Over the past two weeks, President Trump and his Administration have tarnished the values at the very heart of America. And Republicans in Congress have stood by silently and shamefully.
Tearing families apart
Over 2,300 children have been physically torn from their parents under the Trump administration’s family separation policy. Parents are being deported without their kids or any knowledge of their whereabouts, resorting to using Skype to simply see their 8-month-old babies.
Embracing and emulating a dictator
Trump is also praising a brutal dictator’s treatment of his people. Last week, Trump complained that he doesn’t receive the same treatment as Kim Jong-un: “He speaks up and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
Reminder: North Korea has labor camps, jails people for criticizing the government, and starves its own people.
Abandoning Human Rights
Now there are rumors that the U.S. plans to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council. U.S. leadership is based on upholding values like human rights. Trump just traded in those values for a photo op with the world’s most ruthless dictator.
(It’s worth noting that the head of the UN Human Rights Council characterized Trump’s family separation policy as “abuse.”)
And Republicans have done nothing
Most Congressional Republicans are sitting idly by. Fear of Trump? Silent agreement? Whatever the reason, Republicans aren’t living up to the words of their idol, Ronald Reagan, and his poignant testament to America as a “shining city on a hill.”
Meanwhile, all 49 Senate Democrats are supporting legislation that would halt family separation at the border, but Trump continues to blame Democrats in a perverse effort to hold these children hostage.
Congressional Republicans need to recognize that America’s character is being stained for decades to come, and that cowardly silence is complicity.