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| Slipping Into A Slide Zone |
I. The Record
The Trump Administration withdrew from the traditional U.S. involvement in the promulgation of the concept and practice of human rights:
"The strong civil society and democratic institutions of the United States were tested in the first year of the administration of President Donald Trump. Across a range of issues in 2017, the US moved backward on human rights at home and abroad.(Human Rights Watch, emphasis added). The Trump Administration is at odds with traditional American values.
Trump has targeted refugees and immigrants, calling them criminals and security threats; emboldened racist politics by equivocating on white nationalism; and consistently championed anti-Muslim ideas and policies. His administration has embraced policies that will roll back access to reproductive health care for women; championed health insurance changes that would leave many more Americans without access to affordable health care; and undermined police accountability for abuse. Trump has also expressed disdain for independent media and for federal courts that have blocked some of his actions. And he has repeatedly coddled autocratic leaders and showed little interest or leadership in pressing for the respect of human rights abroad."
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security condemned the human rights violations taking place on American soil:
(DHS Inspector General Report, PDF). Standing room only for a week, no showers, clean clothes, or hot meals as required by humane standards and policy.
Caged Asylum Seekers "During our visits to five Border Patrol facilities and two ports of entry ... we ... observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention of unaccompanied alien children (UACs), families, and single adults that require immediate attention.
More Caged Asylum Seekers
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This management alert addresses overcrowding at four of the five Border Patrol facilities, and prolonged detention at all five facilities, we visited in the Rio Grande Valley.
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In the Border Patrol facilities we visited, we also observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention among adult detainees. TEDS provides that 'under no circumstances should the maximum [cell] occupancy rate, as set by the fire marshal, be exceeded.' However, at one facility, some single adults were held in standing room only conditions for a week and at another, some single adults were held more than a month in overcrowded cells ..."
II. The Obvious
In the language of history, this is the tyranny (cruelty) of a despotic minority:
"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). There has been an about face away from the public's concern for human rights and an acceptance of cruelty (tyranny).
III. The Solution
Listen to those who started us on the liberty voyage in our ship of state:
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison(Quotes Page). Those statements made by the original American statesmen are still true today.
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.
The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Those truths are well established." - James Madison
“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people." - Thomas Jefferson
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
VSS (Very Slippery Slope) ...