Curious that out of touch, delusional, extreme, so-called Christians eschew debate; easier to label as hypocrites those with views which differ from theirs.

Our wealth-privileged, grifting, multiply-bankrupted buffoon of an age-diminished president, lacking wisdom, grace, humility, smarts, or a shred of human decency, wages a power-centric campaign against truth, only one of his numerous perceived enemies, wreaking havoc and carelessly undoing thoughtful and forward looking gains made by his predecessors.

Climate change is real. Willy-nilly tariffs are regressive taxation, extremely short-sighted and stupid. Immigrants pay taxes, help fund Social Security and do work that citizens by and large prefer not to do. Things could always be better, but traditionally and constitutionally speaking, there are better fixes than bloating the budget of ICE with its masked, cruel thuggery, militarizing and politicizing the use of the National Guard, and pretending that all who have crossed our borders in pursuit of better life, including work or education, have no right to due process of law and are criminals when most, by far, are not.

Every day presents another outrage as the convicted felon president, the pardoner of those perpetrating January 6 violence, the serial liar (who was found civilly liable for fraud and sexual assault) benefits from systemic flaws he exploits to pursue self interested policies opposed by a majority of voters, reviles humanitarianism, abuses the Constitution, stands above the law and legal accountability, coddles other sex abusers, fires experienced, non-partisan civil servants, values loyalty above competence, and revels in his sordid past while obfuscating the ongoing evils he embraces.

With the age of Trump, honesty and lawmakers with principles and scruples have left the room, defiling the founders’ brilliant ideals, such as one person, one vote democracy, subject to meaningful interdepartmental oversight with checks and balances. We are left with normalized, self-interested stupidity and mediocrity. As a group of voters, we are at high risk of forever losing those ideals, about which, if we are to keep them, we must do ever so much better to understand and protect.

JOE DeCRISTOPHER

Lewisburg

Submitted by email