I have found myself struggling, these past few months, to find the right words to describe the inaction of Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich in the face of this wholesale assault on our American democracy. I range from stunned disbelief to great sadness to fierce determination.
The stunned disbelief: How can these democratically-elected, ostensibly patriotic, men sit on their hands and observe this destruction? The assault on what they have vowed to uphold; for example, our very Constitution.
I had been thinking that Sullivan and Begich are complicit in the downfall of our democracy. I have come to wonder if “complicit” is too mild a term. Looking up the etymology, however, I see that the French word complice that complicit is derived from means “an associate or accomplice especially in crime.” This somewhat polite term means that Sen. Sulivan and Rep. Begich are accomplices in the crime of multiple centuries in our country; namely, the dissolution of democracy in America.
Which they are. By their utter inaction on preserving the Constitutional right to due process, by their waiving their rights to set tariffs, by their steadfast refusal to join their courageous colleague Sen. Murkowski in calling out the Trump administration for its abuses, they are actively destroying our democracy. They will say things like Rep. Begich said to me at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce meeting early this year, that relative to separation of powers he will let the courts decide. Well, Rep. Begich, the courts have decided and the executive branch is flaunting their decisions, and where are you? If your response is, “It’s not in my lane,” then shouldn’t that have been part of your answer to me? And, it is squarely in your lane. Please, please, do your job as a member of a separate branch of our government.
Where are you both as our rights are destroyed, as due process is thrown out the window? Where are you as innumerable federal employees are thrown into utter chaos as they are fired, then yanked back, then fired again? Where are you as the references to diversity, equity and inclusion are stripped from public documents, in this very state with a large and thriving Alaska Native population, thriving in the face of centuries of racism and discrimination? And, as an aside, why is this administration so afraid of words? Why are they and you so afraid of telling the truth about our history?
I can’t list all of the assaults underway and that is by design, to overwhelm the opposition in order to win the “war.” The war on our Constitution. The war on our Democracy.
The word that has replaced complicit in my mind is criminal. It may be President Trump making the specific calls, but the result of your inaction is the same as if you yourselves had signed those executive orders. If this horrible effort succeeds, I imagine that cognitive dissonance will save the day for you and you will conjure up many, many reasons for having done the “right thing,” as our Democracy burned around you.
I am actively opposed to the illegal and immoral actions of this administration, the administration of Donald Trump. Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich, where will you be when I am jailed and deported, after our First Amendment rights are stripped and I continue to publicly demonstrate? Will you be my representatives in Congress or will you find that cognitive dissonance handy as you come up with all the reasons for destroying my life, too?
• Michelle Bonnet Hale is a former deputy mayor of Juneau.
