SEN. ANGUS KING: A 'Declaration of Conscience' on Donald Trump's 100th day

Almost years ago the junior Republican Senator from Maine Margaret Chase Smith delivered a speech from her heart about a emergency then facing our country a emergency not arising from a foreign adversary but from within A emergency that threatened the values and ideals at the base of the American democratic experiment Her Declaration of Conscience turned out to be one of the the bulk pivotal speeches of the th Century and defined Smith as a person of extraordinary courage and principle Reflecting back on the speech she later recounted me that she was so nervous about the speech this was the height of the Red Scare of the early fifties that she stated her chief aide Bill Lewis not to hand out the copies of the text to the press until she literally started talking on the floor because she was afraid she might lose her nerve But she went through with it and the rest is literally history TRUMP STEAMS AHEAD ON THESE CAMPAIGN PROMISES AS HE REACHES DAYS IN OFFICEHere is how she began that speech Mr President I would like to speak briefly and solely about a serious national condition It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could consequence in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership either in the legislative branch or the executive branch of our executive She continued I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do certain real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges Later in the speech Smith concluded It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national prevention based on individual freedom It is high time that we all stopped being tools and casualties of totalitarian techniques techniques that if continued here unchecked will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life I fear that we are at a similar moment Echoing Senator Smith the serious national condition we are facing in the modern day should not be viewed as a partisan issue it s about the idea of America and the system of regime that has sustained us for more than two centuries It s not about the president s agenda and yes I disagree with the bulk of it but it s about the manner in which he is pursuing it This roughshod non-process endangers all of us his detractors and supporters alike Although various of my colleagues seem determined to ignore it this president is engaged in the preponderance direct assault on the Constitution in our history and we in this body at least thus far are inert And therefore complicit It s worth pausing for a moment to look at the terms of Article II which outline the powers and responsibilities of the president the power to issue pardons and the role of commander-in-chief of the armed forces in wartime But even this latter power is constrained by the reservation to the Congress of the power to declare war in the first place The principal responsibility of the president however is spelled out explicitly the chief executive shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed The job of the president is only to execute the laws passed by Congress without exception a responsibility this president is spectacularly failing to meet While this is the most of serious breach the administration has also taken a series of apparently unconnected actions which taken together spell out our rapid path toward one-man rule Here s a partial list This is not a complete list but it does present a disturbing pattern that this president is attempting to govern unbound by law or Constitutional restraint To those who like the policies of the president and are therefore willing to ignore the unconstitutional means of effectuating them I and history can only say watch out In contemporary times the target may be federal workers but the subsequent day perhaps under a different president it could be you So what can we do The first guardrail is the Congress itself But unfortunately the majority in Congress has wholly abdicated these fundamental responsibilities The second guardrail is the courts which are generally holding up their end of the constitutional bargain As easy as it may be to rely entirely on the courts that s a cop-out reclaiming power must be a joint project CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThe final guardrail is the people who more and more are speaking up in rallies in correspondence in town halls and in conversations at the grocery store We can t escape the responsibility of our oath to help and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and that we would bear true faith and allegiance to the same So with thanks to Margaret Chase Smith for her example and inspiration this is my Declaration of Conscience I don t relish this moment but feel I have no choice but to call out the clear implications and dangers of President Donald Trump s first days Various years ago President Abraham Lincoln came to the Congress at a time when our forebears like us were reluctant to face the responsibilities that had been thrust upon them At that critical moment this is what he revealed Fellow citizens we cannot escape history We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation I deeply hope that amid our fiery trial we will choose honor and the Constitution