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Dec. 30 To the Editor:

We can finally say goodbye, or perhaps good riddance, to 2019. It was certainly not the best of times politically; it may well have been the worst of times.

It was another year of Donald Trump's monumental mendacity, as evidenced by the 15,000 false and misleading statements documented during his tenure. This single statistic alone is a stark reminder that Trump is unfit to be president. It was also another year of the president denying climate change, hiding his tax returns, opposing renewable energy and environmental protections, coddling dictators and muddling international relations, attempting to destroy Obamacare, and artificially inflating the economy using massive amounts of borrowed money (trillion dollar deficits). It was a year of presidential conspiracy theories, false narratives, foreign intrigue, abuse of power, cover-up and obstruction of Congressional oversight. It was a year of presidential impeachment and the infamous "Quid Pro Quo."

But most importantly, it was a year of desecration and betrayal, a year when the Founding Fathers and the rule of law were betrayed by this nation's conservative party, a year when the desecrated body of our Constitution lay stretched out before us on the funeral pyre of America, awaiting the torch of autocracy. Our republic was on the verge of going up in smoke before our very eyes as partisan members of Congress refused to defend the Constitution against a rogue president who denied the Mueller report and Russian interference in our elections in 2016.

Meanwhile, as America struggled with the debilitating consequences of that election interference, it was easy to imagine Vladimir Putin, the wily old patriarch of Russia, quietly whispering "Mission Accomplished" while giving a thumbs up to comrade Trump, in consummation perhaps of another Quid Pro Quo.

Such is the way that the master of bleakness, Charles Dickens, might have described the recent course of political events in America. We have been on this bleak course for several years now, under the influence of a political party that has turned our government, or at least its executive branch, into a squalid cesspool of deceit, corruption and treachery. I refer of course to the Republican Party and its cult of Trumpism.

We have recently experienced one of the most spectacular examples of Trumpism to date, in the almost unbelievable antics of Republican politicians during the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. It was a bravura performance of gratuitous outrage and indignation, full of angry diatribes that ignored the facts and evidence. It was nothing less than the full monty: Trumpian deceit and denial on an industrial scale.

Of course, there was no reason to expect facts and truth from a party which asserts that "climate change is a hoax" and calls everything it doesn't like a witch hunt, a sham, a scam or a conspiracy. After all, denial of facts and sheer fabrication are the very essence of Trumpian politics, which attempts to create a false reality. This is the kind of reality that sustains Trumpism and many other corrupt political regimes.

History confirms this view. Whether it's the bogus divinity of the Egyptian pharaohs, or the mystical divine right of kings, or the propaganda machines of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, or Trump's 15,000 lies, or the Republican party's counterfeit conservatism, false realities have always been handy for deceiving and manipulating the masses.

New Hampshire is fortunate in not having Republican representatives in Congress who might subscribe to the false realities of Trumpism. As for our neighboring state of Maine, I think it may be time for Susan Collins to repudiate this Trumpian horror show and say goodbye to the Republican Party by declaring herself an Independent.

Better yet, perhaps it is time for conservatives of good conscience to regroup and form a new party, one that really believes in the Constitution, the rule of law and the integrity of our electoral system. Conservative America desperately needs such a party.

Ron Sheppe

Rochester

The rest is here:
Letter: Republican Party has become the cult of Trump - Foster's Daily Democrat