WHO WE ARE

We are a non-partisan group of concerned citizens, led by Veterans, that are mobilizing to demand that members of Congress honor their oath to support and defend the Constitution by doing everything in their power to resist the abuses of power and illegal activities of the Trump Administration. This effort is being led by Veterans since we swore the same oath to support and defend the Constitution and are thus very upset that so many members of Congress are failing to do their constitutional duties.

The name RAGTAG (which is also an acronym - see below) symbolizes that we are a diverse "ragtag" army of Veterans and other concerned citizens fighting the tyranny of wannabe King Donald like the ragtag group of patriots in the Continental Army fought the tyranny of King George. 

Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has clearly demonstrated that he has no respect for the U.S. Constitution and the Rule of Law and continues to violate his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. This is no surprise since he incited an insurrection on Jan 6th, 2021 and tried to prevent the peaceful transition of power for the first time in our nation’s history. Then, even worse, Trump pardoned over 1500 convicted Jan 6th rioters immediately after being inaugurated, to include some who assaulted police officers. He has also followed through on his promise to be a dictator by filling his cabinet with unqualified sycophants who blindly follow his edicts, gutting watchdog agencies, purging the military’s ranks of senior officers, challenging the separations of powers and checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution by attacking federal judges who have the temerity to find that his actions are against the law, giving unelected Elon Musk unprecedented power and continually pushing the limits of executive power.

What makes this profoundly disturbing situation even worse is that the members of the U.S. Congress, who took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same” are forfeiting their role of being a co-equal branch of government to act as a curb on excesses by Trump and the Executive Branch. This is absolutely true for the Republicans, some of whom may be MAGA believers, but many others are just afraid to stand up to Trump for fear of alienating the Republican base or possibly in the misguided view that Trump has a mandate. This is clearly not the case since Trump got fewer than 1.5% more votes than Harris and the Republicans hold very slim majorities in both houses of Congress. However, the Democrats also deserve some blame too since they have not been nearly vocal enough in protesting Trump’s abuses of power and have failed to take any effective actions to slow him down.

Since there is no hope that Trump will stop abusing his power, we need to hold the members of Congress accountable for his abuses. We believe that the best way to do this is with a non-partisan, grass-roots effort led by Veterans. While all concerned citizens are welcome to join this effort, it is led by Veterans since they also swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and thus can hold the members of Congress accountable for not honoring their oath to defend the Constitution.

This effort includes Republicans, Democrats and Independents; all of whom believe that loyalty to the Constitution and the country is more important than loyalty to any party. We also believe that the current situation is exactly what George Washington warned against in his farewell address when he decried the rise of political parties and said that they could lead to division and instability and potentially enable ambitious individuals to seize power. He also stated that parties could foster "a spirit of revenge" and allow "cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men" to "usurp for themselves the reins of government". This is exactly what Trump and his cronies are trying to do!

We are calling our grass-roots organization RAGTAG – Resistance AGainst Trump And our current Government. As mentioned above, it symbolizes a diverse army of Veterans and other concerned citizens fighting the tyranny of wannabe King Donald like the ragtag collection of patriots in the Continental Army fought the tyranny of King George. The last G of the acronym, which stands for “our current Government”, is meant to emphasize that we are demanding that all members of Congress in both parties (and the few Independents),  along with the courts, uphold their responsibilities to stop the illegal actions by Trump and the Executive Branch. Click the button below to see a list of Trump’s illegal, unethical and immoral actions that highlight why members Congress need to act quickly and decisively. Concerned citizens can send the link to this page to their Congressional delegations and stress that, in the next election, they will bear the consequences for either their support of Trump or their unwillingness to take action against him.