Thom Hartmann For Buzzflash: Trump Administration Fights in Oregon Court to End First Amendment Rights

July 22nd 2020

By Thom Hartmann

A democracy cannot function when the people are not fully informed about the government’s actions, and when the government refuses to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens.

Yesterday the Trump administration went into court here in Oregon to claim that it was just fine if their secret police storm troopers shot at clearly identified and credentialed reporters who were observing the police riots in Portland. So far, multiple reporters have been shot or otherwise injured here while simply trying to report on those police riots.

Reporters and news organizations are citing the First Amendment protection of the press, but the Trump administration is basically saying that it doesn’t give a damn about the press or the Constitution. They’ll simply shoot at, gas or violently beat with billy clubs, whoever they want, they are arguing in court.

If the Trump administration prevails here in Portland, and if this goes up through the chain all the way to the Supreme Court and they prevail there, this will do major and possibly irreparable damage to democracy in the United States.

This is not how democracy works, nor how people who embrace the founding values of this country behave. This is how autocrats and dictators behave.

This may be the largest and most significant flag yet that the Trump administration has given us that they intend to turn this country into something few Americans could’ve imagined five years ago.

Be warned.

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of American Oligarchy and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.