Voters can push back against authoritarian U.S. president and embrace democratic republic

Editor:

I am writing in response to Donald Allport’s October 27 letter to the editor, which reads like typical right-wing fearmongering disguised as a patriotic plea for Republican voter turnout.

Hanlon’s Razor tells us never to attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance, so I’ll extend Mr. Allport that courtesy. He claims voters face a choice between Rule of Law and Rule by Law. In his telling, the election is a contest between good, Constitution-loving Republicans and evil, America-hating Democratic Socialists, Marxists, Communists, Leninists, Anarchists and so on. The projection is baffling. The party he so ardently supports may be the best example of Rule by Law, where laws are applied selectively and certain classes of citizens are held to different standards. (I’m still waiting for the full release of the Epstein files, by the way.)

More concerning is that our nation is governed by a party that treats rule by executive decree as an effective way to govern. In January 2016, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Donald Trump criticized President Barack Obama’s use of executive orders: “We have a president that can’t get anything done so he just keeps signing executive orders all over the place.” Yet even with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate, President Trump leans heavily on the executive order. He has signed 292 in his second term alone, a pace of roughly 173 a year, the highest of any president since at least 1981. His 512 executive orders across a term and a half already exceed Dwight Eisenhower’s two-term total, though he still has a long way to go to catch that evil socialist, Franklin Roosevelt.

Mr. Allport also appears to be an ardent supporter of free-market capitalism. One issue that unites New Yorkers, and Americans generally, is the cost of the services that meet our basic needs: water, electricity, natural gas and gasoline. Of these, water is the one most often run as a public, socialized utility, including in parts of Orleans County. Meanwhile, we complain about the rising cost of electricity, natural gas and gasoline and blame it on corrupt, out-of-control government officials, excessive taxes, or laws passed by left-leaning supermajorities. We never blame free-market capitalism, or the corporations answering to shareholders who expect maximum profits.

This election is not about individual freedom versus “big government’s ruling class.” It is about a party that is actively seeking to harm America’s most vulnerable people by stripping away basic protections and support to line the pockets of corporate shareholders and billionaires. It is about a government without accountability, and a party that is destabilizing the United States and the world to feed a petty, tinpot dictator’s ego. It is about a party that controls the White House and both chambers of Congress and has a majority on the Supreme Court, yet cannot seem to accomplish anything except prove its own incompetence. In doing so, it feeds its own story that the federal government is a bloated, ineffective bureaucracy.

Mr. Allport is right about one thing: we still have the freedom, for now, to decide which path our nation takes. Do we “kneel beneath the boot heels of tyrants,” or even lick those boots? Or do we “march into the future as free citizens” who show kindness and care for one another? Free citizens who understand that the success of the collective depends on the success of the individual. That success should not hinge on luck and good fortune despite Vice President Vance’s statements at a rally in Ohio, telling voters, “I want your kids to know that if they work hard and they get a little bit lucky, there is no dream too big.” Hard work should be enough. No child’s future should depend on getting lucky.

This is a call to younger voters who want to see positive change in our country and around the world. Individual rights do not mean putting yourself above everyone else. It’s time to give the “me, me, me” generation the boot and bring in leadership that can make the radical changes needed to preserve and grow this democratic republic.

Matthew Ballard

LeRoy, NY