No restraint
Donald Trump said the only restriction on his power is his own morality. The law, the courts, the Constitution, and the Congress cannot limit his authority or power. This is what a dictator believes. What does Trump’s moral restraint look like? It permits him to have adulterous affairs. It allows him to brag about being able to grab women’s private parts with no consequences. Falsifying financial statements for financial gain is fine. Creating the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen is justified by his need to stay in power. Sending a violent mob to assault the U.S. Capitol and Congress is necessary. Asking his vice president to ignore the Constitution and refuse to certify the vote is just his interpretation of the law. Watching as the mob beats law enforcement officers and then praises them as great patriots and finally pardons them is the right thing to do.
In his second term, Trump has increased his power immensely, thanks to a GOP-controlled Congress that has allowed him to select a cabinet of largely unqualified individuals who are willing to accept his every order. He has eliminated the agency that provided food and medical assistance to those in need around the world and severely limited medical research. He has used the U.S. Department of Justice to persecute officials who previously performed their duties by seeking to prosecute Trump for his crimes. Trump has no morals and no shame. His malicious actions are too numerous to list and too un-American to believe.
William J. Owens, Hammonton
Two shootings
On Jan. 6, 2021, Ashli Babbitt entered the U.S. Capitol as part of a mob and tried to break into the room where members of Congress were trying to be kept safe. She was shot and killed. In May, the Trump administration paid a $5 million settlement to her family, and some consider Babbitt a hero. Judicial Watch has filed a $30 million lawsuit over the killing. On Jan. 7, Renee Nicole Good tried to drive away from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and was shot dead. Vice President JD Vance says she brought it upon herself. That really is all one needs to know.
Robert Franz, Plymouth Meeting
Rush to judgment
For most of my four decades as a lawyer, I have practiced criminal defense. Spontaneous shootings in the street demand the most searching, rigorous analysis of distances, angles, location of shooter and target, time intervals between actions and reactions, and a host of other variables, including motives, agendas, and personal histories. Video helps, but the investigative necessities remain the same. Any conclusion as to the shooter’s culpability depends on such work. No political leader or agency chief can fairly exonerate the shooter without such painstaking analysis, much less blame the victim.
Justin T. Loughry, Haddonfield
Rules of engagement
No warrants. No Miranda rights. No due process. No phone call. No legal representation. No accountability. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bars government representatives from visiting detention facilities. Basically, ICE just disappears you. Separates families. Incarcerates children. And now they shoot you without cause.
Patrick Thompson, Media, pthompson612@gmail.com
Stand for freedom
At an “ICE Out for Good” protest in Philadelphia this weekend, I found myself surrounded by a diverse group of peaceful, patriotic people. Some signs made me laugh; some chants brought me to tears. Outside in the rain, I felt at home. I served for 14 years as a foreign service officer, a role that limited personal political activities. As a diplomat to a kingdom during the 2016 election, I was congratulated by locals; Donald Trump’s disregard for human rights resonated there.
I felt a sense of homesickness for the freedoms of my citizenship, which grew as I moved to countries that were more dangerous and less free. From one U.S. embassy compound, I could hear the government keeping protesters at bay with water cannons and live fire. I’ve seen masked security forces, abductions, communication blackouts, crowds tear-gassed, shipping container piles blocking roadways. To protect and expand our freedoms, we need to keep hold of our democratic experiment and fight for this country to live up to its promises. I know what state-sponsored repression looks like; we’re at a precipice, and we have everything to lose.
Maura O’Brien, Ardmore
Free pass
The Inquirer is to be commended for keeping the spotlight on the corruption, dishonesty, divisiveness, and authoritarianism of the Trump administration. However, the resulting destruction of our democracy, social stability, and relationships with the rest of the world would not occur were it not for the abdication of responsibility by U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and his Republican colleagues in Congress. On every issue, McCormick is either silent or supportive, never critical. As such, he is complicit in all the madness that is going on. The Inquirer should not let the senator get a pass on his failure to live up to his constitutional responsibility to be a check against this runaway presidency.
Donald Kelly, Havertown
Factually speaking
I write in response to the recent letter to the editor in which the writer reprimands those of us who are not appropriately celebrating the invasion of Venezuela by crafting an argument devoid of a basis in facts. I doubt there are many, if any, people who view Nicolás Maduro as a legitimate leader who gives a whit about the Venezuelan people. He is a dictator who rigged his supposed election and is an alleged drug trafficker. We (as the writer called us) “pearl-clutching and bedwetting” Democrats, independents, and likely a fair number of Republicans, can all agree that any country deserves to be out of the clutches of a fascist, corrupt president. Many of us are feeling some kinship with the Venezuelan people and other oppressed citizens as we watch our own democracy being taken over by a similarly disturbing authoritarian regime.
To address the factual disinformation in this letter, the author states that Maduro is “responsible for magnitudes more American deaths than Osama bin Laden.” Really? Venezuela’s impact on drug deaths in the U.S. has been minimal. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl, the primary cause of overdose deaths, does not come from Venezuela at all. Fentanyl is almost entirely produced by and transported to the U.S. by Mexican criminal cartels, which get needed chemicals primarily from China. Venezuela is used as a transit region for cocaine from Colombia headed for Europe.
As for the comparison between Maduro and bin Laden, the latter founded the violent terrorist group al-Qaeda and launched attacks in multiple countries to further his goal of destroying America. From the late 1990s, al-Qaeda carried out attacks on American interests, including our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. His reign of terror reached an apex of horror with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed thousands of men, women, and children going about their ordinary lives. The attempt to paint Maduro as more dangerous to America than bin Laden is utterly fallacious, especially since Donald Trump has openly acknowledged that this was all about oil, which he intends to keep. The letter writer says we need to “get with the program” and applaud an imperialistic anti-constitutional invasion and a violation of international law. Isn’t this exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin has done to Ukraine?
Diane C. Lucente, Delran
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
