A Letter To America
Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World
March 13, 2025 - In several posts over the last few weeks I’ve advocated that Democrats in the Senate and House come together to write A Letter to America about Donald Trump’s unprecedented attack on the US government and our Constitutional order. It is part of a broader need for Democrats to open up a Second Front against Trump, one that goes beyond our current, proper focus on his reckless economic agenda to include these attacks and selling out of America to Putin and his abandonment of our Ukrainian and traditional allies in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
What follows are the two posts where I wrote about this idea. I hope to have time in the new next few days to integrate this posts into a single more concise articulation of the idea, one I hope all of you will join me in advocating to Democratic Senators and House Members.
Post 1, Feb 21st (link)
I am unbelievably proud of all of you. I am deeply inspired by the actions you are taking and the self-reporting we all get to read on our chat each day. This community is stepping up bigtime in a time of extraordinary national challenge. Together we are moving the needle, and just need to keep working it peeps. For with pressure, little cracks can become big cracks, and little wins can become big wins. We are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. Who we are.
It is why Congressional Dems must launch a serious national campaign now to talk to the American people about Trump’s savage attack on the America of the Four Freedoms; his betrayal of all of us; and his ongoing unconstitutional usurping of Congress’s powers. I have written and spoken extensively about all the things I think our Congressional leaders need to do now to rise to the moment, and defend this oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
And we in our calls to Congress each day are helping our leaders understand what is required of them now. But I’ve come to believe the next step Leaders Schumer and Jeffries must make is to write a letter to Trump, to their fellow members of Congress and the American people outlining why they believe what Trump is doing is wrong and unconstitutional. It should borrow from our Declaration of Independence, and lay out in clear language the case against our Mad King. It should be signed by every Democrat in both chambers. Every Congressional Dem should build days of action around it in their districts. It can be used by those fighting Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional acts in the courts. The national Dem grassroots can them amplify this call for patriotism and rejection of tyranny throughout all of our networks. It can become the rallying cry for proud patriots of all stripes to start rising up against our corrupt and traitorous leaders.
Here is a passage from our Declaration of Independence that then leads into a list of the Mad King’s “abuses” and “usurpations:”
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Listing our Mad King’s “abuses and usurpations” is something that must get done, Leaders Schumer and Jeffries, “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” It should be published early next week. Work all weekend. History is calling you, now. For as the inscription at the Department of Justice tells us:
Among the many Facts our Founders submitted to a candid world where these four familiar grievances:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offence
Post 2, March 3rd (link)
Below I offer a series of things you can contact your representatives about today, either in person or via phone or email/online forms. The goal of these contacts is to help your electeds, of either party, to understand what is expected of them now.
One thing I think we should be encouraging our local Democratically controlled legislatures, city and county boards/councils to do is to pass condemnations of Trump. Go the record on whatever is of greatest concern - embrace of Putin, destruction of the US government, elimination of vital health research, mistreatment of workers. Whatever it is. As we discussed the other day these kind of bottom up public expressions of condemnation, of going on the record very clearly about why what Trump is doing is wrong, dangerous, a betrayal is very much in the spirit of how we last fought a mad king almost 250 years ago. We must become more comfortable going on the record with our fellow Americans laying out the case against him, spelling out what our Founders called in the Declaration of Independence “abuses and usurpations.”
This is my very first recommendation for what I think all Senate and House Dems need to do now. There needs to be a clear statement from half the Congress that they believe that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional, illegal, wrong and an extraordinary betrayal of our Constitutional order and all of us. This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.
Godspeed - Simon
March 13, 2025
Washington, DC