We often hear about how younger people are horrified by Donald Trump and his antics, but the president is just as equally disgusting to Americans who have lived through decade after decade and seen the country change. To someone who is more familiar with America’s history than most of us, Trump’s rhetoric and presidency is terrifying.
Vaughn Davis Bornet, a 101-year-old historian living in Ashland, Oregon, has made a desperate plea to Americans ahead of midterms to discourage support for Trump and how he has influenced America’s political environment. The elderly scholar, who has a Ph.D. from Stanford University, has written a letter ridiculing Trump for ruining our country:
So it has come to this: Our free press is subject to ridicule; actually, it is undergoing threat. Presidential antagonism is approaching entirely too close to action.”
In his letter, Bornet talks about how Trump has transformed the White House’s relationship with the press for the worst:
Not too long ago, political opposition to “the press” was quietly endured as “well meaning, but wrong.” Now, the expression “lock her up” has spread from a candidate’s lips to an office-holder’s lips. It has become a slogan. Worse, Donald J. Trump’s favorite outcry “Fake News” is no longer exotic; it is commonplace, or close enough. It is regarded in some places as a normal way to refer to America’s daily news headlines.”
All of these things that are happening to us from within our American government in 2018 are important. But the travails of the press are damaging to the point they simply cannot be laughed off, ridiculed, treated as “no more than a joke, really.” We have to enjoy a free press. That’s A FREE PRESS. We must have it.”
Bornet also slammed the Trump administration for being dysfunctional:
At one time, high office holders in D. C. took an assigned position and went to work for “the duration.” Now, many top officials simply quit in mid-stream, and proceed to walk out. Maybe they are told to go, and “hurry up about it.” (Goodness knows what kind of instructions our Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has gotten from his “boss.”)
In this administration, reputations fade, so much so that individuals have to leave. It is “one jump ahead of the sheriff,” so to speak. Or, “Go while the going’s good.”
The historian didn’t hesitate to call Trump out as a liar:
Let’s say there is an Event. Our president misrepresents it. We cannot trust our president to tell the truth about it. Well, the truth is something you are not going to hear from today’s occupant of Air Force One.
Bornet followed all of this up with his demand that Trump be removed from office as soon as possible:
I really want, if the truth be known, the removal of Donald J. Trump from the presidential office. If I can’t have that, I want powerful individuals in named offices (Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, etc.) who will keep that one man from running things until his term has limped to its end.
I feel, overall, as though my country has been borrowed away from me. Totally without my permission, mind you. And somebody owes me for time spent playing at the fair grounds.”
Asking his readers “What did I do to deserve this?” (in the same way most of us feel about Trump’s presidency), Bornet made a final plea:
Bring in somebody as president who can shame Congress into doing what is right. Figure out some way this TV star can’t pick somebody else to fill a Supreme Court vacancy with all that is bound to entail. Most of all, please:
Bring dignity back to my White House. Don’t let this fellow salute one more time; it gives me the willies to think of a general or admiral kowtowing to this guy, even if he does, probably, get a kick out of the winks and nudges at home later on.
I want my country back. Is it too much to ask?”
You can read the entire scathing letter here. This is a powerful piece considering midterms are right around the corner and it’s sure to strike a chord with many. This just might be enough to get several lazy registered voters off the couch and to the polls.
Featured image via screen capture
