The Founding Fathers, the people who wrote our Constitution, were very concerned about who was to have power in their new country. They had lived under a king whose word was absolute, and they didn’t want to create another monarchy in the United States of America.

Over the past hundred years, there haven’t been many all-powerful kings in the world, but there have been many governments run by just one man. Italy under Mussolini, Germany under Hitler, Libya under Gadaffi, Russia under Putin–countries run by one person, who has been able to pretty much impose his will upon everyone.

In these governments, the man in charge rules by decree. He appoints aides, not according to their skill or expertise, but based on their loyalty to him and their willingness to carry out his orders. If there is a legislature, or a judiciary, he expects them to kowtow to him, and he punishes those who don’t.

In high school civics, we all learned that our government depends upon the system of checks and balances. The executive, legislative and judicial branch–none has all the power.

In one-man governments the man in charge encourages discontent and fear. He is saving the people from terrible enemies. The danger may come from the communists, the capitalists, the Jews, the immigrants, whoever. It’s not important whether the danger is real–usually it isn’t–so long as he can convince people that it’s really, really bad, and that he is the only one who can save them from it.

Is this starting to sound familiar? Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that America was threatened by an “invasion” of immigrants. There was never a basis for this in fact. True, some immigrants are gang members and some commit crimes, but it’s been shown over and over again that the crime rate among immigrants is much lower than among native-born Americans. Yet, in the name of protecting us against something terrible, thousands of people are now being arrested and deported, sometimes to unspeakably horrible places.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” Our country has laws regulating immigration, passed by Congress, which set up agencies to enforce those laws. Since the Mayflower, people have come to our shores fleeing persecution, and our laws recognize this. Some immigrants truly deserve asylum.

Since the day of his inauguration, Donald Trump has sought to rule our country by decree–in this case called “executive order.” Actions of the executive branch are supposed to be regulated by the other branches of government: the legislative and the judicial. Donald Trump has ignored laws, ignored judicial orders, and sought to label judges, even ones he himself appointed, as corrupt enemies. Congress has knuckled under, unable to take any initiative when it comes to protecting the American people.

Past Congresses established agencies to help and protect Americans. A hundred years ago a third of all children born in the US died before their 21st birthday. They died of gastrointestinal diseases due to contaminated food and water supplies, of infectious diseases like measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, meningitis and scarlet fever. Congress set up health and education departments, appropriated money for medical research which just in our time has succeeded in containing the COVID-19 epidemic, and has reduced death from diseases like cancer and heart disease.

In the name of eliminating waste–waste they never actually proved existed–Trump and his appointees have gutted the agencies that were established to promote health, keep infrastructure safe, regulate safe air travel, to protect the environment, and to help veterans and Americans with Social Security, to name just a few. Trump refuses to let anyone stop him, and treats anyone who disagrees with him as an enemy, subject to the full punitive weight of the government agencies he controls.

After spending seven years in Nazi concentration camps, Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote, “First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Donald Trump’s quest for power will not end with immigrants, with tariffs, with Ivy League schools, with big law firms, with student demonstrators, with the judges who oppose him. It has no end, and if his quest is allowed to continue unchecked any American could become a target. Pastor Niemöller, who almost lost his life, understood this. We owe it to ourselves, and our children and grandchildren, to stop this would-be king, before it is too late.

Arno Vosk is a medical doctor living in Williamsport.