On April 27, shortly before President Trump celebrated his first 100 days in office, the McLennan County Democratic Party hosted its “We the People March for Democracy” rally of several hundred citizens at Waco’s Indian Spring Park. Speakers included former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, former Texas senator Wendy Davis, Texas Democratic Party chairman Kendall Scudder and Mothers for Democracy founder Nancy Thompson. For the occasion, former Waco Congressman Chet Edwards — who in 2008 surfaced on the short list of vice presidential prospects for Barack Obama — spoke on how President Trump measured against the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Below is an abridged version of the text, edited with Edwards’ approval.
On Aug. 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of his enemies’ list and disrespect for the rule of law. After taking the oath of office, President Ford said this: “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” I could have never dreamed that 51 years later we again would see a president with an enemies list and a disrespect for the rule of law.
Sadly, that’s where we are today.
President Trump has directed his Department of Justice to investigate so-called enemies, whether the free press, members of Congress, universities, former employees or law firms. Instead of fighting inflation for working families as he promised, Trump is carrying out a revenge tour against all who stand as a constitutional check and balance on his quest for power. His assault on democracy and our country’s future is more far-reaching and more threatening than even the crimes of Nixon in Watergate. We the People cannot, must not, be silent about what he is doing to our freedoms, our economy and our alliances around the world.
For 28 years, I had the privilege of representing Waco and Central Texas in state and federal government. I know first-hand that government is imperfect, and that those of us who have served in it are imperfect. But I remind fellow citizens that government is not inherently evil. It is inherently imperfect, yet so crucial to our way of life and our free enterprise system.
Government cannot and should not try to solve every problem. But imagine our families’ lives and our communities without Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Imagine Waco without Interstate 35, Lake Waco, the Veterans Affairs hospital and loans and grants to students at Baylor University, McLennan Community College and Texas State Technical College.
In 1981, President Reagan said in his first inaugural address that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Over the past 44 years not all but some Republican leaders have turned this “government-is-the-problem” mantra into one where government is the enemy, a “Deep State” aligned against everyday working Americans. For middle-class people working hard and struggling to get by, this cynicism is what allowed gilded billionaire Donald Trump to be elected president twice, both times claiming he would take on the Deep State. Working families believed he cared for people like them because he would tear down the government.
In every poll I took in 15 political campaigns, the most important question was: “Does he care about people like me?” To fellow Democrats, I say we must find a better way to communicate with everyday citizens that we do care about them — all of them — hard-working people who work in our factories, grocery stores, restaurants and farms, urban, suburban and rural. These are good people who are working harder but falling further behind. They just haven’t felt that government and Democrats cared about them.
To my Republican and politically independent neighbors who voted for Trump, people whose votes will decide the outcome of future elections, I say this: I understand and respect your frustrations with government and Democrats. We’re far from perfect. But it’s also OK to acknowledge that Trump, now some 100 days into power, is not doing what you voted for. Chaos, tariffs and utter disrespect for the rule of law will not “Make America Great Again.”
After decades of growing cynicism toward government, it’s relevant to ask: What should the role of government be? I can think of no better source for understanding the proper role of our government than the Preamble to the Constitution. It is against that Preamble that President Trump’s actions must be rigorously judged.
Consider the words of the Preamble, penned by strapping, influential constitutional delegate and patriot Gouverneur Morris:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Now let’s look at President Trump in light of the Preamble.
“We the People of the United States … ” We the People, bedrock foundation of our democracy, voted in 2020 to elect Joe Biden as president, but Trump didn’t accept or respect our votes. He tried every way he could to overturn the election, including inflaming an angry crowd of insurrectionists to storm our U.S. Capitol on January 6 to stop the counting of Electoral College votes. Some 140 police officers suffered injuries; five died in the aftermath.
Trump also called election officials in Georgia and Michigan to try to stop the counting of the people’s ballots. He was the first president in our history to disrespect the peaceful transition of power. In doing so, he clearly disrespected “We the People.”
“ … In Order to form a more perfect Union … ” In the U.S. House of Representatives, when we were voting on contentious issues, I often looked at the ceiling where an eagle was etched in glass with our national motto in its claws: E Pluribus Unum. “From many unto one.” Great presidents such as Lincoln have famously reminded us to have “malice for none, with charity for all.”
Lesser politicians seek ways to divide us. They want us to dismiss our common bonds and focus on our differences. Lesser politicians call the free press and those who disagree with them “enemies of the American people.” Americans with differing viewpoints are not each other’s enemies. We are fellow Americans. We are a Union.
And, by the way, our Founding Fathers knew we were not perfect, so we shouldn’t whitewash our nation’s tumultuous history. They realized our shortcomings, including slavery, but they challenged each generation to make us more perfect. And doing so in each generation — expanding constitutional rights to all Americans — not just wealthy, white landowners — is what has made America a great and good nation. Real patriotism isn’t the old bumper sticker slogan: “America: Love It or Leave It.”
