Jim Palermo’s Feb. 17 letter (“Klobuchar is the right choice for Democrats”) praises Amy Klobuchar’s ability to “bring healing” to the Senate — in other words, to work with the other side of the aisle.
Has he looked at the other side of the aisle recently? The GOP isn’t “the Big Tent” of years back. It’s the Trump Party. Anyone who follows the news knows he has always demanded loyalty to him — the boss — not to the Constitution. When Trump locked kids into cages at the border and separated families, when he banned Muslims while welcoming neo-Nazis to the White House — “fine people,” he said — destroyed our environmental protections, attacked democratic institutions like the fact-based press (“enemies of the people,” he said) and a formerly independent judiciary, slamming judges he didn’t like (a “Mexican judge” for one with a Spanish surname), this Republican Party did nothing to stop him.
Senate Republicans voted to exclude witnesses from Trump’s impeachment “trial” in the Senate for blackmailing a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival. They excluded any documents from the “trial.” That’s not a trial, it’s a conspiracy.
The “moderate” Republican Susan Collins hypocritically justified her vote by saying, “He’s learned his lesson.” He learned it so well that his first act after the cover-up was to fire U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and go after his twin brother, humiliating them by having security march them out of the White House. This Purple Heart vet’s crime? Telling the truth. His brother’s crime? Being Vindman’s brother. Sure, go after the family — pure Mafia.
You can’t work with “the other side of the aisle.” They’re not our democratically elected representatives anymore. They’re members of a gang. All we can do is try to vote them out of office. And not fall for false promises of conciliation and “healing.”
David Ball
Northampton