Dear Editor,

My father voted Republican for over 70 years. By the time the 2018 midterms rolled around, he was so disgusted he vowed to vote for Democrats. Donald Trump was destroying everything my dad respected; the Republican Party allowed it.

Trump trashes media sources we have respected for years. He meddled in the USPS. He claims our election results cannot be valid if he loses. He undermines our FBI and CIA. He closed the borders to China, but allowed 40,000 U.S. citizens and authorized travelers to return to the U.S. With no national plan, many returned without tests or quarantine, seeding infection in our communities. 

His inadequate response to the pandemic has cost thousands of lives. After the COVID outbreak at a South Dakota Smithfield plant, the CDC’s world-renowned epidemic team was forced to water down recommendations for the first time, ever. We heard Trump’s own words of betrayal: he downplayed the virus to avoid panic, keeping facts from us that could have saved lives. 

He wasn’t worried about the American people. He was only worried about the stock market. Trump believed he had to choose the economy over public health. Our economy suffers anyway. Now he is choosing herd immunity as our path. Medical experts warn this would result in additional deaths in the millions.

Officials from the Defense Department, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Justice Department, State Department and White House, many of whom worked closely with Trump, are raising an alarm. Most worked for Presidents of both parties. Trump claims to know more than economists, military, medical, public health, science and national security experts. There is a 90 percent turnover in key positions. Nearly 500 retired generals, admirals and senior civilian national security officials, who never comment on politics, endorsed Joe Biden and blasted Trump.

Former Defense Secretary Mattis: “Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.  We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.” 

Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer: “The President has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” 

John Kelly, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general and former White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump, said “There is a concern, I think an awful big concern, that the partisanship has gotten out of hand, the tribal thing has gotten out of hand.” 

It is time to put country before party. It is time to reject a man who is not up to the job. 

Carrie Head

Chana