On Thursday, President Donald Trump accused six Democratic lawmakers of “seditious behavior punishable by DEATH” after the lawmakers, all of whom are veterans of the armed services and intelligence community, called on United States military members to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.”
“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,” Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan wrote in the X post. Along with the Michigan senator, the other five lawmakers appearing in the video are seen as possible future aspirants for higher office, who now, thanks to the video’s wide exposure, have elevated their own political profiles, accoridng to a report by The Associated Press.
The six ruling class members seeking more power are Slotkin, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and Representatives Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan. They were shown speaking directly to U.S. service members, whom Slotkin acknowledges are “under enormous stress and pressure right now.”
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With pieces of dialogue spliced together from different members, the lawmakers introduce themselves and their background. They go on to say the Trump administration “is pitting our uniformed military against American citizens.” They call for service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.”
The lawmakers conclude the video by encouraging service members, “Don’t give up the ship,” a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a U.S. Navy captain’s dying command to his crew. –The Associated Press
Later on Thursday, Trump responded to a social media article about the video, adding his own commentary. He said that it was “really bad, and Dangerous to our Country.”
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!” Trump went on. “LOCK THEM UP???” He called for the lawmakers’ arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”
Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the “Nuremberg defense,” as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn’t absolve anyone in the military of crimes that they commit against others. Just following orders should never be the basis of your morality anyway, and those who understand this are the ones who will be saying no when it comes to the bigger deals.
However, the U.S. military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order, should it turn out to be lawful. That could literally mean anything, and that’s why legality will never equal morality.
However, once we have people willing to stand up to the rulers and say “no”, especially cops and military, we will be on a path toward freedom. These order followers are the ones keeping the ruling class in power so they can continue to steal from and amass wealth while the rest of us are left to obey their commands.
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