To the Editor:
Re: Martin Farrell's December 12, 2019 Editorial.
Apparently, you believe that all Democrats are subject to an “utter lust for power, complete absence of conscience, wholly incapable of truth, with no sense of humor,” not just in politics, but in all things. Even the lady who checks you out at the market, the man who repairs your car, or the priest who says your Mass? If you do, no wonder you sound so isolated and angry.
We are in a momentous time in our country. All Americans want to avoid the disruption and unknown inherent in an Impeachment. There are many risks involved, especially when the ultimate outcome is known, thanks to the recent comments by Mitch McConnell, winking and assuring us all that the president will be “vindicated.”
The president is accused of enlisting a foreign power to help him in the 2020 election, consistent with his earlier admission he would not refuse foreign election help if offered (as he did in 2016). He accuses the Democrats of an unfair process, but he insists on a “blanket immunity,” refusing to allow any of the primary sources to testify or provide documents. There is no choice; the congress must call Trump out on such unconstitutional acts, if only to prevent future presidents from using Trump’s twisted arguments.
But, bless your heart, Martin, you did make me smile (though sardonically) when you decried the terrible motives and process used in the House hearings on impeachment. You lamented that, “what goes around comes around - and it is quickly coming around now. It will take generations to recover the trust and respect that once existed between the two American parties. “
If that is true, and future politicians fail to recognize the necessity of working for the good of the country, we are lost. And it will not be laid at the feet of the Trump Impeachment. It will go at least as far back as the refusal of Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in the last 11 months of Obama’s term. “Let the voters decide,” was McConnell’s argument. Recently, McConnell laughingly asserted that, if a vacancy on the Court arose at any point in the next 11 months of the Trump administration, he would send a nomination to the Senate (and “let the voters decide” be damned). Such is the political virtue of Mr. McConnell and his like-minded GOPers.
If it is not possible to consider facts and fully argue them, there is no democracy. I suggest that your vilification of all Democrats is one way to ensure politics is bloodsport. I hope your holidays are peaceful and joyous. We can probably all use a little time for reflection.
Kelly Scoles, Fillmore