Letters: The past and future of Trumpism; Pledging to help make a difference
The past and future of Trumpism
Donald Trump is unique among presidents, but many of us remember Trumpism from decades before Trump took to Twitter.
In his new biography of Senator Ted Kennedy, “Catching the Wind,” Neal Gabler reminds us of both the awful things and the great achievements of the 1960s. Both had divided the nation by the time of the 1968 presidential election.
The Vietnam War was awful but many Americans still supported it. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were great achievements. But many white Americans North and South felt rising resentment and fear about a changing America.
The blunt third party candidate, former Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, “understood the value of resentment and understood how to incite it,” Gabler writes. The more subtle Reublican candidate, Richard Nixon, spoke of the “silent majority,” and “... normalized Wallace’s hate-mongering.”
The Nixon formula for resentment became the successful Republican strategy, through Ronald Reagan — ”welfare queens!”— through the Tea Party to Trump, fueled by talk radio and Fox News.
By 2020, President Trump, having survived his first impeachment, was describing his Democratic opponents to an audience of believers at the annual White House prayer breakfast simply as “very dishonest and corrupt people ... we are going to protect Christianity ...”
Trumpism is rooted in ignorance, fear and hate, now juiced by the curse of the 21st century, social media.
Trumpism is a virus for which there will never be a vaccine. We have to live with it. But never let it cripple America again.
Pledging to help make a difference
We, members and attenders of State College Friends Meeting, are distressed and outraged by the violence that has been perpetrated against people of color in our community. In the past two years, Centre County has witnessed a Black man killed by a policeman, the destruction of property with racist images, the public display of symbols of hate and death, and a “Zoom bombing” of a meeting of Penn State Black Caucus students. These illegal, violent and hateful acts against people of color are not acceptable. We call on the leadership of our local institutions who have the capacity to bring justice for these crimes to prosecute the perpetrators to the full extent of the law.
In this spirit, we unite with the 3/20 Coalition and local NAACP organizations as they peacefully seek to establish racial justice within the legal, educational and social spheres of our community. We fully embrace the vision of people of all colors and races living peacefully together, sharing our human commonality and working toward equity for all. We believe that this vision will not come to pass unless those of us with privilege actively work to make this happen. Therefore, we pledge to educate ourselves and do our part to end our complicity in the structural racism that has gone on for far too long in this country and to speak out in opposition to acts of implicit bias or overt racism whenever we see them occur.
Find Trump guilty as charged
Forty-five Senate Republicans voted to declare Donald Trump’s impeachment trial unconstitutional. Like virtually all of their decisions relative to Trump, they are dead wrong. The Constitution does not prohibit a trial after the chief executive has left office.
Nowhere in the six clauses of the Constitution that define the process and the dangers of allowing presidents to escape responsibility for misconduct committed during, or discovered after their last days in office, does it mention a time barrier on impeachment. If this were not the case, what’s to prevent future presidents from attacking Congress and the rule of law?
There are two penalties for impeachment: removal from office and disqualification from holding public office in the future. Most scholars who have closely examined the issue conclude that it defies logic that a former official can’t face impeachment trial. (To be clear, Trump was impeached while in office. Imagine your employee engaged in misconduct — and couldn’t be prosecuted if he left the job.)
Additionally, a criminal president should not receive benefits accorded other law-abiding presidents, including Secret Service protection or intel briefings.
Since Trump was not convicted of undermining Congress’ power of the purse in his first impeachment trial for withholding foreign aid in the Ukraine scandal, he believed he could literally attack the Congress and even put his own vice president’s life in mortal danger.
Trump’s behavior makes Richard Nixon’s Watergate affair look like the third-rate burglary he claimed it to be.
Find Trump guilty as charged of inciting an insurrection!
Vaccine clinic ran with ease
My wife Sandy and I were very pleased to receive a phone call on Tuesday, Feb. 2 from Mount Nittany Medical Center, scheduling our COVID-19 virus vaccination.
Our scheduled appointment was on Friday, Feb. 5 at 9:10 a.m. at the Dreibelbis Auditorium. Like most senior citizens we arrived 15 minutes early. Parking was very easy and close to the entrance. We went to the doorway and of course there was a line out the door. I said to myself, “Oh boy, just like the Army, hurry up and wait.” Wow, was I wrong. The line moved very quickly. There was a nice gentleman wearing a Mount Nittany blue shirt, he escorted us to a row of tables, we were given a clipboard with a document and pen by the extremely nice staff. They asked several questions and we were sent into the auditorium. We sat down in front of a nurse, she measured our temperature and had us sign the document, followed by the vaccination. We then moved to another area of the auditorium to wait about 15 minutes to determine if any adverse reaction occurred. The complete process took less than 20 minutes.
The staff at Mount Nittany was very efficient. We are so blessed to have a first-rate medical facility staffed by kind and caring medical professionals in our community.
Our sincere thanks goes out to each of them.
Keller on the wrong side of history
On Feb. 1, the day H.R. 72 was introduced in the House of Representatives to remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her standing committees, I sent U.S. Rep. Fred Keller an email pleading that he vote yes to that resolution in an attempt to disassociate himself from her QAnon conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, his email response to me after he voted no to that resolution was, “While Congresswoman Greene’s comments were indeed revolting, she made these statements before being elected to Congress and has since apologized. Stripping a member of Congress from their committee assignments based on remarks made prior to their holding elected office would set a precedent that is likely to be abused in the future.”
My email response back to Keller on Feb. 10 was the following:
“I respectfully disagree! It is on video that Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘revolting remarks’ were not only made prior to holding elected office, but after her election as well ... and she has continued to spew conspiracy theories to this day. You call that an apology? You are very naive to expect her to change her rhetoric.
You are now on record of supporting her QAnon speech forever. Her trouble is now your trouble in your Republican ranks. Good luck in trying to change the subject.
What a mess you have allowed to metastasize just because you do not have courage to stand up against false conspiracy theories.”