Democrats Abroad Vice Chair Bill Borden addressed the opening of the annual general meeting of Democrats Abroad Sweden, Saturday 18 April at Tegskyrkan in Umeå.

Great seeing all of you dedicated Democrats today. It’s a pleasure meeting you online and in-person, especially our Umeå hosts.

Our goal to win the midterm elections is more important than ever. This is not a normal election between the Democratic and Republican parties or right vs. left. It is an election between democracy vs. dictatorship, between right vs. wrong. It’s no longer a war on undocumented immigrants. It’s a war on Americans. It’s not about a foreign enemy. It’s about the enemy within: that is, Trump and his greedy billionaire oligarchs.

Trump has been destroying democracy much faster than Putin destroyed a fledging democracy in Russia. An annual report from the Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg concluded that democracy has deteriorated so much in the US that it lowered the country's democracy ranking from 20th to 51st out of 179 countries. 

Founding director Staffan Lindberg says: "Under the Trump administration, democracy has been rolled back as much during just one year as it took Modi in India and Erdogan in Turkey 10 years to accomplish, and Orban in Hungary four years.”

Let’s look at what is supposed to maintain our democracy: checks and balances.

Lindberg writes that “the Republican Congress has practically abdicated its powers to the president. It no longer functions as a check on executive power.”

Trump shut down entire departments of the government, firing hundreds of thousands of dedicated, professional civil servants. That includes at least 17 inspectors general at agencies throughout the government who were hired to stop waste, fraud and abuse. The firing of inspectors assures that government corruption will not be discovered. So the Trump regime will not investigate government corruption.

Trump hires only persons who give him personal loyalty. They are often unqualified. Examples: Pete Hegseth, Robert Kennedy.

The bills passed by Congress are mostly insignificant modifications to existing laws. There’s not a meaningful distinction between the legislative and executive branch.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also mostly abdicated power. When it does strike down Trump’s executive orders, he gets around it.

Let’s see what’s already happened in greater detail. There are illegal government raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The collapse of justice continues with illegal foreign policy, government corruption, and threats against your right to vote.

The government turned immigration enforcement employees at the US border into ICE agents who claim to detain violent, illegal immigrants throughout the USA–in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago. Instead, they attack US citizens and immigrants who are legal residents. Many raids are violent and abusive. The Supreme Court allowed ICE agents to use ethnicity and perceived national origin as acceptable reasons to detain people and ascertain their immigration status.

ICE terrorizes entire communities such as Minneapolis-St. Paul. There were illegal immigration raids and mass arrests. ICE detained people indefinitely without any court warrants. They killed at least two innocent US citizens just in Minneapolis: Renee Good and Alex Pretti The known ICE killers were never charged with a crime and got off scot-free.

There’s no justice in Trump’s Department of Justice.

Trump violated the norms of justice by supporting his friends and attacking his enemies. He pardoned 1,500 traitors convicted of trying to overthrow the US government in January 2021. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police.

Trump uses the government to attack his enemies.

They are law enforcement officials and Congresspersons who investigated Trump and his allies, political opponents, disloyal members of Trump’s first administration, student protestors, lawyers and law firms, universities and media organizations. Trump has targeted more than 100 enemies to prosecute or punish.

Let’s take a quick look at foreign policy: Trump downgraded human rights as a pillar of foreign policy. He undermines international institutions. He shut down USAID. So children in Asia and Africa don’t get vaccines. They are dying. The hungry will not eat and they fight to stay alive.

As a candidate, Trump said that the US would not get involved in foreign wars. But he has now attacked Iran without the democratically required legislative approval. He’s made the US weaker and Iran stronger. Oil prices have significantly increased in the US, in Sweden and all around the globe.

There is spying on innocent Americans.

US agencies monitor the social media and use other types of surveillance to flag people for deportation based on their speech: in particular, speech on Palestine issues.

And then there’s corruption.

Trump’s made a fortune using his presidency.

Corporate donations for the inauguration, White House ballroom and Trump cryptocurrency go directly to Trump. He then does favors for the donors such as removing regulations and approving mergers that violate anti-trust laws.

And now, let’s consider what all dictators do. They restrict and corrupt voting. Trump is no exception.

Trump and the Republicans in Congress want to restrict or take away your right to vote via the SAVE act and Trump's executive orders.

If Trump gets his way, you will have to fly to the States and then go in person to your precinct and prove that you are a US citizen and lived in the state that counts your vote. There is an even greater obstacle for married women who have changed their names. They would have to prove that they are citizens even when using their husbands’ names.

The effect is stopping Americans from voting. Here are the main victims:

• Military and civilians abroad.

• Voters without a passport or who have lost their birth certificate. Only 50% of Americans have passports.

• All mail-in ballot voters, which often includes

• • College students

  • Seniors

  • Military in the United States

  • Rural voters

  • Workers who are not eligible to take time off from work

Trump has also thwarted democracy by attacking universities.

Trump stopped research funding to universities if they continue to enroll a diversity of students, so called DEI. He wants to determine which courses are on the curriculum. Black history courses are forbidden, since that would make whites feel guilty.

The tyrant Trump wants you to think that you can’t do anything, that you have no power. If we do nothing, then the United States will become a full-blown dictatorship. But there’s another alternative: not the tyranny of wannabe King Trump, but freedom for all.

When we join together in solidarity, we can stop the destruction of democracy, just like the Hungarian people did last week. They won their democracy by soundly defeating their tyrant oppressor Victor Orban.

We, too, can replace dictatorship with a free, democratic USA. I know that all of you here are up to the task. So let’s get to work.