Letters to the editor for Feb. 23
Can we trust President Trump in a crisis?
I watch with interest the criticism of the Chinese government’s disingenuous handling of the coronavirus outbreak. If that epidemic grows to the point of a threat here in the US, will we be able to believe anything our government tells us?
Our President lies constantly: when the truth is plain to see, when there is no reason to lie, but most troubling, even when lives and property may be in danger. And he has pressured scientific agencies to issue supporting misleading statements.
So what will we be able to believe if the virus does arrive? How will we know whether/how to protect our families and ourselves? A leader who can’t be believed won’t be worth much in a crisis.
Democracy or ‘Trumpocracy?’
I don’t think our Forefathers who created the groundwork for our government anticipated that American citizens would elect a President with absolutely no moral compass or sense of decency; a legislative body whose senators are so power hungry and/or easily intimidated; and a court system filled with justices who owe their lifelong appointments to the aforementioned President and senators. With this perfect storm, the division of power/checks and balances system with the three government branches is failing.
We are inching closer to a dictatorship, as evidenced by the President’s immediate retaliation against those who spoke out against him at the impeachment hearings/trial. They are being punished by words and deeds for their transgressions against him. (Colonel Vindman transferred out of his White House position.) What’s next? Being audited by the IRS for writing a critical letter about him to the local newspaper? Being thrown in jail for insulting him? Sounds far-fetched — or maybe not.
The President controls the Cabinet Secretaries and the Justice Department and they aim to please; e.g., Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s refusal to release President Trump’s tax returns or Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross allegedly threatening the National Weather Service for challenging Trump’s statement that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama.
There doesn’t seem to be any way to control him now except to vote him out of office.
Time for a name change
The Affordable Care Act is unfortunately commonly call ObamaCare. The party in power in Washington constantly refers to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party.
In my humble opinion, it is now time to stop using the name Republican Party to refer to the political party in power. I firmly believe that we all need to call the party in power what it is: the Trump Party. A party of fear mongering, self interested, power hungry, religious hypocrites. The Trump Party has no sense of even basic decency.
Let’s face it, the Republican Party began dying with the Tea Party Republicans taking over with the 2010 election. It’s time we gave the Republican Party a decent, respectful burial.