When In the Course of Human Events

ConfrontingAging rarely, if ever, makes any political statements. However, much of what needs to be said about President Trump’s performance in Helsinki earlier this week was sketched out in our nation’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776.

The history of the present King of Great Britain (President Trump) is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has exposed the State to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…For imposing Taxes (tariffs) on us without our Consent.
• For abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.