Letter from Adrian Kuzminski

Board of Reps Called to Action

Editor’s Note: The following letter was read to the Otsego County Board of Representatives during privilege of the floor at a recent meeting.

I’m Adrian Kuzminski, a long-time resident of Otsego County. Let me get straight to the point.

The United States is in a constitutional crisis. The president has declared a series of national emergencies not authorized under the Constitution. These allow him to rule by decree through executive order, bypassing Congress and the federal courts. We can no longer rely on due process and the rule of law. Instead we have autocratic rule by one person.

Autocratic rule is uncertain and capricious. You can get an enlightened monarch, or a tyrant. Administrative law replaces actual law. Executive orders, which can change without warning, ignore existing legislation and court rulings. Already, approved funding has suddenly and arbitrarily been withheld from state and local governments, social programs, educational institutions, and civic organizations. Tariffs have been arbitrarily imposed and adjusted. Government agencies and workers have been abruptly eliminated. Foreign nationals have been arrested for their opinions. The surveillance powers of the government have been turned against its citizens. Critics of the government have been subject to punishment, and may soon be labeled traitors.

In a remarkable speech on the Senate floor the other day, on the 30th of April and available on YouTube, Republican Senator Rand Paul went further than any prominent Democrat I know in pointing out that the Constitution does not allow for autocratic rule, what he called “one person rule.” “Government by one person,” Senator Rand reminds us, “assumes all power by asserting an emergency, which is the antithesis of constitutional government. . . The Constitution,” he adds, “doesn’t allow the president to be the sole decider.” In the meantime, the president himself has told us that he doesn’t know whether he has to support the Constitution or not.

As our elected local representatives, who have some responsibility to protect our constitutional rights, I respectfully ask you, the Otsego County Board of Representatives, to deliberate and consider some kind of public response to this serious matter which increasingly affects all of us. Your voice, or its absence, is important.

Adrian Kuzminski
Fly Creek