Gianforte, Daines should put country before party Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte, I am writing today to call on you to uphold your vows to protect the Constitution and our Democratic republic. In our highest office is a man who consistently praises dictators and autocrats, and who antagonizes our allies. He is undermining and dismantling our institutions. He has publicly defamed and contradicted our intelligence community and called the press the enemy of the people. It is proven he has broken the law, obstructed justice, intimidated, threatened, and fired witnesses to his lawlessness. Hell, he admits it! Days after his impeachment trial acquittal, emboldened, Trump escorted a Purple Heart veteran and his brother off the White House grounds for speaking truth to power! Did your gut not wrench upon seeing this? Did your brow not furrow? A president firing truth-tellers and using our justice department as goons to investigate and jail his opponents? Using that same department to “review” investigations of his cronies and himself? These are textbook actions of a budding autocrat. He is using your fear and cowardice about speaking out to silence you. Now Trump is handing out pardons to criminals and cronies, undermining our judicial system daily, and attempting to make it his own. You stand idly by and watch as Russia actively engages in cyber warfare to use Trump to dismantle our democracy. You and your colleagues are witnessing the step by step destruction of the greatest democratic experiment the world has seen. Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “… A republic, if you can keep it.” Well you must act to keep it. It’s on you, senator and representative, to be a check, to balance the power of a president who has brought our democracy to the precipice of demise. Choose country before party. Before it’s too late. Alicia Buck
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 2/27/20