When Khizr Khan stood at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia earlier this year and said directly to Donald Trump, “Have you even read the United States Constitution?” he was asking the right question.
It remains the right question.
Trump has stated plainly that he wants to ban Muslims from entering the United States and hopes to persecute Muslim citizens, people of Hispanic descent, and other minority communities within America. This means he’s ready to shred the Bill of Rights. Trump has said he wants to roll back the freedom of the press and punish women for making choices about their own bodies. This means he’s hostile to the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment, and the rule of law. Trump has spoken openly, on national television, about his intention to jail Hillary Clinton. This means he respects neither due process nor democracy itself. As a newspaper in deep-red Utah put it, Trump’s heedless bullying and ignorant amorality reveal “the essence of a despot.” As others have warned, Trump’s thirst for vengeance against dissenters, along with his gleeful targeting of the most vulnerable, is the hallmark of a fascist. Yet Trump has now been elected president of the United States.
What does this mean?
It means we must now commit to defending basic things: Liberty. Equality. Community.
It means we all need do what Khan suggested and what Trump has likely never done. Pull out a copy of the Constitution. Grab the Bill of Rights, too. Keep them. Read them. What follows is obvious: We must act.