The author is a Democratic candidate in the Aug. 6 primary for the 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of Macomb and Oakland counties. He is a former judge and ex-prosecutor.
His Republican opponent John James has been invited to write a column for Deadline Detroit.
By Carl Marlinga
Carl Marlinga
In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy bravely proclaimed that "only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger." He then added, " I do not shrink from this responsibility; I welcome it."
Kennedy was talking about the external threat from the Soviet Union which held captive the nations of Eastern Europe behind an "iron curtain" and was attempting to foment anti-democratic regimes around the globe.
He could not have foreseen that almost 60 years later, an American President, would attempt to hold on to power beyond his term by inciting violence and by propounding an incoherent and unconstitutional theory that his vice-president had the power to disallow electoral votes to overturn an election. It was, at least up to that time, freedom's hour of maximum danger in the United States.
The threat that Trump poses to limited constitutional government has not gone away. In a dark warning, never uttered in history by any other American politician, Donald Trump joked about becoming dictator "for a day".
It could have been meant as a harmless remark born of his juvenile sense of humor, but we all know that behind every joke, there is a shadow of truth. He recently told a fundamentalist Christian audience that if they vote for him this time, "we might never have to vote again."
Equally ominous is the recent decision of his hand-picked minions on the Supreme Court (in a decision contrary to the terms of constitution and hostile to our traditions as a free people) that presidents are above the law and cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed in the course of their official duties.
We need members of Congress who will steadfastly resist this descent into authoritarianism. My Republican opponent, John James, despite privately calling Trump "unfit for office" says publicly that he endorses him 2,000%.
His inability to stand up to Trump means that if Trump does get a second presidency, James cannot be counted on to restrain the powers of a president unburdened by the law. It also means that if the election is close, and votes of the people and/or the electoral college are challenged, John James will be there to do Trump's bidding.
All of us, myself in the congress (hopefully), and you as citizens are called upon to defend freedom in its current hour of maximum danger. We need to recover from the Trump era. Although other issues – abortions rights, climate change, inflation, full employment – are all on the line, there is no issue greater than saving democracy. It is the reason I am running.
