The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
In just seven months the Republican majority in Congress gave away the Democracy that has served Americans for nearly 250 years. They willingly relinquished their constitutional powers as an equal branch of government so that Donald Trump could run the country as he pleased.
We were left with a President intent upon rounding up and deporting millions of immigrants, pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists, prosecuting his persecutors, imposing tariffs on all imports and abandoning climate protections for fossil fuel profit for energy corporations.
Gone is the America that feeds the hungry, houses the homeless, cares for the sick and disadvantaged, unburdens the debtor, loves the neighbor, welcomes the stranger, tolerates the different and exalts the lowly.
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Congress, by abdicating their duties for law making, oversight and the power of the purse has expanded the prerogatives of presidential authority to every facet of the federal government’s operations. Healthcare has been stripped from 10 million people. Food security cut for 40 million Americans. Tax breaks in the billions for the wealthy but significant additional financial burdens for working-class Americans.
Our nation has lost respect for the rule of law. We have lost civility and decency. Verbal abuse and bullying are normalized. ICE has become a nationalized police force that operates with impunity; sweeping up and detaining people without probable cause nor due process.
Homeland Security and ICE are burning through money without regard to costs. To detain 100,000 immigrants for just one day costs $15,200,000 whereas GPS monitoring would cost only $420,000.
These unchecked deportation actions will likely exceed the dollars we spend on defense. Of those being arrested by ICE, 75% have no criminal records. The majority of Americans believe immigration is good for the country and there should be a pathway for immigrants to remain.
Wisconsinites no longer have a voice in their federal government because Republican Congressmen, Steil, Van Orden, Fitzgerald, Grothman, Tiffany and Weid have ceded that voice to Donald Trump.
– Hanson, of Elkhorn, is a member of the Walworth County Democratic Party.
