Judged by the company you keep

A lesson one should learn early in life is that one is often judged by the company one keeps. Raised in a Republican family, I hated the fact that millions of Americans were deprived of their rights by the Dixiecrats who enforced Jim Crow laws. So, after voting twice for Dwight Eisenhower, I switched parties when Dixiecrats became Republicans. That was a long time ago. Today, it is the Republican Party that attempts, in many different ways, to deprive voting rights. In 2017, I thought many Republicans, i.e., members of the Party of Lincoln, would switch from the party of Trump after he declared that there were many good people on both sides of the confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia. After all, "good people" don't march alongside torch-bearing white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and members of the KKK. Seemingly, not many switched; Trump's approval numbers remain steady.

The impeachment hearings have provided another opportunity for members of the Trump Party to consider whether they want to be judged by the company they keep. The president and Republican members of Congress have been using all the same talking points in his defense ... and now, Vladimir Putin, a despot who doesn't hesitate to kill his political opponents, has joined their company!

Donald G. Westlake

Wheaton