Why We March on June 14th
This article was originally published on Daily Kos.
By Alan Singer
Claude Malhuret, a 75-year-old French center-right Senator is Donald Trump’s European nemesis. He calls Donald Trump an “incendiary emperor” who has “trampled on the Constitution” of the United States. This is an English translation of Malhuret’s speech at the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It captures why we march on June 14th.
This is a message to my American friends.
A few weeks ago, during a speech at the French Senate, I asked this question: why, in the face of so many reckless decisions by their President, aren’t Americans reacting? Today, that question no longer stands: Americans have reacted. You have reacted. Protests in every major city, lawmakers challenged at town halls, governors refusing to enforce illegal executive orders, judges striking them down, plummeting approval ratings. This resistance is heartening
But I must also say this, with the frankness owed between friends: for now, the protests, the demonstrations, and the opposition have not prevented the situation from getting worse.
Every day brings a new batch of delusional announcements. Outlandish tariffs, arbitrary deportations, attacks on Social Security, pensions, free speech, education, justice, the Constitution, veterans, voter rights, universities, and science. Donald Trump doesn’t make decisions; he settles scores.
Each day, America’s credibility erodes a little more. By crashing the stock market and the dollar, scaring off US bond buyers, walling off the country behind a tariff barrier, and, like Al Capone, telling allies they must pay up or face trouble, the man who claims he will make America great again is, in fact, diminishing it.
Every day, erratic measures increase uncertainty. Tariffs between 10% and 150% are paraded on television one day, only to be scrapped the next. A trade war is declared on China, then reversed within 48 hours. The President of the Federal Reserve is threatened with dismissal, only for Trump to backpedal when the markets collapse. Executive orders are challenged in court, adding to the chaos. Fog is the economy’s worst enemy, and the “Donald Crash” was inevitable. It will continue, in step with the flip-flopping of this reed painted in iron. Nobody knows what he will do after the ninety day “pause” — least of all apparently, Donald Trump himself.
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Alan Singer is a historian and teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. His most recent books are Social Studies for Secondary Schools, 5th edition (Routledge, 2024) and Class-Conscious Coal Miners (SUNY Press, 2024). Blogs, tweets, essays, interviews, and e-blasts present his views and not those of Hofstra University.