Political parties liable for the damage they cause
A political party that backs a candidate is like a business that brands a product. The brand is an implicit guarantee of the product’s quality. When a brand-name product causes harm, the business becomes liable for damages. Consumers then become leery of anything that business markets.
America has a president, sold to us under the Republican brand, who is causing great harm. He has looted our national treasury, encouraged white supremacists to back him up with violence, taken bribes from foreigners, trashed our democratic elections, packed his administration with criminals, refused to use his authority to lead us to safety during a pandemic, used his office to fill his pockets, behaved criminally himself and lied about all this with a straight face multiple times a day. In short, he is a grossly defective and extremely dangerous product.
The reality show that is Donald Trump is smashing stuff so fast that it’s hard to focus on each disastrous episode before the next one pops up on our screens. Americans expect that their government will protect them from harm, but this president is systematically destroying those functions of government that protect us from dangerous people like him. Our system of agreed rules is not designed to cope with such radical perversion.
Political parties have the responsibility to inspect their merchandise for defects, to identify and reject prospective candidates whose mental and moral status would pose a danger to the public, just as any business must do with attractive but potentially dangerous products.
It is bad enough that voters are regularly hoodwinked into buying charismatic egoism. But, when our kids start to clamor for party-backed criminal sociopathy in their breakfast bowls it’s time to step back and ask: Why would we want to bring home to our families and neighborhoods any Republican product?
Jay Moor
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 11/29/20