Democracy is at the tipping point
To the editor:
We have reached a second tipping point with Donald Trump. The first was when he lost the 2020 election and Republicans could have consigned him to the wilderness. For a fleeting moment that looked like what they would do; after all, Trump had led an attempted coup, based on what he knew to be a lie, that the election had been rigged against him. But party leaders soon started showing up at Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring and pledge unwavering loyalty. For them, winning elections is more important than protecting our democratic institutions from an autocratic leader hellbent on destroying them.
With Trump’s misjudged, mishandled, debacle which is his war with Iran we have reached a second tipping point. Trump is no longer a wannabe dictator; he is on the cusp of becoming one. He is running our country with no recourse of Congress or the judiciary, with no recourse to the will of the American people. He has violated one of our core values as a people: We do not attack other nations unless we are under attack or have incontrovertible evidence that an attack is imminent. His threats to destroy Iran’s infrastructure, to wipe out their civilization, are barbaric and unhinged. To characterize Trump’s comments as “unpresidential” is a vast understatement.
From the beginning with Trump, it’s been clear he has no moral compass; he has no sense of right or wrong, only what serves his enormous ego. On the one hand, he claims to support the Iranian people in their quest for freedom from a thuggish theocracy; on the other hand, he says he’ll kill millions of them and reduce their country to rubble if their leadership does not accede to his demands. Trump has alienated our friends in Europe while giving aid and comfort to the man who should be considered our greatest enemy: Vladimir Putin. Trump has eased sanctions on Russia and backed Putin’s agenda for ending his war in Ukraine.
We are at a tipping point. If Trump is allowed to wage illegal wars around the world, based on what his “gut” is telling him; if he is allowed to ignore Congress, ignore NATO, and most of all, ignore the will of the American people, then our democracy is surely dead and we are living in a dictatorship, where our president’s goal is to enrich himself and his family at the expense of working families. He wants $200 billion for his phony war in Iran. Extending the Obamacare subsidies that allowed millions of Americans to buy affordable health insurance would have cost $30 billion. His cuts to Medicaid are devastating families across our nation.
The Democrats have made huge mistakes in the past 20 years, but we must trust them to restore democracy. We must use the midterm elections to put them in power to bring order to the fear and chaos the Trump administration has wrought.
Ray Clasen
Cape Coral