Donald Trump didn’t get the memo. After weeks of Republican complaints about violent political rhetoric on the Left in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, he fired off a Truth Social post with an AI-created video showing himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet emblazoned with the phrase “KING TRUMP” on it, and bombing a crowd of “No Kings” protesters with brown sludge that looks suspiciously like poo. The protesters, millions of Americans marching against the lawless, authoritarian, and fundamentally un-American Trump administration, were exercising their first amendment right, which ensures that “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” is the law of the land.

An estimated 7 million people in more than 2,600 locations across all 50 states, some of them leaning left and some of them leaning right, took to the streets yesterday to protest against the Trump administration. That includes my own town of Palm Springs, California, where the Desert Sun reported the nationwide “No Kings” protests were, if estimates hold, the largest civil action in the United States since the first Earth Day, 55 years ago.

Trump’s bonkers video, shared on both the president’s personal and government social media accounts, shows him flying above a protest crowd wearing a crown in what appears to be Times Square; then things take a weird scatological turn as the jet dumps brown sludge on the demonstrators.

There is all kinds of wrong to parse in the previous paragraph. A president promoting images of himself wearing a crown, symbolic of the very thing the protesters are protesting, shows how out of touch with the constitutionally defined nature of his position as president he is. So as not to leave any doubt that he is mocking those Americans who object to his style of governance, his poo jet has “KING TRUMP” written on the side of it. Do I even need to mention the poo?

And it’s not just Trump. The Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson referred to the “No Kings” protest scheduled for Washington DC as a “hate America” rally on Fox News, while Vice President JD Vance shared an AI-created video of the president putting on a crown and cape, drawing a sword and wielding it like a regal scepter while the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former house speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and others kneel, bowing their heads before him.

This is not serious political discourse. It is childish and unbecoming of our nation’s top leaders. Someone needs to send Mike Johnson back to high school civics class so he can learn how speaking out against government action you disagree with is not a sign you hate your country but rather the most patriotic act an American can perform as ours is a government by and for those governed – his power comes from those protesting. And a vice president sharing images of a president receiving the homage of his prostrate political rivals is scary beyond words because it means the flippancy, the megalomania, and the utter disregard for the history and traditions of constitutional democracy goes beyond the narcissist-in-chief and has infected his minions.

The story is told that when Ben Franklin was leaving the Pennsylvania State House after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel, the wife of Philadelphia’s mayor Samuel Powel, called out, “Mr. Franklin, what sort of government have you given us?” and Franklin responded, “A republic madam, if you can keep it.” Our history is rife with examples of the efforts that generations before us have made to hold this nation to account regarding our founding principles. The United States is a democratic republic founded on Constitutional law. The hyper-partisanship that has overtaken our political culture has fanned divisive rhetoric, anger, and violence, turning the United States into a backsliding democracy.

“Backsliding toward what?” you may ask. Toward authoritarianism. An authoritarianism that brooks no dissent, meaning it will not tolerate or allow any disagreement or opposition, especially from those in a subordinate position – implying that those in power will not accept or endure any differing opinions, criticism, or interference.

Sound familiar?

We are in deep shit, and not just from Trump’s poo plane. The guardrails are off; congress is supposed to provide a lawful check on presidential power but is acting more like a rubber stamp, particularly as the president’s party holds the majority in both chambers. And the Supreme Court, aligned ideologically with the president, is little more than the administration’s glove puppet, providing the imprimatur of law to Trump’s worst impulses.

One hears a lot these days about patriotism and adherence to the Constitution. But how do we put those things into practice in our daily lives? I suggest the Constitution’s preamble be our guide. It reads:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.

Regardless of political affiliation, we should all consider the actions proposed in the preamble. How do we establish justice? Is justice the same thing as law and order or does justice create the conditions of equality that allow law and order to prevail? What does “ensure domestic tranquility” even mean? Is it promoting and defending the idea that all of us are created equal and endowed with the gifts of life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness? If so, can we enjoy domestic tranquility while denying it to some because they look, love, or worship differently? What does it mean to provide for the common defense? Are military assault rifles and high-capacity magazines available to every man, woman, and child with little to no commonsense regulation making us safer or putting us in more peril when going to church, school, the shopping mall, or the local nightclub? How do we promote general welfare? Concentrate wealth in the hands of a very small number of people who can use their money to influence elections, and by extension public policy, to improve their lives while the rest of the citizenry are sidelined because they can’t buy access to powerbrokers? And how can we secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and those who will come after us if we don’t work together in our local communities and on the state and national level to actually form this aspirational “more perfect union?”