Liz Brown: Oath breakers

When Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, became a medical doctor in 1983, earning a degree from LSU School of Medicine, he had to have sworn to uphold some iteration of the Hippocratic Oath. Not all medical schools share the same language, though most people assume that “do no harm” is elemental. Perhaps it’s only aspirational; after all, everyone — no matter their profession — inevitably does harm in the execution of their work.

In the medical professions, however, the harms have life and death consequences. Cassidy’s decision to affirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services is an abdication of that oath. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance (and other unscientific notions) is a threat to the nation’s collective well-being.

Cassidy, like many other Republican members of the House and Senate, have betrayed their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution by bowing to this nomination and Donald Trump’s many unconstitutional and unhinged edicts.

Instead of worrying about being “primaried,” perhaps Cassidy and those cowed by the president’s threats might worry more about being castrated, in the eyes of historians. Historians have a way, at least for now, of keeping track of who demonstrates courage and integrity in office and those who don’t.

Liz Brown

South Deerfield