Op/Ed
Letter to the editor: Many reasons to vote against former president
I understand that you are planning to vote for Donald Trump. This is painful to hear on many levels, and I’ve written this letter in an attempt to talk you out of it.
• The man is a non-stop liar and braggart, whose mean-spirited and vindictive rhetoric incites the most intolerant and divisive passions in his supporters, stoking their grievances and inflaming them to violence against fellow citizens and against our own government, as he did on Jan. 6, 2020. The realities and problems we face as a nation are obscured by the fog of lies and disinformation he promotes. Our constitution and the rule of law, and the safety of poll workers, his political opponents and those who would uphold the law, will be in jeopardy if he were to be elected or even if the vote is close, as it will likely be.
• This is a man who tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power that has occurred after every presidential election since the founding of our republic. Against overwhelming evidence, he still claims the election was stolen from him, even though more than 60 lawsuits have been either thrown out, dismissed on procedural grounds or decided against him on the merits. This is his big lie.
• In his 78 years, even while in the presidency, there is no evidence of him ever serving any interest beyond his own. His former Defense Secretary (Mark Esper) has declared him “a threat to democracy…His actions are all about him and not about the country,” and his former National Security Advisor (John Bolton) has called him “unfit to be president.” His second Chief of Staff John Kelly described Trump as “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
• He openly aspires to be a dictator unrestrained by the rule of law. He admires Putin and Victor Orban above all other foreign leaders. He has said he would not hesitate to use the military against our own citizens. His election would be a disaster for aspiring democracies and republics around the world and an encouragement to despots.
• His denial of human-induced climate change, coddling of oil and gas companies and rejection of basic environmental regulation would be a catastrophe for the country and the planet. More than ever before, we need cooperation and mutual respect among the nations of the world to curb the effects of climate change.
I know you value honesty and integrity, and your life is emblematic of those traits. You have always been measured with your words and deliberate in your actions and honored your commitments to family and work. This being the case, why would you spend your one and only vote on a man of such low character, one who promises division and rancor and violence for our country? When did honesty and character, or at least civility, cease to matter as qualifications for the highest office in the land? There is a disconnect here that I don’t understand.
Louis Dupont
New Haven
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