As a disillusioned Republican, I have written Letters to the Editors before that were never published. I have now been told that Letters to the Editors should be limited to 350 words.
With this in mind, let me cover last week alone. Donald Trump announces to the electorate that on Nov. 3, 2020, they need to go down and vote a second time. This is called election fraud and is a felony criminal offense.
Referring to a trip to Bella Wood, Trump said that the American troops that lost their lives in that battle were losers and suckers. In my opinion, Bella Wood is sacred ground. Anybody that avoided their military obligation with a never documented bone spur is dishonorable slime.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager met with Russian Intelligence and they were given internal polling. If this does not meet the definition of treason, then I do not know what would.
Donald Trump previously indicated that he was going to nominate Ted Cruz for the recent vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Months ago, Trump accused Senator Ted Cruz’s father of being involved in the Kennedy assassination. The Republican Party makes no comment. I have concluded the Republican Party (in particular the Tennessee Delegation of Lamar Alexander, Marsha Blackburn, Chuck Fleischmann and Scott Desjarlais) has no shame.
So when my old friends come up and ask me what has happened to the Republican Party, the only response I have is that Trump is dismantling the Republican Party, and it is being damaged far more than at Watergate and will take longer to repair.
Graham Swafford
South Pittsburg
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Mr. Swafford, I won’t comment about locals you say expressed concern over the Republican Party, but I will give a reason why the party is changing.
Many of the these Republicans now endorsing Joe Biden were governors, members of Congress or at some level of party leadership. These RINOS are registered lobbyists or board members of corporations doing big business with Chinese corporations because they are among the biggest players right now. The latest of these is Marc Racicot who is hardly a household name. He is the former governor of Montana and former chairman of the RNC. He is now a lobbyist.
You ask what’s happening to the Republican Party? These people who once identified as Republicans have left apparently to endorse Joe Biden. The question you should ask is why do a group of inside the beltway, high roller lobbyists and former generals choose Joe Biden over Donald Trump?
Before the virus from China, Trump was in a standoff with China over the disparity of trade which gave China a great advantage over American businesses and workers. It’s no coincidence these RINOS don’t want to see Trump empowered with a win over Joe Biden. After all it’s Joe Biden who has stated China is no threat to America.
That’s why the Republican Party has changed.
Ralph Miller
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Let me respond in sequence of the original letter.
1. It is not election fraud to request to do a provisional ballot. When you mail (in other states allow other methods of collection) your ballot, improvements starting with this election allows for verification of your request, the mailing (to you) of your ballot and the receipt of the returned ballot. But what you never can know is if the ballot is verified and accepted to be counted. Response was that signature, witness and any other checks they do to verify and accept the ballot is not done until opening of the polls on election day. I have not found anywhere the statistics on rejected ballots locally, but with 20 percent plus rejection rates documented in several locations I may decide not to take the chance of my vote being rejected and go to the polls to ask for a provisional ballot if I want to make sure my vote counts. That is what Trump said, but not that detailed, because he knows to the haters, nothing he says will be accepted.
2. You obviously never served in the Marines. You would have never made it through my boot camp thinking that Ringling Brothers Circus performer (Bella) was a WW1 battle. It is Belleau Wood. You believe a so called journalist, who has previously been shown to falsify sources, when he says an anonymous source said Trump did not want to go and said the “losers and suckers” crap. But dozens of people who were actually there are on the record says it never happened. But losers and suckers believe anything.
3. The same anonymous source (or the reporter if he made up the source) said Trump did not want to go to the first cemetery (contradicted on the record by the people actually there) because he did not want to get his hair wet. But the very next day, he stool in the rain for over 1 ½ hours at the second scheduled cemetery. But losers and suckers believe anything.
4. The bone spur was documented. That is how the deferral was made. You must not have gone or ever known anyone who went to an induction center for processing. They do not give you a deferral by you just saying “I have a bone spur”. For anyone around and eligible for the draft back then, there were thousands of people who tried to find ways out of being drafted. There were documented cases of boys dropping weights on their foot to try to develop flat feet for the deferral. I enlisted in the Marines to not be drafted as cannon fodder in the Army in later days of Vietnam. Bill Clinton lied to a U.S. senator to manipulate him into intervening and getting that dishonorable slime his deferral. And of course there were those who went to Canada. I don’t know the validity of Trump’s medical deferment, and neither do you. But hatred does not need actual information.
5. I agree: You don’t know the definition of treason. Let’s see if you think this is treason:
a. Conspire and pay to produce a false document as add to an “insurance policy” to aid in a conspiracy to sabotage the legally elected government of the United States.
b. Conspire to cause a false investigation of “Russian Collusion", as in recent documents unclassified.
c. Destroy and or wipe clean government property (phones, etc.) to keep records from being obtained by investigators. Multiple times. Multiple methods. Remember the hammers used?
d. Bugging/tapping (whatever term you want to use) a presidential campaign and beyond that a serving President. Remember that the warrant obtained from the FISA court with known false documentation and statements, such as the dossier (brought by Hillary and the DNC), did not just allow Carter Page to be bugged, but also anyone he communicated with (i.e. Manafort) and any that person communicated with (i.e. Trump).
e. Illegally changing document submitted to FISA court.
These are all things the Democrat party engaged in with Hillary and corrupt Washington (the swamp) government employees, such as Comey’s FBI circle of corruption (Strzok, Page, Clinesmith, Wiseman, etc.) and others Brennan, Clapper, etc. And recent evidence unclassified shows both Biden and Obama were involved. Unfortunately, these do not meet the legal definition of treason, but they should. The question is why they will never be held to account for any of the crimes. As for an internal poll being shared with anyone, it is not a government document and can be shared by whoever owns the data.
6. What was said by professional politicians has always been crap. Trump trying to fit in that slimy world and with his New York City upbringing, did not surprise me when he repeated a vague story that had been circulated for years with no one taking it serious. Trump did not “accuse” if you actually look at what was said, but why bother to be accurate.
Personally, I do not really care if either the Democrat or Republican parties are harmed. The two of them have cooperated to prevent any chance of another political party. While there is nothing in the Constitution for “political parties” and George Washington said permanent political parties will be the death of the republic, the duopoly or Democrat/Republicans have done everything they can to cause an unethical situation. Why don’t Independents, Libertarians, Green Party members, etc. have any representation in Federal Election Commission, Federal Debate Commission, etc. You don’t count unless you are either a Democrat or Republican. If you don’t like the current environment where it is a “us versus them” ,each side with hatred and despising each other, you can thank the professional politicians and other swamp creatures. Trump is the result of this, not the cause.
I did not vote for Trump in 2016, but the corruption shown by the Democrats in the conspiracy to take down Trump has convinced me to support him this time, even though I would rather have someone with a different personality. But I don’t vote for personality, I vote for actions. Biden has had actions in the last 47 years in the professional politician slime bath, but I just can’t find many that are good (or true in his case). And his so-called plans are disaster waiting to happen for the country.
Jim Hill