President Trump’s authoritarian and autocratic tendencies, long obvious, are only becoming more clear. He wants to pick economic winners – coal and steel, for instance – by using ill-considered tariffs. But his desire to exercise raw power is most clearly seen in his revoking of the security clearance from one former national security official and threatening to revoke many more. This unprecedented attempt to stifle free speech hinders our intelligence operations when, in the face of Russian interference in our elections, intelligence operations need all the wisdom they can get.
Equally damaging, Trump targets only those people who have been critical of him. So Trump has now politicized national security operations, ruptured relations between the civil and military/intelligence arms of our government, and caused around 200 former senior intelligence and military officials (from all political parties) to unite in condemning his actions.
And what do we hear from Scott Tipton and Corey Gardner, men who have sworn to uphold the Constitution? Essentially nothing. These men are interested only in two things: not offending Donald Trump and holding on to their positions in government. Confronted with unprecedented and vicious attacks on free speech, much less the weakening of our national security operations, they are silent. Neither deserves to represent us, and voters should take the opportunity in November to take the action Tipton richly deserves – turning him out of office.
John Wallace
Durango
