To the editor:
In response to Mr. George Allen’s rebuttal opinion (“Keep ‘fiction’ off opinion page,” March 11) to David Carlson’s suggestion that a type of shadow presidency might be called for given the extreme policies and actions of the Trump administration, I would like to point out that while Trump did receive a significant portion of the American vote, the plain undeniable truth is that Hillary Clinton secured three million more popular votes than Trump. So, based on simple mathematics, it seems equally fictitious for Mr. Allen to imply that the “American people voted overwhelmingly for him.”
As to much of what “we” stand for as Americans no longer being under siege, I submit that his definition of “we” does not include those among us who consider first and foremost the highest American value presently under siege is truth, with the worst offenders being members of the new administration.
Less than 100 days into his administration we have a president who falsely accuses anyone with an opinion opposite to his as being “the enemy of the American people,” falsely accuses the prior president of wire-tapping, has proudly proclaimed paying no taxes, will not present evidence to dismiss either his personal or business connections to a nation that openly attacked the U.S. by interfering in our election.
Worse, the chairman of the House committee assigned to investigate connections between the Trump campaign and Russian connection has destroyed his own integrity and any ability to faithfully serve that committee by securing information secretly and excluding his fellow committee members from closed door meetings with those he would investigate.
Further to date, we have had cabinet members, including the highest law officer in the land — the Attorney General of the United States — openly perjure themselves under oath; a vice-president now proven to be a hypocrite as far as pointing fingers at another for use of personal e-mails servers for government documents, and policy advisors and a press secretary offering “alternative facts.”
Is it any wonder then that someone could wish or suggest we have shadow government to help ensure some level of fact-based truth and ethics be maintained?
And exactly what are these great “American values being restored and how can one assign “greatness” if ethics and truth are sacrificed in order to do so. “America First” has a catchy ring to it, but translates easily into “America First at any price” when truth and justice is sacrificed. Truth and ethics aren’t just “lovely intangibles” that are nice to have but not really necessary. They are the very the bedrock foundation of any long-standing and free society.
Regardless of how seditious it may sound to Mr. Allen that someone suggests a need for a “shadow government,” how sad is it that people are sickened this early into Trump’s administration with the pervasive dishonesty that they even consider such a thing.
And yet, some would argue a shadow government already exists given that Trump’s chief policy strategist — Steve Bannon — is quietly executing his goal to “deconstruct the administration” while Trump is running down to Florida every weekend or off on yet another ego-boosting rally somewhere in the country, wasting untold sums of American taxpayer dollars.
Mr. Allen considers Mr. Carlson’s comments as being seditious in nature. However, one can think of worse insults Mr. Allen could inflict on Mr. Carlson than by calling him a seditionist. After all, our founding fathers were the original seditionists.
They willingly chose to commit acts of sedition in order to fight for, first and above all else, an honest and fair government. As citizens who’ve inherited the greatest form of government ever devised from those who sacrificed everything for its creation, we are obligated to remember that truth and honesty were at the heart of this country’s foundation and the core on which our government was based.
Kudos to Mr. Carlson for his seemingly “seditious” thoughts and thank those who fought for freedom that he can express them openly.
Lisa Voiles
Whiteland
