Citizens’ recourse

Keith Burris’ Aug. 19 column, “The Kabuki Dance of Disdain,” confesses that there is much about Donald Trump that he deplores. So what is the proper type and the frequency of objection to things you deplore? Mr. Trump spills gallons of toxicity on the American body politic daily. That makes it hard to calibrate the right way to object and clean up such a mess, but Mr. Burris’ suggestion of calling “a truce” suggests a false equivalence. A truce would mean giving into the reality show politics Mr. Trump has perfected.

Sometimes Mr. Burris’ objections are pretentious, self-serving or even full of (well-deserved) disdain. He’s worried for the futures of Sarah Sanders and friends from it. What’s the damage if that happens? Any missed meal for them will be repaid tenfold by their partisans in our sadly balkanized society. The same can’t be said for the sorely missed cartoonist Rob Rogers.

Mr. Burris asks a fusillade of questions on policy matters. The most instructive one is “How are good people picked to be secretary of defense, or secretary of state, or associate justice of the Supreme Court?” The answer is their positions’ requirement of Senate confirmation. That requires drawing on the resources of the once-great Republican Party.

When Mr. Trump is institutionally unconstrained, disaster strikes. See the rogues gallery of unconfirmed White House staff, his generationally destructive behavior as the head of state, or the Russian roulette games in foreign and trade policy where congressional oversight has atrophied to nil. Concerned citizens’ only recourse is repeated, loud public objection. There is still some hope of shaming the executors of Mr. Trump’s solipsistic will and raising the prospect that elected officials will rise to their constitutional responsibilities. RICHARD KAIN

Sewickley