Dear Editor,
President Donald Trump and his administration are far more than a disgrace and a scourge–they are an existential threat to the very principles upon which this country was supposedly founded. The typing filler coined by Charles Weller, “Now is the time for all good [people] to come to the aid of their country,” should be a galvanizing rally cry for everyone to vote against Trump and all the toxicity he and his administration spews. That is, if you really care about the future of the planet, the integrity of national institutions and the stability of international relations.
With the notable exception of Governor Mitt Romney and the late Honorable Senator John McCain, the “Republican” party has done nothing to stop this destructive tyrant. They sycophantically aid and encourage his dangerous vitriol, or remain deafeningly silent. Their silence is their complicity.
Let me be absolutely clear on several points: A vote against Trump is not automatically a vote for the Democrats. A vote and voice against Trump is an affirmation for republicanism, for liberty. The Republican Party, a.k.a. the Party of Jefferson, was founded on the values favoring consensus for “the common wealth” (i.e. the common good), based on the norms of compromise, against the concentrations of political power by the oligarchy and the aristocracy.
The Party of Trump betrays the cause of Republicanism, the Party of Lincoln. They are oligarchs, plutocrats and fascists. The latter term is not a hyperbole. For further information, Yale philosopher Jason Stanley includes Trump in this category of fascist propaganda par excellence: a.) rewriting history to invoke a mythic past, b.) using violent rhetoric to sow division and c.) attacking truth and objectivity.
I am deeply saddened and disappointed that not a single Mississippi Republican, whether our Governor Phil Bryant, Senators Phil Bryant or Cindy Hyde-Smith or even our own Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum (appointed by Trump as Chairman for the Board of International Food and Agriculture Development) have not so much as uttered a peep of protest against this fascist coup run from the Oval Office.
It was the great Republican and former President Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower who said it best, “Now look, I happen to know a little about leadership. I’ve had to work with a lot of nations, for that matter, at odds with each other and I tell you this: you do not lead by hitting people over the head. Any damn fool can do that, but it’s usually called assault–not leadership. I’ll tell you what leadership is. It’s persuasion and conciliation and education and patience. It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know of or believe it or will practice.”