Letters to the editor for Feb. 26
Senate too busy to be better
The truth will set you free. Free from your job, apparently, if you voted for witnesses in the impeachment trial. You’re immediately branded a traitor by Trump’s party and FOX News.
Every trial is comprised of witnesses, evidence and testimony to determine the truth. Instead, the Senate Republicans decided to have a sham trial and fixed verdict from the get-go. They were supposed to seek the truth no matter where it leads. Duck and cover are for earthquakes, not trials.
The very backbone of our country demands a fair trial and the truth before ignoring it.
The Senate Republicans drove Trump’s getaway car right through the heart of America and the Constitution. They are now cover-up accomplices of historical proportions. Say goodbye to the USA. Hello Third World Order. POTUS #45 just became Dictator #1.
John Bolton knocked on the Senate door with firsthand, direct evidence, but Republicans were too afraid and busy to answer the door. But he’ll be back, like the Terminator, on a book tour.
Mitch McConnell said the Senate doesn’t have the time to hear the truth. That’s right because they’re too busy burying it.
The Republicans said “Let the voters decide.” The popular vote should decide elections. Will the electoral college cancel and supersede the 2020 popular vote again, like it did in 2016?
Sorry, Nancy. We had a republic, but the Senate Republicans decided not to keep it. Was Elijah Cummins wrong? We really aren’t better than this?
Dictators can happen anywhere
Demagoguery plus narcissism enable dictatorship. Simple formula: “The People, in their evil simplicity, would rather hear a comfortable lie than an uncomfortable truth. Tell a big enough lie, frequently; it will be believed.”
Exploit a crisis, real or manufactured. Exploit and fan resulting fear. Provide a scapegoat; target followers’ fear onto “the other.” Create a “Sockpuppet,” a false or illusory identity created to legitimize oneself as a savior. Provide a messianic “solution” that will “save us.” Weaponize xenophobia. Appeal to emotion, not facts; portray facts as “fake.”
The message: “Seek the leader with your hearts, not your minds!” Familiar? Joe McCarthy? Mussolini? Nope. Hitler, Hess, Goebbels. Witness such techniques now too, playing to a base of true believers.
Posing as another, for three decades, Sockpuppet Donald Trump using an alias phoned journalists, praising “Trump’s attractiveness to women, financial health, and general excellence.” He had to admit it in court in 1990.
Decorated vets like Lt. Col. Alexander Vindeman swore to defend our Constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic. The Uniform Code of Military Justice demands obedience to lawful orders of a superior; it equally demands disobedience of illegal orders or violations of the Constitution. Thus, ethics, honor, country ‘trump’ party, boss or keeping one’s job. Vindeman was shamed and fired by Trump for putting nation and integrity first. Four prosecutors and esteemed Foreign Service employees put honor before self interest.
Dictatorship isn’t just “over there,” in the past, or wearing a Swastika. It’s here in Barr, Bannon, Pence, cloaked in patriotism and religion, wearing a tie or a red ball cap.