Republicans need to stand up for American values, and not be Trump enablers

Posted 17 July 2018 at 8:31 am

Editor:

First, allow me these three asides:

This summer might be the perfect one for getting into providing water for “your” birds.  Once begun, changing the water in a bird bath should be a daily ritual.

Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina may not know the Constitution as well as he thinks he does. During the farcical interrogation of Peter Strzok, Gowdy spoke of impeachment as though he was confusing “indictment” by the House of Representatives with conviction by the United States Senate.

Wouldn’t it be special if the Orleans County Legislature helped the Towns of Barre and Yates with the costs of their efforts to navigate the specter of 600-foot-high wind turbines being erected in otherwise pristine wooded areas of each as Niagara County Legislators have done for Somerset?

When Iowa governor Robert Ray died earlier this week at age 89, the nation gave up another shining example of the decency that defines who we are as a people. As governor, Ray welcomed Southeast Asian refugees at a time when many others refused.

Governor Ray had much in common with politicians such as John McCain (the guy the Trumpster thought was only a hero because he got captured), Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Charley Dent and our 16th President.

Among other noteworthy red staters was Senator Bob Dole. Dole nagged Mr. Clinton until he took a stand against the thugs who often hid behind a veil of sanctimonious religion to systematically subject Bosnian Muslim families to the unspeakable (make Hitler proud) horrors visited upon them by “don’t confuse me with the facts” nitwits like Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. At his trial at The Hague, one of them insisted he was innocent of war crimes because he didn’t actually execute anyone. He just gave the orders that resulted in the slaughter of thousands.

But choreographed executions were major improvements over the far more imaginative, depraved acts of horrific barbarity done in the interests of the ethnic /religious purity some seem to so prize.

Ray and Dole had an arguably better understanding of what the United States of America is all about than many of their contemporaries.

While it is safe to say that this writer will never have an (R) beside his name, the people alluded to above (unlike many of today’s enablers) would help make it possible for me to be proud to call myself one.

Regards,

Gary Kent

Albion