The Unbelievable Text Message

I stared at the text message: "News is also breaking that Trump is 'looking into suspending habeas corpus (our right to challenge detention by government), meaning that if you are arrested, you could be imprisoned indefinitely without trial. The Trump administration is moving fast. We are witnessing the opening stages of a fascist coup.'"

It was a surreal moment, and I sat there staring at the text in disbelief and horror. Is it to be that this is happening in America? Then, I grew angry—not at Trump, but at my Democrat messenger for feeding me a lie just to loosen money from my pocket.

I considered firing a missive back conveying my displeasure with their fundraising tactic. But first: Was it true? I asked AI if the report was true.

It was. The Reuters news story confirmed: "White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is 'actively looking at' suspending the writ of habeas corpus—the constitutional right to challenge in court the legality of a person’s detention by the government—for migrants."

Migrants first, then Pelosi and Hillary, and then perhaps me and others who voice opposition. It is wrong, in and of itself, to take away habeas corpus for migrants, but the slippery slope of tyranny will reach out and take the rest of us as well.

I burst from my room to discuss the news with a roommate, an avowed Trumpist—one of the millions of apologists for all things Trump. He explained that criminals know they are wrong. They milk the system, appealing their decisions and running up gargantuan bills when they know they are guilty. Such a waste of money; good governance should not tolerate such abuse.

What? Are we to be required to have "a million or two million or three million trials" in order to deport "very bad people—killers, murderers, drug dealers—real bad people"?

Trump's words. And people swallow them. "We are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do," he says.

And so, turning to fear-mongering, the president weans us away from the very freedoms our nation was founded on.