Bozeman GOP too scared of Trump to defend democracy Our Constitution only matters if those in positions of power have the courage to uphold and defend it. I wanted to believe that Republican senators and congressmen would do so, but they’re no longer the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan. They’re Trump’s party now, and he has them penned like salmon in a cage of fear, where they must parrot every lie, block all witnesses, and hide all documents, and where they must peddle Russia’s “Ukraine did it” conspiracy and then chant on cue at Trump’s rallies. For them, the Ukraine call was “perfect,” the Russia investigation was a “hoax,” all the women are liars, Obama forged his birth certificate, and Trump never met Stormy Daniels. Unlike some of their cohorts, Sen. Daines and Congressman Gianforte are sentient enough to recognize the threat Trump poses. They get intelligence briefings. They know that Russia helped elect Trump in 2016 and is trying again in 2020. They know what’s in the Mueller Report, even if they’re too afraid to read it. They watch as Trump kowtows to Putin, attacks war heroes and trashes patriots like McCain and Romney. They kneel in complicit silence as Trump threatens witnesses, prosecutors, judges and jurors, while protecting traitors like Flynn, Manafort and Stone. They know what John Bolton will testify to under oath, in fact, they know all about the drug deal that Trump and Giuliani were cooking up in Ukraine. Trump Tower Moscow, Russian money laundering, Deutsche Bank — Daines and Gianforte know everything. They just don’t care. They’re so terrified of Trump and his Russian mobsters that they’ll sacrifice their children’s democracy. The framers of the Constitution envisioned and put in safeguards to deal with a corrupt president. What our Constitution didn’t envision was senators and congressmen too frightened to care about it. John Mills Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 2/27/20