On October 18, millions of people across the nation took to the streets to protest the Trump administration’s trampling of the rule of law. This is the speech I gate at the Houston gathering at City Hall.
I don’t want to be here today. I’d much rather be with my wife and daughter right now watching our daughter’s friends perform in a play. But I felt compelled to be here, like all of you. Each of us has seen things that we know are not in keeping with our nation’s laws and ideals. Each of us have felt incredulity with each passing day at the disregard for individual rights as they are trampled by the very government that is supposed to uphold those rights.
I am a bit different from the speakers you’ve heard already. I am not a Democrat, nor a progressive. I have serious philosophical differences with many of the stances for which those groups advocate. But those differences pale in comparison to what they share with me…and not only me, but the millions of us here and at protests around the country today: people who voted for other candidates, people who didn’t vote at all, even people who voted for Trump and now regret it…and the number of those people rise every day. The thing that we all share is the belief that the repeated actions of President Trump and his administration in violation of our Constitution constitute high crimes and misdemeanors and are deserving of the legal remedy that our Constitution stipulates: impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.
The Trump administration has called the folks attending the protests today…a lot of names. But the most apt name I can think of is patriots. You are taking a stand as defenders of due process, the rule of law, and our Constitution, and that is true patriotism. I encourage you all to welcome others as they find the courage to join us. And it does take courage to join this movement, especially to go against previously held beliefs and to go against pressure from friends, bosses, or business associates. But with each new travesty of justice, more and more of us stand up to be counted as patriots. And soon – very soon – we shall be triumphant in restoring our nation to the path on which the founders set it almost two hundred and fifty years ago: a path of increasing liberty and justice for all.