Michael A. Clarke: Republicans stained by their support of Trump’s unpopular policies
It seems to me that President-lost-the-popular-vote Trump has made some peculiar decisions, which make me wonder what country he thinks he is leading. His cabinet choices include scientific illiterates who deny the facts about global warming and religious zealots who want to destroy public schools and make it legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Another choice is a physician who would take health insurance coverage away from millions of people (coverage supported by a majority of the American citizens and large numbers of primary care physicians). A racist has been selected to enforce civil rights laws that protect minorities from racism. The list goes on.
The Republicans in the legislature, including our own Jeff Denham, are also demonstrating loyalty to ideas that don’t fit the traditional American values of equality, separation of church and state, and the right of all citizens to vote. They may claim they represent the people’s wishes, but they forget that their leader came in second when the votes were counted.
In the past, one could respect Republicans who were honest and principled. Today many are supporting a racist, sexist homophobe.
Michael A. Clarke, Salida
This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Michael A. Clarke: Republicans stained by their support of Trump’s unpopular policies."