1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing you as part of today’s nationwide protests. Due to extenuating circumstances, I can’t attend a demonstration today. However, my heart is with those who are able to attend. As a historian & an educator, and your constituent, I demand you pay attention to those who are raising their voices against this administration. Last night I received another alert to the actions of Musk and his minions, who were attempting to access the IRS databases. Access to these databases would open up banking information, social security numbers, & personal information to unelected, unvetted, & unscrupulous individuals. You MUST take a stand!! This morning, I read a piece about French resistance during WWII. It was written as a guide, so that citizens know what to do when (not if) we, as a country, reach that point. I can’t help but feel that my elected officials & a majority of those appointed by government officials would constitute the equivalent of the Vichy government. It seems you have rolled over and accepted your new overlords. While those of us who recognize it are screaming our warning at the void. Among those screaming are European nations. They are holding an emergency meeting regarding Trump & Musk and their immediate threat to peace & stability in the world. This comes on the heels of Vance attending the Munich Conference where, instead of meeting with the Chancellor, he instead met with and endorsed the far-right group leader. The rest of the world sees what is coming from a mile away…why can’t you? Our founding fathers put in place a system of checks & balances so that no one branch of government could have unlimited power. They knew that, without the separation of powers, someone someday would attempt to take complete control of our government and become a king. They were safeguarding against that. What they did not foresee, however, was a day when those checks & balances would be challenged by an elected President and the majority of the legislative & judicial branches would simply bow down to a dictatorship, willingly handing over their power & the freedoms of their constituents. They never dreamed that members of the very government they fought & died to defend would just give it all up. That is your legacy as a member of this Congress. Congratulations. If that doesn’t sound like the legacy you want, NOW is the time to act. As for my legacy, I will make sure my kids know that I spoke up and took what action I could when I could. That I didn’t just bend over as Congress is doing. And when this all ends, and we have to rebuild our government from rubble, I will join others, speaking up for even stronger safeguards against dictatorship. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” - Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton, 1887