Judge, Jury, Executioner

By Dan Rather

The United States has long strived to be a nation of laws, a nation committed to the ideal of justice that respects human rights and due process. But quickly, very quickly, we are sinking into an authoritarian state whose leader answers to no one. Donald Trump rules by whim. He rules by acting as the trial judge, the jury, and, as we saw earlier this week, the executioner. And no one in the Republican Party is saying a thing.

With the exception of federal judges, few Americans are able to push back on presidential actions that are at best questionable, most likely illegal, and unethical if not outright immoral.

Let’s begin in Texas, where, in the middle of the night on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend — the timing was not accidental — ICE agents snatched hundreds of Guatema