The “Silent Majority” is Neither

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      I was appalled to read the screed by Tracey Sievers in the July 21st issue.  The author rails about attacks on the president as evil and about “crimes” but gives no examples, just unsubstantiated nonsense and conspiracy theories.  People complain about the president for a host of real reasons, not fake reasons.  Here are just a few.

The author complains about corruption, but Trump is the most corrupt president ever.  He holds campaign events and golf trips most weeks at his personal resorts, and the taxpayers and his campaign donors pay Trump businesses millions of dollars for people to stay there, lining Trump’s pockets.  He withheld aid to Ukraine to try to get them to help his campaign.  His businesses accept millions from foreigners, which is unconstitutional.  He asked China to pursue policies that will help him politically.  He pardoned Roger Stone in return for Stone’s refusal to testify against Trump.  Our ambassador to Great Britain officially asked the British government, at Trump’s direction, to move the British Open golf tournament to one of Trump’s golf courses.  The inspector general investigated, but his report was hidden as “classified” and the inspector general was fired.

      Trump flouts the rule of law constantly.  His lawyers claimed in court that he cannot be prosecuted or even investigated, in effect that he is above the law.  He fills key positions with acting people who are often unqualified and overstay the time limit for acting status, circumventing the need for Senate confirmation.   He illegally transferred funds from the military to build his pointless border wall (most undocumented immigrants entered legally and overstayed their visas).

      The author complains about constitutional rights being violated.  Trump had peaceful protestors forcibly removed so he could do a photo op.  He sent armed people without any identification to arrest people in D.C. and put them in unmarked cars without cause.   He is now doing it again in Portland, OR over the objections of the governor, the mayor, both U.S. senators, and the U.S. attorney.  This is an unconstitutional usurpation of state and local police power.  He has expressed a hope that he could execute journalists that he disagreed with.

      The author complains about treason, crimes against humanity and crimes against children.  Trump has threatened to veto a military funding bill because it would remove the names of Confederate generals-- who committed treason and tried to destroy the country--from military bases.  Trump’s treatment of asylum seekers is a violation of international law.  His policy of separating children from their parents at the border broke families permanently since his administration deported, and lost track of, the parents.

      Trump is incompetent.  He doesn’t read his intelligence briefings. He went to court to abolish Obamacare, which would deprive millions of health insurance during a pandemic.  The U.S. has the most cases of COVID-19 of any country and arguably the poorest response.  He advocated use of an unproven drug and suggested injecting Lysol as a way to cure the disease.  The E.U., Mexico, and others have issued a travel ban against Americans going to those countries because our infection rate is so high.  He didn’t object to Russia offering bounties for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.  His trade war against China backfired since he first alienated our trading partners who might have helped against China.  He gave legitimacy to Kim Jung-Un and got nothing in return.

      Trump lies nearly every day.  He claimed Mexico would pay for his border wall.  He claimed that COVID-19 was a hoax, then that it would spontaneously disappear.  Just this week he claimed we had the lowest death rate from COVID-19, which is false.  He claimed a hurricane was going to hit Alabama then forged a map to try to justify the lie.

Lastly, the slogan at the end of the piece, “Where We Go One We Go All” is the slogan of QAnon, a right wing extremist group that has been labeled a terrorist group by the FBI.  Twitter has restricted tens of thousands of QAnon-related accounts for spreading harassing and false information.  Far from being a “silent majority”, people like Tracey Sievers are a loud but tiny group, and they are the ones out to destroy America whether they realize it or not.

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Published by Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune 28 July, 2020