Frederick Douglass said it best:
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
We cannot endure Donald Trump much longer. We cannot endure his lying, his bigotry, his contempt for democracy and the rule of law. We cannot endure his denigration of our institutions. We cannot endure his administration’s coddling of domestic abusers and white nationalists. We cannot endure his vile assault on the Justice Department. We cannot endure his hyper-partisan decision not to release the Democratic memo refuting the nonsense of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). We’re mad as hell over the hell this man has imposed on us—and we’re not going to take it anymore.
That is the message that has to be sent to the Democrats poised to make gains in Congress this fall. That is the message that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer need to hear. That is the message of justice.
Now more than ever, the impeachment of Donald Trump is necessary to restore any vestige of justice and democracy in the federal government. If the Democrats recapture the House and Senate, holding Trump accountable for his actions must be the top priority of the new Congress in 2019. If Trump gets away with his crimes, it will be the biggest miscarriage of justice in modern United States history.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. House and Senate Democrats won’t even think about impeachment unless Americans make it clear that they will accept nothing less than a fully committed effort to hold Trump’s feet to Constitutional fire. They will not move unless and until the people move them.
Perhaps it will take another march on Washington this summer to make the case. Would the 1964 Civil Rights Act have passed without the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963? 55 years after that march, we have a President who spits on Dr. King’s dream, who wishes to kick out of the country every brown-skinned individual who came to this nation from another land, who wishes to turn the clock back to at least pre-Brown v. Board of Education America, if not earlier. To casually leave Donald Trump in office after having attained sufficient political power to impeach and possibly remove him from office is to betray Dr. King’s dream.
Imagine millions of Americans on the streets of Washington this summer, demanding that the Democratic Party commit to impeaching Trump if they win the House and Senate in the fall. Imagine a roster of strong speakers, famous and unknown,making the moral and legal case for holding Trump fully accountable for his amoral actions. Imagine the mainstream media being compelled to cover the voices of anti-Trump America, as opposed to shamelessly sucking up to those married to the malevolence of #MAGA.
Maybe that’s what it will have to take. Maybe a massive march on Washington this summer will be the only force necessary to fortify Democrats, to make them summon the strength, the will, the moral power, the true grit needed to impeach Donald Trump. The people have to lead. The people have to stand up.
NEXT: Pelosi and impeachment.
