Now is a really important time to remind Americans of something that the roughly half of us who took civics in school know. Only Congress can authorize a war. It's right there in the Constitution. It requires a majority vote of both the House and the Senate to authorize war, and any war that is not authorized by Congress is illegal. The president does not have the power to start a war; that power is exclusively given to Congress. The Founders did this because they did not want any president to ever acquire the king-like power of war making: they believed it was too much power in the hands of one person, and thus could lead to disaster. If Donald Trump tries to take us into war with Iran, Congress and massive public opinion must stop him. Call your member of the House and both your senators today.

-Thom