Trump worst of all
Editor, The Commercial,
I am a Democrat. Have been since I cast my first ballot; probably before then.
Back then, politics played little part in the way the South was governed, except come Election Day. I don't recall paying much attention.
Sen. John Kennedy was a Democrat but not a real popular one. He was a Yankee, after all, and he talked funny, and he was a Cat'lic (we weren't really anti-Cat'lic, but it didn't make us like him more). Our opinions didn't change much after he went to the White House, even if he was a veteran (so were most of our fathers), and did have a pretty wife, but that changed after a fateful trip to Dallas.
I remember that Congressmen who couldn't say enough bad things about JFK suddenly started to sing his praises, laud his words and actions, deeds and plans. That struck me as rather two-faced. If I don't like somebody, I don't start to like them just because they die. I might druther they hadn't, but I don't like them better cause they did.
Ike I liked. He was a good, honest politician, and a decorated military leader. He was an honorable and respectable man. Didn't matter that he was a Republican; he still had plenty of admirable qualities.
Couldn't say the same about Tricky Dick. Maybe I hadn't studied enough politics beforehand, but it bothered me about every which way he turned. By the time he quit, I didn't think there could be a worse politician. W changed that. He made Dick look smart by comparison, and quite deft in foreign affairs.
I wish John McCain had made the cut. I could'a supported him, might would'a voted for him, and felt good about doing so.
Then along comes this last guy, and he makes W look smart, and Dick look honest (and he can't say enough bad things about McCain). I can't say I totally disagreed with everything he did (Afghanistan was a mistake from the start; we should'a learned from the French).
What astonished me, and still does, is the vehemence displayed by his supporters. People with whom I frolicked on a playground or broke bread at a family gathering have now demonized me because I refuse to bow and scrape to a party line built on simplistic catchphrases extolling a bygone era that never existed. I am stunned, not that they were swayed by the rhetoric of a demagogue but that they continue to ignore the evidence of his malfeasance. He cares nought for them; they are merely a means to an end, and that end is all that matters to him, not them; never them.
I concur that he was unfairly targeted, but only in that the timing and targeting were off. The first impeachment was a rush job, and Nancy Pelosi knew it, yet she caved to party pressure, when worse actions were yet in the offing (they hadn't given him enough rope yet).
The second impeachment was also poorly planned. Instead of trying to flog a dead horse, the effort would have been better spent in going for a jury trial for sedition, just as would be done with a regular civilian. That way, the charges could be brought before a jury of non-legislators, presented after a longer period of preparation, and could lead to a more severe punishment in case of conviction.
Instead of a censure or being barred from running for or holding public office, conviction could result in imprisonment (though extremely unlikely) or revocation of citizenship. The latter would send a resounding thunderclap through the halls of democracy, and serve as a stern warning for all politicians of every stripe, in every nation.
Instead of becoming the next Pete Rose, Donald Trump would become the white O.J.
D.H. Ridgway,
Pine Bluff