These are challenging times here in America. As we approach the 250th year of the nation’s founding, our democracy, our freedoms and our very way of life are all under assault. I am grateful that Marc Morial and the membership of the National Urban League are committed to the difficult but necessary work of holding our country to its promise of liberty and justice for all.   

This administration is undermining freedom of speech, blocking funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tearing apart law-abiding immigrant families, targeting the free and fair press, trying to intimidate federal judges and pardoning the violent felons who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Donald Trump and his deeply unqualified Cabinet have tried to eliminate programs that elevate the American values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and are doing all they can to erase our history.

This month, Republicans passed an extreme budget that rips healthcare away from 17 million Americans, takes food out of the mouths of hungry children and provides massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors.

For Trump and his enablers, cruelty is often the point.

Democrats are combating their diabolical schemes with righteous intensity in the Congress, the Courts and in the community. Hundreds of  lawsuits have been filed against Trump’s outrageous and unconstitutional executive orders, including his move to strip voting rights from millions of Americans. I am proud to be a named plaintiff in that case. 

In April, I sat in on the Capitol Steps with Senator Cory Booker for more than 12 hours, joined by lawmakers in the House and Senate, faith leaders, advocates, activists and everyday Americans to shine a light on the moral bankruptcy of the Republican budget bill. 

In state after state, Democrats are holding town hall meetings to elevate the stories of those being hurt by the Trump agenda, while Republicans have been ordered to stop speaking to their constituents. We are running towards the American people. They are running away.

Just this month, I joined leaders of the House Steering and Policy Committee for a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Troy Carter in Louisiana, the home state of the top two Republican House leaders, Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise. We heard directly from folks like Katie and her son Connor, who was born with a congenital brain malformation and will suffer immensely from the extreme cuts to Medicaid in the One Big Ugly Law. Louisiana was the first stop on our nationwide tour to set the record straight on this bill and not let anybody fool the public about the pain Republicans have visited upon everyday Americans.

No system of government is perfect, but the Framers created a series of checks and balances to ensure no one individual would become more powerful than the nation. While Republicans in Congress are functioning as a rubber stamp for the extreme Trump agenda and the executive branch is being run by sycophants, there is one check and balance the extremists have not captured: The American people.

President Lincoln once observed that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.

Let’s check the record: 

• Back in 2005, after George Bush had been re-elected and Republicans held full control of the House and Senate, the first thing they did was try to privatize Social Security. The American people rose up and Social Security was protected.
• In 2017, when Donald Trump came into power with a Republican majority in the House and Senate, they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The American people rose up and that scheme failed.
• Earlier this year, the Trump administration tried to erase the valor and service of the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers and the Women Airforce Service Pilots. The American people stood up and reversed this effort. 

During this year’s Bloody Sunday pilgrimage, marking the 60th anniversary, I joined Rep. Terri Sewell and Rep. Shomari Figures to push back against Elon Musk and his minions who threatened to sell the Freedom Rides Museum. We made clear that civil rights history is American history and stopped it.

All of us can draw inspiration from the original Edmund Pettus Bridge marchers, who were beaten, bloodied and bruised while marching for the voting rights they were promised in the Constitution. They pressed on and prevailed when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.

Their example showed us the power of the people to make change while facing a hostile status quo and seemingly insurmountable odds. That’s the spirit in which we need to press on for the journey ahead. 

We will mount an aggressive defense of our democracy. We must all serve as a check and balance against a wannabe King. We will never give up and never give in. 

The struggle will continue until victory is won.