The presidential oath of office, per Article II, Section One, Clause 8:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
This is the oath to be sworn by a man who has repeatedly criticized citizens and the press as they exercise their creator-endowed right of free speech, protected by the First Amendment.
This is the oath to be sworn by a man who has repeatedly violated laws including infringement of civil rights and fraud.
This is the same oath a man one heartbeat away must be prepared to swear — a man who has violated the civil rights of Indiana citizens by denying them equal rights based on their gender and sexual identity, denying effective approaches to disease control and endangering lives, denying their right to privacy in seeking medical care.
The vice-presidential oath of office, as prescribed by statute:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
This the oath the man one heartbeat away from the presidency will swear, the same one that members of Congress also swear. This is the oath by his own acts as governor the vice-president-elect already violates by refusing to treat all citizens of his state as equals under the law.
This is the oath a Senator has taken though he continued to treat fellow citizens as less than equal under the law. His legal education and experience has been inadequate to the task if he cannot understand that grabbing a woman’s genitals without her consent is sexual assault, or that calling African American men “boy” during the execution of his duties as Senator is a discriminatory practice violating Constitutionally-protected civil rights. He has fought against treating all citizens as equals in so many ways throughout his career.
The oath of enlistment in U.S. military, according to federal statute 10 U.S.C. § 502:
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
And the oath of commissioned officers, according to the U.S. Army:
“I, _____ , having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”
These are the oaths a man has already taken — a man who called an Abrahamic faith “a malignant cancer,” claiming it was not a religion but a political ideology, in opposition to the First Amendment
These oaths require them to act without discrimination, to uphold the Constitution as it exists today, not the Constitution they wish they had written themselves.
How is the entire U.S. population — including the plurality who did not vote for these officials — to believe these men will uphold the offices to which they will be sworn?
How are we to believe any other elected officials who’ve sworn the same oaths to serve as our representatives when they appear ready to aid and abet acts of bad faith and corruption?
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As it’s a holiday week and many of us have more time to ponder, I’m going to republish over the next few dasy some progressives’ ‘roadmap’ posts I once wrote after a disappointing election. How quaint that time seems now.