An Open Letter to Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, VA 6th District
Dear Mr. Goodlatte: Thank you for your letter responding to my concern at seeing avowed white supremacist and anarchist Steve Bannon appointed as President Trump’s chief advisor. Bannon has said he will “deconstruct” the government as we know it. As you pointed out, Congress is not empowered to confirm or deny Bannon’s appointment, or the appointment of Sebastian Gorka as chief counter-terrorism advisor.
Numerous credible reports have connected Gorka with the Hungarian group Vitézi Rend, listed by the State Department as a Nazi-linked group whose members are inadmissible to the U.S. Indeed, Gorka wore the medal of that group to President Trump’s inauguration, and often signs his name with the v. used by members.
One entire side of my extended family was murdered by Nazis in areas not far from Hungary. Thousands of African-Americans were lynched in America by the Ku Klux Klan, whose endorsement President Trump accepted.
Mr. Goodlatte, you may not have legal authority to question these appointments, but that does not relieve you of moral responsibility to speak out against the appointment of self-declared racists and known anti-Semites that are shaping this president’s policies. I implore you to vocally state that you, as a representative of the GOP, have enough moral backbone to oppose the takeover of our government by persons with beliefs antithetical to every tenet of our democracy. I entreat you: Do Not Let It Happen Here -- because as a historian I know that it can, if you and the GOP do not speak out.
No comments:
Post a Comment