Real patriotism is: “America, Love It and Make It Even Better.”
On forming a more perfect union, President Trump has failed.
“ … Establish Justice … ” I’m no lawyer, but it doesn’t take a lawyer to know that calling Capitol police officers thugs and pardoning the insurrectionists of January 6 have nothing to do with justice. The president has personally directed the Department of Justice and others in his administration to hound individuals, universities and law firms he doesn’t like. Such pursuits have nothing to do with establishing justice.
And denying any individual, whether Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia or you and me, the right to be heard in a court of law before being shipped off to a brutal foreign prison is not establishing justice. Just for the record, no less than much-heralded conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that it was “well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”
On establishing justice, President Trump has failed.
“ … Insure domestic Tranquility … ” The daily chaos and division of this administration make the Keystone Cops look like a well-oiled machine. It is self-evident. On ensuring domestic tranquility, President Trump has failed.
“ … Provide for the common defence … ” I think the Secretary of Defense sharing with family members and personal lawyers classified combat information before U.S. forces go into harm’s way has far more to do with ego than our common defense. Worst of all, President Trump has undermined and insulted our NATO allies and desperate freedom fighters in Ukraine while calling Putin “brilliant” for invading Ukraine. To undermine NATO — a military alliance built by General Eisenhower and forged by the “Greatest Generation,” an alliance that has protected the world from World War III for more than 75 years — amounts to weakening, not strengthening, our common defense. There’s a big difference between America First and America Alone.
On common defense, President Trump has failed.
“ … Promote the general Welfare … ” I’m not sure where to begin on this one. Maybe I should just say: Look at your 401(k) for your family’s retirement or your children or grandchildren’s education fund. Tell me if President Trump has promoted the general welfare.
Let me count the ways: first, the deepest plunge in the stock market in the first three weeks of April since the Great Depression in 1932 and devaluation of the U.S. dollar by 10 percent, leaving consumer confidence at a historic low. Second, unleashing billionaire oligarch Elon Musk — Mr. Chainsaw and Mr. Cheesehead, who calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” — to maul programs such as Social Security, veterans’ benefits, Head Start, emergency FEMA aid and food assistance for starving children. Third, supporting a budget resolution that could direct $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which provides affordable health care to more than 70 million people, including pregnant mothers and senior citizens, and tens of thousands of families right here in McLennan County. Fourth, undermining the most respected universities and university research programs in the world, one of our greatest competitive advantages. And, fifth, imposition of Trump tariffs, amounting to one of the largest tax increases on small businesses and consumers in American history.
It’s not even a close call. On promoting the general welfare, President Trump has failed.
“ … Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity … ” President Trump might say he supports the Second Amendment, but he’s indifferent to or contemptuous of the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth amendments. He doesn’t like a “60 Minutes” segment, so he suggests CBS lose its broadcast license. He doesn’t like the clients of certain law firms, so he threatens their existence. He doesn’t like a former federal employee saying the 2020 presidential election was safe and secure, so he directs his administration to investigate him.
Is it now a criminal offense to claim the 2020 presidential election was not stolen? If so, DOGE had better build a lot more prisons. Threatening rights to free speech and due process doesn’t secure liberty — it threatens us and our posterity. Retaining and employing checks and balances on Article II executive powers is a fundamental principle of our Constitution. It’s the reason we rebelled against King George III.
On securing the blessings of liberty, President Trump has failed.
What can We the People do to protect our democracy? Well, you’re doing it today through your presence. You’re making an important statement. But we can’t stop here. We must keep speaking out, let our elected officials hear from us — and then, We the People must exercise our right to vote, so often and so destructively forsaken or cast aside.
For more than a decade, I had the honor of co-chairing the Arlington National Cemetery Advisory Committee. Every time I walked those hallowed grounds I was inspired and humbled — inspired by the service to country by those buried there, humbled in wondering how we here and now can live lives worthy of their sacrifice? I don’t know if the 400,000 Americans buried there — including more than 400 Medal of Honor recipients — were Democrats, Republicans or independents, but I do know they were willing to risk their lives to protect our democracy and all that it signifies.
We cannot match their service, but we can honor their sacrifice by being a voice in whatever way we can to stand up for democracy. We, the people, have the right, and the responsibility, to make our voices heard. I have faith that, together, We the People can make ours a more perfect union.
Chet Edwards represented Waco and Central Texas in Congress for 20 years and in the Texas Legislature before that. He served as W.R. Poage Distinguished Chair in Public Service at Baylor University from 2012 to 2023 and is now an adjunct professor at Baylor Law School. He was recently honored with the Babs Baugh Servant Leadership Award during induction into the Baylor Line Foundation Hall of Fame.
For a lively Q&A with fellow rally speaker and former congressman Beto O’Rourke, visit thedailybillblog.blogspot.com.