Dictatorship and American history

“I’ll be a dictator for one day on day one.” Let’s unwrap this.

In 1776, our founders were living under the yoke of a dictator/monarch George III. They had no representation in the King’s court. They were subject to his whims. They declared their independence from the tyrannical government in England. They fought a long, drawn-out war and as a result formed a republic based on a constitution and citizen participation. This republic form of government has stood for over 245 years.

Now we have a presidential candidate that wants to be a dictator, even for one day.

He says he’ll build the wall. Seems to me he had a chance to do just that in 2017. We all know how that turned out. Oh yeah, Mexico will pay for it. Just like infrastructure, he failed to bring together the legislature to write and pass a bill for building a wall.

Along with building a wall, he’ll drill, drill, drill. To put a reality check on that idea, under the Biden administration oil producers are pumping more oil than at any other time in our nation’s history. According to the U.S Energy Information Agency, the day President Biden was inaugurated, the U.S was producing 277,000 barrels of oil a month. Now we’ve reached an all-time high of 400,000 barrels per month. Drill, drill, drill may be a nice campaign slogan for Trump, but it’s a reality for the U.S. and the Biden administration.

The underlying idea that what is needed is a dictator is antithetical to our founders, our republic, and all the brave citizens who dedicated their lives to preserving our democracy.

Phil Heil

Huntley