Log in Subscribe

A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $3.20 a month.

Stupid as stupid does

Posted

To the editor:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals made the obvious ruling, that a president is not immune from prosecution for crimes committed while he was in office. After all, if a president could do whatever he wanted without worrying about breaking the law, he could be a dictator.

So it makes no sense for the U.S. Supreme Court to even hear this case, let alone overturn that ruling. The possibility of this happening and the fact that so many people are still willing to vote for Donald Trump shows just how fragile our democracy is.

Our history emphasizes this. When our country was founded, only white male landowners were allowed to vote. Women and people of color were not free. 

Having freedoms written in our constitution is not enough. It takes people to guarantee them.

Also, majority rule must be tempered with minority rights. This is the reason why Trump should not even be on the ballot even IF a majority wanted him. That's why we have the Bill of Rights.

A majority should not be able to rule that a minority that disagrees with them cannot express their opinion. Just as it was wrong when a majority agreed that a minority could be enslaved. A free country is not one who's idea of democracy means that if there are four people in a room, three can vote to beat up the fourth person.

Now nobody is immune from stupidity. But when I make an idiotic mistake, I recognize it as such and try to avoid repeating it. But many people would rather repeat their stupidity than admit they're wrong. While this denial is not limited to Trump supporters, they appear to be the most notable and largest current offenders in this country.

Richard Warren

Comments

2 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • namrogm

    Is anyone sure that Justices Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas will not decide that the president they like (Trump) should be immune from criminal prosecution for anything, including murder?

    Tuesday, March 12 Report this

  • reenjoe

    The problem is that Trump supporters do not view their 2016, 2020 and so-to-be 2024 votes for him as acts of stupidity or wrong in any way. They know and accept all of Trump's faults - his lying, bullying, disrespect for the military, dictatorial tendencies, etc. But, Trump supporters believe ends justify means. One half wants to establish Christian rule. The other half wants a White America and both halves will support anyone who promises to deliver on these goals, period. Trump voters even accept that Trump, himself, is stupid. He can't complete a simple sentence, altered a hurricane path map with a sharpie, asked his lead Covid doctors on live TV whether disinfectant can be ingested, he flip-flopped first praising, then condemning only to once again praise neo-Nazis in Virginia. What highlights Trump's stupidity, over and over again, is his not knowing when to shut up. Only idiots keep digging when they find themselves in a hole; Trump gets a bigger shovel. Hillary Clinton was wrong to call Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables". She would have been entirely correct had she said all too many Trump supporters take pride in acting deplorably.

    Tuesday, March 12 Report this