Democracy under attack

Hold on to your wallets and your savings accounts - and your confidence in the democratic process.

In the last couple of months, Donald Trump has sidled up to Vladimir Putin, a total autocrat, and his rich oligarch buddies, appeased president Xi Jinping of China by acquiescing on restrictions to China's high security risk telecom industry, and schmoozed up to a vicious dictator in Kim Jong-Un, all the while alienating our closest North American and European allies, Japan and the Pacific rim, and, eventually South Korea. He has put us on the brink of a trade war that could not only bring down the world economy as we know it but also undermine global security and safety, not improve it.

This country is intended to have a president who operates within the boundaries of law and reason and in the context of checks and balances. That is not happening. Where are the Senate and House charged with limiting presidential powers? They are either kowtowing to Trump's agenda, waffling in the wind, looking the other way, or quivering in some dark alley. They are doing the citizenry no good whatsoever.

We as the citizenry must take back the controls we are due. If we do not, we are at risk of losing all democracy as we have come to know and value it.

Please get involved somehow. We can only lose by staying silent.

Jamie Smith

Wheaton