Letter to the Editor - Government shutdown

Congress appears to be on track to trigger a government shutdown before year’s end as it has so far failed to pass legislation that would fund government operations for the coming year. This impasse is due to a group of conservative House Republicans known as the “Freedom Caucus,” who are ready and willing to shut down our government if their demands for spending cuts are not met! Fair enough to make the case for less spending, but it’s the means to that end — as if their ends justify any and all means — that’s the problem here.

Consider a couple of examples. The far-right, the MAGA Republicans (my biases are showing) are insisting that impeachment proceedings against President Biden must get underway soon or they will act to shut the government down. (We can thank Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene and her ilk for this tactic)!

One more example: as many of the GOP House members see it, the Justice Department under Merrick Garland has become weaponized and is playing fast and loose with the facts in the four indictments and 91 counts against Donald Trump (apparently his saying that it’s all a witch hunt doesn’t make it so after all)! Thus the strategy on their part is to investigate the investigators (think Jim Jordan here), and, while they’re at it, to “Defund the FBI.” After all, the best government for this crowd is the least government—unless, of course, these hard-right folks are the ones in power!

To finish, quite a few of us see Donald Trump as an authoritarian, to say nothing of his other character flaws. Even now he’s a danger to our democracy and he’s not even in office! And can you just imagine what it would be like if we elect him again!

Thank you, reader, for your time.

Rex Regis

Wayne, Pennsylvania