Take Strength from the Helpers

Pay attention to those who have refused to stay silent in the face of dangerous pardons, attacks on the vulnerable and desecration of the Constitution

Bishop Mariann E. Budde: “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

I’m looking for the helpers, the first-responders, the members of the opposition who will not just stand by or turn away while a sociopathic president abuses his power to attack the vulnerable, exalt the violent and trash the Constitution.

These are the people who will help us navigate through the darkness and the overwhelming commitment to inflicting damage. Their actions—their refusal to allow Trump’s poisonous agenda to spread unanswered—is where we’ll find nourishment and the promise that this cruel public will end and we will return again to pursuing a better future. The only way through this is straight ahead and into the fire, equipped with expertise and principles and fierce urgency.

Consider a series of encouraging responses to three examples of Trump’s vengeful, hateful agenda since he was inaugurated on Monday. That includes his day one attacks on gay, lesbian and transgender Americans and his unfolding assault on refugees; his day one pardons of over 1,500 Jan. 6 convicted felons, hundreds of whom violently assaulted police officers; and his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, a principle that is enshrined in our Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

You’ve probably already heard about Episcopal Bishop Mariann E. Budde, who looked Trump in the eyes from the pulpit and pleaded with him to act with compassion and mercy. Even if you followed this event on Tuesday, her singular act of courage and moral clarity is worth revisiting again. While I’d urge you to listen to her entire statement as Trump, J.D. Vance and their wives sat in the front pews of Washington’s National Cathedral, here’s a portion of her moving words.

“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Bishop Budde said in her soft but commanding tone. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

She went on. “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” she said, answering Trump’s repeated lie. “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

This was not one of the kowtowing members of the oligarchy who surrounded Trump at the inauguration Monday when he lied and said he would defend the Constitution. Budde, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, was speaking out of love and care for the vulnerable. She was not backed up with billions of dollars, but moral and spiritual conviction.

She probably knew the intended recipient of her remarks would not be moved, yet she probably didn’t anticipate that he would later demean her by calling her a “hater,” claiming that she was “nasty in tone” and not smart, and demanding an apology from the “so-called bishop.” I can tell you what I saw when the tender bishop spoke to Trump: His dead eyes. The eyes of a sociopath.

But the reverend’s words of mercy are out there now, and they will continue to ring loudly and quietly as the country faces Trump’s expanding operation of mass deportation and hatred toward people who he cannot understand. And I expect they might motivate more members of various religious and spiritual communities to speak out in the dark days to come.

One other thing: Interviewed by Time magazine after the response to her remarks, Budde said, “The level of attack has been sobering and disheartening.” But, “I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.”

Two responses to Trump’s appalling pardon of over 1,500 Jan. 6 Capitol attackers have been particularly gratifying. They won’t change the fact that Trump’s reckless act has now released hundreds of violent, remorseless felons who feel victimized and desire retribution. We should anticipate that most of them will be more than willing to serve as Trump’s paramilitary shock troops to inflict harm when their dear leader asks.

But the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union which endorsed Trump, was not having it. “Crimes against law enforcement are not just attacks on individuals or public safety—they are attacks on society and undermine the rule of law,” they said in a joint statement with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, adding:

Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families. When perpetrators of crimes, especially serious crimes, are not held fully accountable, it sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence.

They were not the only ones who condemned Trump’s actions. Judge Beryl Howell, who was overseeing cases involving indicted Jan. 6 attackers, had a particularly blunt response to Trump’s insistence that the convictions and prison sentences represented “a national injustice.”

“No 'national injustice' occurred here,” she wrote Wednesday in a required dismissal order, “just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election. No 'process of national reconciliation' can begin when poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity."

The judge was not done: “That merely raises the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law. Yet, this presidential pronouncement of a 'national injustice' is the sole justification provided in the government's motion to dismiss the pending indictment."

And, in a sign that she would not let this stand without the possibility of redress later, she refused to dismiss the case “with prejudice” as requested; this left open the possibility that it could be resumed at a later date. Notice the fearlessness (and clear anger) of the judge’s statement: “This Court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement. Bluntly put, the assertion offered in the presidential pronouncement for the pending motion to dismiss is flatly wrong.”

Speaking of judges, a Reagan-appointed U.S. District judge in Seattle offered his scorching rejoinder to Trump’s executive order intended to rescind birthright citizenship. In granting a temporary restraining order that blocks Trump’s action from taking effect nationwide, Judge John Coughenour said, “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

And he underscored the significance of what is at stake: “There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?”

Well, we know now where Judge Coughenour is: Standing up for the Constitution. And he was not alone, as attorneys general from 22 states sued Trump on Tuesday to stop what one AG described as a “plainly illegal” executive order. Recall the words of the 14th Amendment, which was passed in 1868 to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people in the aftermath of the Civil War: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, described Trump’s action as “extraordinary and extreme.” And: “Presidents are powerful, but he is not a king. He cannot rewrite the Constitution with a stroke of the pen.” Another AG noted that such an action would deny citizenship to some 150,000 newborns each year, making them “undocumented at birth.”

A leading clergy member has spoken up. So have judges and attorneys general and the nation’s largest organization of police officers. They alone will not succeed at stopping the full onslaught of Trump’s vengeful desire to dismantle the progressive achievements of President Joe Biden, wreck our democratic institutions, and seek retribution against perceived enemies and the many groups of vulnerable people he hates.

But we can and should take strength from these helpers. They all may not define themselves as members of the opposition, but in their respect for American institutions that support justice and the rule of law they are demonstrating that good people will be the bulwark against the degradations of the Trump regime. Like first responders putting out fires now in California, they are bravely facing an emergency. And that makes us all safer.

Let’s not simply applaud them, though. Let’s follow their lead, even if they don’t all see themselves as leaders. Because each of us has the potential to be a helper now—to minimize the destruction that the worst among us relish.

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