If citizens endorse the idea that people named by authorities as "criminals" or "terrorists" have no right to due process, then they are accepting that they themselves have no right to due process. It is due process, and due process alone, that allows you to demonstrate that you are a citizen. Without it, the masked men in the black vans can simply claim that you are a foreign terrorist and disappear you. -- Tim Snyder#
The most honest explanation for Trump’s actions are: He is insane. He suffers from a number of pathologies. That is fairly clear. The more important question is: How has this insane man managed to gain control of the government of the world’s richest and most powerful nation? That, my friends, is the unfortunate outcome of an economic system that has so profoundly failed to enforce economic equality, and a political system that so profoundly failed to protect its democracy from the influence of capital that it allowed itself to be totally captured by extreme lunatics backed by extreme wealth. And here we are. The whole thing is most notable for its absurdity. If it’s any consolation, all the capitalists who led us down this road are going to lose a shitload of money. Ha ha, fuckers.#
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. -- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence#
What makes liberty, which I define as personal autonomy, real in America are two fundamental things:
When one is accused of a crime they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Whether one is guilty of a crime needs to be proven by the state beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of one's peers, or a judge if the accused prefers.
We usually refer to these two items as due process and without it there is no liberty. Further, in our Declaration of Independence we stated that all people, not just U.S. Citizens, are endowed by their creator the right to liberty. Liberty is not provided by the state, it is inherent to who we are as humans. Further, we declared that we create governments for the purposes of preserving these rights.
What are crimes is defined by laws. With the aim of protecting our liberty from individuals and groups who would take it away, which we declared is the purpose of government, our founders created a government that rules by laws, laws written and passed by legislatures made up of people who are voted in to office by citizens to be their representative. This is our form of self government that made America unique in the world at it's founding, and I do not understand how anyone can honestly say the words "Make America Great Again" without accepting and respecting this fundamental tenant.
When one talks about the rule of law they are talking about how people in the United States are ruled. Neither the President nor Congress rule in the United States, the laws are what rule us, and if this rule of law is not respected and upheld by our government the United States of America no longer exists as defined by the U.S. Constitution.
All members of Congress, the President, the Vice President, and Supreme Court Justices take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not respecting, acknowledging or binding oneself to due process and the rule of law is a violation of that oath, which should be an impeachable offense.