The political cartoon on the Gazette’s July 23 opinion page was totally inappropriate. The cartoon pretends to lampoon a fact, but instead just amplifies a lie. A true fact is the red-hat wearing elephant, representing the Republicans led by the Felon-in-Chief D.J. Trump, has been committing crimes 100 times, even 1,000 times greater than any other office holder(s) in our nation’s history. Trump, his family, and cronies have stolen, extorted, and committed fraud. The dissembling, extortion, and incompetence (DEI) of the last 20 months is shocking and threatens to make our 250th anniversary into a funeral for the republic.
Boldly committing crimes in public and defying anyone to stop them or even truthfully report what is going on is a central tactic of the Republican attack on the rule of law. It is the rule of law they are conspiring to destroy that actually makes America great. This tactic is just one track among the many the Republicans are following to undo our nation. The next step along this track is to normalize their crimes by pushing the lie that “Everybody (meaning all politicians) does it.” That lie is endlessly repeated so as to become accepted common wisdom. The final step is to amplify the lie by claiming it is the Democrats, the shifty looking donkey in the cartoon, not the Republicans, who are actually the crooks.
Politics is the art of balancing opinions, interests, and actions to avoid violence in working out conflicts. It should never be confused with amplifying counterfactual claims casually mixed in with reports of the bad deeds that constitutes the bulk of the news every day under Trump. The opinion page should never be hijacked to be a free billboard supporting outrageously hacking away at the foundations of our democracy.
George Danziger
Florence