Whoa, there.
I have been seeing some things online lately that give me pause. People seem to have forgotten that this is a free country, ruled by the demos. So let me clear this up.
You don’t have to do anything Donald Trump or Elon Musk or Robert Vought tell you to do. While they are clearly authoritarian, this is not a totalitarian state. Never has been. It is a free country, founded in liberty. Nathan Hale, Aaron Bushnell, and countless others have died ensuring it be so.
To be plain, you are dishonoring their sacrifice when you obediently toe the line drawn by some authoritarian telling you what to do.
There is nothing in the Constitution of this country that imbues authoritarians with the power to arbitrarily dictate to the citizens of the United States of America what they must do. The default state is that you are free to do as you choose. Yes, there are laws established by Congress, laws that we must generally abide by. But should you not, there is due process established in the Bill of Rights that must be followed in addressing your transgression.
Importantly, it is your responsibility to demand that the government, especially the Federal government, complies with the Bill of Rights. That, not a well-stocked Walmart, is the defining characteristic of a democracy. That you, the citizen, holds the government accountable to following the letter of the law.
A bunch of you, by ceding this responsibility, are traitors to democracy.
I challenge you to renew your commitment to democracy. Perhaps you agree with the sweeping changes that are occurring in this country currently. That is fine, even though they are mostly a smokescreen for blatant grift and larceny. But where you cross the line is in imagining that the President of the United States has any say whatsoever about how individuals live their lives.
I’m here to tell you, he (since you won’t elect a woman) doesn’t. The second you let him, this ceases to be a free country.
There is a notion that because a significant portion (31.6%) of the voting-eligible population cast their ballot for the ticket of Donald J Trump and JD Vance that this has somehow given these individuals a “mandate” to remake the United States of America. It has not.
To be clear, more people (36.5%) chose to abstain from this vote than voted for either candidate. What that actually indicates is that the majority of citizens do not desire the proposition regarding governance (i.e. the platform) forwarded by either of them.
In plain language, more people want to be free than want authoritarianism.
I hope that you are among them.