" Treason in the Halls of Congress" letter to the editor Tom Denton

Those who think alarms about deteriorating American democracy are hyperbolic should look squarely at the radical Congressional Republicans’ response to the proposed bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection:  do nothing.  Instead, bend to the command of “the Don” Trump, who wants no investigation of that attempt to subvert the US Constitution.  Why should he?  He organized it. 

 

It’s all of a piece that began in the campaign of 2016, when the now-disgraced former President claimed that he couldn’t lose unless the election were corrupt.  (Surprise!  He won!  Guess that means the election was fair.)  Fast forward to 2021 as the radical Republican agenda proceeds: the Big Lie about a stolen election (he lost), legislation to suppress the votes of targeted populations, even new state laws to move jurisdiction over elections from officials who try to run fair contests to partisan legislatures. 

 

The radical Republicans’ vote against the commission keeps the wheels grinding for their plan to devour democracy.

Publishing history:

 Times Herald Record           5/28/2021

"Sen. Martucci falsely accuses Democrats" Letter to the editor Doris Chormy

 Dear Editor,

New York State Senator Mike Martucci, R-New Hampton, falsely claims that “Albany Democrats are sponsoring legislation that would add a new 55 cent-per gallon tax on New Yorkers at the gas pump."

Martucci doesn’t identify the bill, of course. The Democrats did author a bill called The Climate and Community Investment Act, S4264. It charges corporate polluters for their emissions, not drivers getting gas. It also protects workers in the fossil fuel industry as they transition to renewable energy jobs.

Better that the senator propose his own bill to benefit the environment rather than falsely accuse Democrats about bills they never wrote. In this he is true to his party, which is currently taking credit for the very popular pandemic rescue plan, a Biden plan that not a single Republican voted for!

Publishing history: Daily Freeman 5-10-21

" We, the Government" letter to the editor Tom Denton

In his speech to Congress on April 28, President Biden asserted that “we the people” are “the government.  You and I.”  With this proclamation he intends for the nation to turn away from the course it adopted when Ronald Reagan declared government the “problem” at our doorstep.  Biden reminds us that the people have power—that government can be good or bad, effective or ineffective, according to the choices the people make in their votes for representation. 

We the people—never united in our views, of course—allowed the Reaganite standards to dominate economic and political life until the hint of a course correction in Obama’s 2008 election, which produced the significant Tea Party backlash two years later.  Trump’s election and the unification of a radical Republican party generated a surge of counter activism that led the country to a different choice.  People power, ever stirring and always in tension with its differences, now pushes President Biden to think big.

 

Biden’s ambitious agenda—the passed COVID relief bill, the proposed American Jobs and Families Plans—aims to harness government to meet people’s essential needs, neglected far too long:  new jobs built on a response to climate change; economic equality that restores a thriving and broad-based middle class; racial justice that creates equal opportunities for building wealth and lives lived in safety and respect; subsidies for health care, child care, and education that give everyone a better chance to lead healthy, happy, productive lives.  If Biden’s proposed legislation passes, even in part, radical Republicans in Congress will find it difficult to convince Americans that government cannot work to serve the people’s needs.

 

We the people do have the power and the instrument—if we speak up, speak out, act.  Pressure our representatives, campaign, vote.  We can make our government work for us, the people. 

Publishing history:

Daily Freeman  5/3/21

Hudson Valley One, Shawangunk Journal  5/6/21

Sullivan Democrat 5/5/21

Columbia Register Star    5/4/21