Once upon a time, in the “exceptional” land known as America, there were foundational federal government institutions that generally acted to meet specified and legally sanctioned policy objectives. Sometimes, these objectives were met imperfectly, but often they were met. In today’s America, foundational federal government institutions are failing to even try to meet specified policy objectives that are within established legal boundaries and institutional norms.  And, as noted by a chorus of critics, this failure continues unabated and is accelerating in the utter absence of any individual accountability for anything, as we now crawl into the second year of the reign of US President Donald Trump.

Foundational federal institutions in decline

This situation would be much less serious if the missions of some of the failed foundational federal government institutions were not so critical to good governance, the welfare of those living within the borders of America and the rule of law that dignifies process over personality.  You may not know much about what the Department of Health and Human Services once did, but it is unconscionable to ignore what that Department is doing now to undermine its specified mission and endanger the health and well-being of those it is supposed to serve. You may not understand how critical the Department of Justice (DOJ) is to a sustainable rule of law, but it is likewise unconscionable to ignore what that Department is doing now to undermine the rule of law in a nation that sanctimoniously claims the rule of law as its sacred creed.

With respect to the DOJ, there has often been an uneasy tension in America between federal law enforcement and the communities that the DOJ claims federal agents are sworn to serve.  However, whether it is Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents on the streets, white collar investigators in rooms full of documents or the varied agents of the federal government empowered to meet specific law enforcement objectives, there has generally been a legal framework and sets of internal rules that governed federal law enforcement conduct. That appears to be completely gone now.

The erosion of law enforcement integrity

Maybe you still can remember the face of Renée Good just before she was shot to death by a federal law enforcement officer (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent). She was a 37-year-old American citizen and mother of three children. Ordinarily, the DOJ, the FBI and local law enforcement would try to collaborate to investigate any federal law enforcement fatal encounter. This time, the DOJ has excluded local participation in the investigation and has said there is nothing to criminally investigate except Ms. Good’s associates for causing her demise.

Worse yet, the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is responsible for this agent’s conduct, each jumped in to immediately proclaim the innocence of the agent and the culpability of the deceased without so much as a nod toward an impartial investigation. Then, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States capped it off with his emphatic declaration that the DOJ was not going to criminally investigate Good’s killing, despite the DOJ’s responsibility for ensuring that the agent’s conduct was lawful.

So much for the rule of law and any effort to structure legitimate law enforcement activities within a diverse community peacefully resisting those activities. No constructive DOJ effort to understand community concern, reduce tensions or simply reduce perceived thuggery has been offered or attempted. Instead, Trump and his armed and masked federal minions have chosen to further terrorize a community simply because they can. Trump’s “good guy cop” is Minneapolis’s armed thug. And Renée Good is dead.

There is more, but the Minneapolis killing should be more than enough. Even though protests abound across the nation, the thugs remain on the march, and most of the nation still sleeps, watching as Trump and his acolytes goose step their way to a “great” White Christian America. Every day it is something new, some new effort to cripple the legitimacy of government and replace it with the illegitimacy of cruel, corrupt and morally-bankrupt “governance.”

What is happening on American soil is critical only to those who call America home, many of whom routinely claim that all they want is their slice of the “American dream.” For those whose “dream” never existed or has been summarily shattered, it must be singularly dispiriting to see how little so many seem to care until something unexpected happens to them or those they know. Try to remember Renée Good long enough to recognize that the unexpected can happen to you at the hands of your federal government right here at home and right now, since all semblance of the legal and political safeguards we thought we had has been alarmingly discarded by Trump and his DOJ.

America’s tarnished global image

It is also time for the rest of the world to wake up to the reality of what America has become on the world stage. To do so requires more than just a passing glance at occupied boats blown apart in international waters, civilians murdered, leaders kidnapped and other nations threatened for the greater glory of America’s supreme leader. It requires focus on, and understanding of, what America has long been — an international fraud draped in righteousness while dripping in blood. Remove the righteousness, and only the blood remains.

With this as a backdrop, the Trump assault on lawful governance is on full display in the Venezuelan armed incursion. For those of us who have not seen America as the world’s savior for quite some time, this Venezuelan incursion is a reminder of just how much mindless national arrogance it takes to once again try to implement America’s particular brand of other people’s freedom at the point of a gun. To be sure, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is nobody’s idea of a Latino version of former US President Franklin Roosevelt. The Venezuelan people have suffered through enough in the last decade or so. But it is the height of deadly hubris to believe that an American invasion is even a short-term step forward.

Rather, the now ongoing threat to Venezuelan sovereignty and further loose and threatening talk about US intervention in world affairs and ongoing conflicts will only encourage corporate and mercenary dreams of an expanded playground for America’s merchants of death. It is not enough that over 400 million firearms in civilian hands pollute American soil. That is simply child’s play for the American arms merchants and associated armed mercenaries whose commercial greed and corruption pollute every killing field in the world.

In this context, it has always appeared to me that powerful nations share in common little concern for the destruction of human life and societal fabric in other people’s lands. As an example, America’s delusional love affair with its warriors is generally devoid of thinking about the many in the world for whom “Made in America” is a curse that falls from the sky or spits from an automatic rifle. Somehow, getting past this blind spot might encourage critical discourse at home and further condemnation from abroad now that Trump and his newly anointed Secretary of War seem to be on an unfettered and dangerously whimsical march.

Shared humanity: the link between domestic and international justice

So what is the thread that connects adherence to the rule of law at home and international law abroad? It may well be the humanity shared by Renée Good and the dead and dying in Caracas and on the high seas, in Gaza, and in all those troubled places at home and abroad where the lawless now deliver their “message” with impunity. When a nation does not recoil at mindless killing at home, it countenances mindless killing everywhere. Trump and his acolytes thrive in this space created by intentional inhumanity.

Now it is time to choose sides, because we are not all on the same side. Confront those in your midst who cheer on the armed mercenaries and the merchants of death, provide cover to those under attack and resist the notion to turn away. Then, whatever else you do, try to remember that it is our individual humanity that is on the line.

[Since the writing of this piece, there have been several other ICE killings, including that of Alex Pretti on January 24, 2026.]

[Hard Left Turn first published this piece.]

[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

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