Mr. President, no one is above the law.”Then we will be organized — rather than merely reactive — the next time Trump chooses to ignore laws/norms to create a real constitutional crisis — e. g., violating a court order, indicting a political rival, firing additional prosecutors probing him, pardoning himself/family for blatant illegality.In today’s digital world, we want to see ourselves at the center of our own experiences, especially with a too often unaccountable government. We the Constitution engages Americans at a fraught moment in history by renewing their vows in the foundational American compact… because it’s OUR Democracy.
Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard who serves as the citizen attorney general in the Shadow Cabinet, said Americans should be concerned that the president’s actions are weakening the Constitution.
“This president defies legal rules, standards, principles, and norms — including how he even looks away when our system of government is under attack by a hostile foreign power — to an alarming degree,” he said.
“But most alarming of all is his utter disregard for truth, his betrayal of the public trust, and his disdain for the Constitution that binds us as a nation.”
Mark Green, founder of the group’s parent organization, ShadowingTrump.org, says he hopes the group, which already boasts 74,900 Twitter followers, will grow into a movement that eventually leads to Trump leaving the White House following the next election.
“This is not a destination but the beginning,” he said. “The Shadow Cabinet it looking forward to producing an agency-by-agency transition volume in 2020 for the next president-elect as I did at the request of Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992 and Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2008.”
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