Letters to the editor March 9
On the final day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, delegate Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well doctor, what have we got – a republic or a monarchy?” He responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Over the ensuing 233 years, through a Civil War, World Wars, and economic crashes, Congress, regardless of party, has done a pretty good job of “Keeping the Republic” while rejecting a return to kings and monarchs. That all came to a screeching halt on February 5, 2020 when Senate Republicans ignored their Oaths of Office to “Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States…” replacing it with, “Preserve, Protect, and Defend Donald J. Trump – and my chances of re-election.” With that single decision, they threw the Rule of Law out the window.
The Founders set up the power of impeachment and gave it to Congress specifically for the dire situation we find ourselves in today – a dishonest, reckless, uninformed and unwilling to learn president, contemptuous of the law and military/security experts, and infatuated with dictators. It’s that “check and balance” that Republican senators just discarded in the dustbin of history, not because the president was innocent, but because they were too cowardly to find him guilty, and save the nation.
When you combine that with a Department of Justice “policy” that a sitting president can’t be indicted, you’ve just disregarded the wisdom of the founders, blown a hole in the Constitutional “separation of powers”, and given President Trump a green light to rule however he likes – making him our first monarch since we threw King George out in the American Revolution. Ben Franklin and the other framers of our Constitution must be rolling over in their graves.
So, if King Donald wasn’t what you had in mind, good luck, because that’s what senate Republicans have saddled us with for the next 11 months. We’ve all seen enough of the president’s behavior over the last three years to know that he will immediately set about testing his new “blank check” from the Senate legally, ethically, morally, and militarily. If “We the People” want our Republic and our Constitution back whole and un-shredded, we’d better show up, stand up, speak up, and vote like the future of America is at stake – Because it is.
—Brian Peck, Columbia Falls
After years of friendship with a fellow in the Flathead area, I discovered he was associated with David Duke, national notoriety, and former KKK member. My friend solicited business from this fellow while in Louisiana this year and told me he bought Mr. Duke a $200 meal for him and his two friends. Now, this former friend is presently running for political office in the Flathead area. I consider myself to be intelligent and perceptive yet never discovered his beliefs. He kept them secret.
Thankfully, he’s a senior citizen and will not win the election, anyway, but as a Vietnam veteran I’m sad to see how easily I was deceived and how close America, or any country can slip into the hands of this kind of evil that was once perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Tyranny is common historically and a predictable part of world politics but needs to be guarded against in America with strict vigilance. We have a Bill of Rights for a very good reason. It protects us from governmental abuse imposed at any moment by a handful of thugs. We need to remember our history whether it be World War II, the Holocaust, or even the colonial Battle of Concord, fought when Imperial Britain and its mercenaries tried to march into a small church in April of 1775 to confiscate cartloads of muskets and ammunition that were being protected by the Colonists.
Those 700 British soldiers failed that day against 70 colonists aided by Paul Revere. The American revolution began, and the United States of America was born shortly thereafter.
—Mike Donohue, Kalispell