To the Editor:
The occupant of the White House has lived a life of profound dishonesty and blatant corruption. This did not begin with a tainted election, but, as a result, the stakes have been raised exponentially.
Instead of stiffing investors, contractors and employees, or defrauding those gullible enough to sign up for his fake “university,” he now, unfortunately, has the ability to roil markets, damage or destroy long standing international relationships, roll back protections for workers and our planet, and something else far more insidious: Start wars. All in the pursuit of his “Me first, Me only” worldview.
Every action is viewed through the prism of how it will benefit or protect him. Tradition, rules, customs, laws, even our Constitution provide no impediment to a man who has no respect for any of those things. So it is not a great surprise to have arrived where we now find ourselves. A combination of new or corroborating evidence is uncovered daily, making McConnell’s job of quickly acquitting his boss with a bare minimum of testimony, excluding any witnesses or documents much harder. There is much more on trial here than the defendant’s obvious abuse of power, and the obstruction of those trying to shed light on that abuse.
Our democracy, engineered to consist of co-equal branches to provide checks and balances on a despotic executive, is hanging in the balance. While the founding fathers anticipated the possibility of an incompetent tyrant somehow ascending to be the executive, they never considered the horror of an entire political party, one that happens to control the Senate, abandoning every principle they formerly espoused in service, and fear of a man who clearly is not fit to serve. Since those checks and balances were provided by the Constitution, a document long held sacred by the very party now ignoring it, it’s continued relevance is at stake here also. The GOP seemingly cares for nothing, save preserving their own power, regardless of cost or loss to our country.
Despite the preponderance of evidence, the Senate will probably acquit the defendant. To those who will make that possible, or just celebrate it, I say this to all of them, be they elected officials or just cult followers. While you are willfully turning a blind eye to a series of clearly wrong and dangerous behaviors, history certainly will not, nor will it give a pass to those who knew better and did nothing.
— Doug Smith
Piqua
