ACLU Amassing Army to Take Down President Donald Trump
By Dave Gahary
President Donald J. Trump didn’t just inspire 2016’s “silent
majority” to get him elected to the highest office in the land, he’s
also singlehandedly responsible for tripling (or doubling, depending on
which “fake news” outlet you read) the membership rolls of the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the premiere litigator that works “to
defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by
the Constitution and laws of the United States.”In fact, the election of Trump was such a boon for the ACLU that in the five days following the billionaire real estate developer’s stunning victory, “donations totaling $7.2 million have poured in, powered by 120,000 donors,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.
“Since the election, we have seen the greatest outpouring of support [in] our nearly 100-year history, greater than the days after 9/11,” ACLU tweeted.
“Before, our membership was largely older and much smaller,” said the ACLU’s executive director Anthony D. Romero. “Our members would provide us with money so we could file the cases and do the advocacy. What’s clear with the Trump election is that our new members are engaged and want to be deployed.”
ACLU plans to challenge Trump through a new campaign called People Power, which kicked off on March 11 and featured what they call “resistance training,” which was transmitted via video to “more than 2,300 local gatherings nationwide,” reported Reuters.
People Power’s website states:
On March 11, the ACLU is holding a Resistance Training. This event will launch People Power, the ACLU’s new effort to engage grassroots volunteers across the country and take the fight against Donald Trump’s policies not just into the courts, but into the streets. We’re organizing grassroots events in communities across the country to watch the livestream together. Please join us!People Power marks “a major strategic shift for an organization that has traditionally focused on courtroom litigation,” Romero told Reuters. Around 135,000 people had signed up to take on Trump as of March 10.
PeoplePower.org will use digital tools to communicate with and help train volunteers to resist President Trump’s unlawful policies across the country. The ACLU will promote ideas for action to defend sanctuary cities, resist deportation raids, oppose the Muslim ban, maintain Planned Parenthood funding and support other organizational priorities.
Heading People Power is the ACLU’s new national political director Faiz Shakir, who was a senior adviser to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and a senior adviser to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), where he helped fight for gay and Muslim causes. Six of the group’s key organizers “were veterans of the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.),” wrote The Washington Post.
Founded in 1920 to protect freedom of speech for anti-war protesters, the ACLU is actually two separate organizations, although they share employees and office space: a 501(c)(4) social welfare group and a 501(c)(3) public charity. Although both organizations engage in litigation, the 501(c)(4) group is legally entitled to take part in unrestrained political lobbying, which is the arm that is attacking the U.S. president.
Promoted Content
By signing this grant letter, you agree that your organization will not promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state, nor will it make subgrants to any entity that engages in these activities.Does that mean ACLU admits it is a terrorist organization?
Dave Gahary writes exclusively for American Free Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment