Vote next November

I believe the Republican Party has been criminally negligent—by its stonewalling on gun control, the climate crisis, the integrity of our elections, affordable health care, housing and education. It appears it is about to prove negligent in its handling of the economy, as a delusional (“I am the Chosen One”) and incompetent president recklessly bankrupts the Treasury and lurches into trade wars that are likely to trigger a global recession. The Republican Party has also been negligent in supporting that president in his mindless, mendacious and destructive campaigns to promote racial and ethnic hatreds, to divide the country, to alienate our allies and to strengthen our enemies abroad.

If all that does not constitute criminal negligence, then I don’t know what would.

When you vote for a Republican like Trump apologist Tom Cotton, you become complicit in the damage they are doing both to this nation’s ideals and to its long-term viability. I used to vote a straight Republican ticket. That ended in 2000, when the party ran a good ol’ boy who ended up tanking the economy and destabilizing the Middle East with a trumped-up war. But now they’ve gone one better—with a president who it seems is not only as dumb as a rock (except when angling to line his pockets with other people’s money), but also sick in the head and heart.

Today, the only Republican I could vote for is one who opposes Trump; I really don’t care which of the 20 or so contenders becomes the Democratic nominee. Next November the choice will be between Trump and something vastly more decent, capable and normal.

ALEX MIRONOFF

Fayetteville