INCALCULABLE DAMAGE

January 15, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Incalculable damage

It’s not just the vile racism of your president’s recent “shithole countries” blunder. The attitude it expresses is in itself appalling enough. But anyone with half a brain can see that it has far wider implications: with China courting African countries for their business and their diplomatic relations far into the future, it is hard to imagine those countries opting instead to make those ties with a country whose president so publicly despises and demeans them. And what of relations with our neighbors to the south, in Mexico and Central and South America? Your Trump seems incapable of understanding that what the American president says and does has far more serious and lasting consequences than its repercussions in the ephemeral current news cycle.

Far from “making America great again,” Trump is diminishing our country’s power and reputation by the day. The damage he has done to this country in his now nearly one year in office is already incalculable. It will take decades to recover. And it’s entirely possible that our preeminent standing in the world is already forever lost. China is eagerly stepping up to take our place in the long march of history. Russia will likely never have the power to recover its past strength, but has the capacity, nonetheless, to further erode American democracy and American leadership in the world.

Shame on Republicans, then, who are the only ones to hold in their hands the power to restrain this man and the effects of his reckless words and actions. Shame on you all for your deliberate denial and neglect of Russia’s violation of our election process, and leaving the door open for further attacks. It is you, Congressman, my representative, who contribute to this not-so-slow moving disaster with your silence and complicity. Do not attempt tell me and my fellow constituents that you are doing what is best for America. By this time in the Trump presidency, that is nothing but an empty, shameless and transparent lie.

Yours,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.