On a rainy Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia’s historic district, a herd of progressive, raincoat-clad citizens and journalists trickled down Market Street to attend The New Republic’s “Stop Trump Summit.”
The editor of TNR, Michael Tomasky, kicked things off with a quick shout-out to the event’s sponsor: POGO Action, an independent government watchdog group.
From 2 pm to 5 pm, a rolling range of panels took the stage. With the absence of Mary Trump, no affiliation to the autocrat of the hour, there were six panels in all.
Topics ranged from Trump’s weaponization of government, a debrief about the laundry list of legal cases against him, the threat of authoritarianism in America, back-and-forth over whether Pennsylvania will go blue, and MAGA’s troubling pro-life fight. The day ended with tangible tactics for concerned citizens to play their part in defeating Trump “once and for all.”
In his intro, Tomasky paved the way for an enlightening conversation with the bedrock being the document signed just down Market Street, he said, blocks from the Independence Visitor Center where the summit was held.
Yes, in the summer of 1787, our founding fathers gathered in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall. While the document was surely progressive for its time, there were some blunders right off the bat, mused Tomasky. “Beginning, of course, with slavery and the three-fifths clause,” he said. “It’s a document we can, of course, call flawed.”
Looking past the egregious errors, the Constitution afforded us with a blueprint for the first Democratic Republic in the world. “Conservatives like to say it was a republic, not a democracy, and we know why,” said Tomasky. “Having lost seven of the last eight presidential elections, they’re no big fans of democracy.”
Did someone say roasted? Hitting the ole’ GOP where it hurts.
Before turning over the audience to the first panel, Tomasky issued a reminder to the auditorium: “Laws are greater than any one person’s ambitions or desires,” referring, of course, to the impetus for many audience members attendance, the threat of Trump ascending to autocratic status and eradicating the system of checks and balances that sustain our “Democratic Republic.”
After the Constitutional Convention was finally finished, in response to a question from Elizabeth Willing Powel, who asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Ben Franklin responded, saying, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
To keeping it!
One more thing: Something that stuck with me in the first panel came from Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who asked the audience, “How many of you were taught our democracy is safe because of our system of checks and balances?”
A knowing nod from the audience ensued, along with some airy whispers of hesitation. Finkelstein followed up and said, we cannot expect our younger generation to follow the rule of law if our president, the so-called leader of the free world, is attacking that very system at every turn.
She said the future of democracy depends on the outcomes of the Trump trials, most importantly the Supreme Court case regarding the former president’s galvanization of a white nationalist coup, which violently stormed the US Capitol in an unprecedented attack on American democracy.
When Republican presidential candidate John McCain lost to Barack Obama in 2008, he called the new national leader with a nod of congratulations. That is how things are done.
But what happened when Biden was elected? Trump rallied an insurrection and continues to deny the results of the election. Dictators follow the same rule book: they refuse to lose and do not allow for a peaceful transfer of power.
As journalists and US citizens with the power to keep the big, bad, orange man out, we must vote for Biden in November. We must hold Trump accountable for his actions or it will set the precedent for all future leaders of the US. No one is above the law. Trump and all MAGA copycats must know that now.
Schedule:
2 PM – Welcome
Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic
2:05 PM – The Weaponization of Government and the Threat of Authoritarianism
Rotimi Adeoye, opinion columnist, The Daily Beast
Claire Finkelstein, professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Joe Spielberger, policy counsel, POGO Action
Moderator: Skye Perryman, lawyer and advocate Sponsored by POGO Action
2:30 PM – Will Pennsylvania Go Blue?
J.J. Abbott, executive director, Commonwealth Communications
Senator Vincent Hughes, Pennsylvania state Senate
Kadida Kenner, CEO, the New Pennsylvania Project and the New PA Project Education Fund
Moderator: Will Bunch, national opinion columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer
2:55 PM – The Legal Cases: Will Trump Really Skate?
George Conway, lawyer and activist
Greg Sargent, staff writer, The New Republic
3:15 PM – Will Abortion Decide the Election?
David Cohen, professor, Drexel Kline School of Law
Kimberly Mutcherson, professor, Rutgers Law School
Lizbeth Rodriguez, community engagement coordinator, Philadelphia Women’s Center
Moderator: Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer, Salon
3:40 PM – How to Defeat Trump and MAGA Once and for All
Molly Jong-Fast, author and political commentator
Mary Trump, psychologist and author (absent!)
Moderator: Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic
4:05 PM – Getting Inside Trump’s Head
Rick Wilson, co-founder and board member, The Lincoln Project
Moderator: Walter Shapiro, staff writer, The New Republic
4:45 PM – Closing comments
Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic
Ashley Elizabeth Miller 
Leave a comment