Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 2-4-21

Seeking the truth

I’d like to respond to John Walters’ recent letter to the editor.

Yes, John, our democracy is threatened. However, your assessment of the threat is quite different from mine. Democracy is a very fragile thing. It takes an informed public interested in the common good to make it work! Right now, our country is terribly divided. We need to make every effort to find common ground and bring us together. It will not be easy, but here’s my take on how to proceed — SEEK THE TRUTH — search out all the issues before us by listening to all points of view. I am a news “freak.” I watch the BBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, and yes, FOX NEWS. I understand that each source has its own agenda, but I want to pick and choose in order to find the TRUTH. Everyone should do this. It’s not easy, but we must do it to heal the nation.

You mentioned the new president driving up public debt. WOW, Look at Trump’s record on public debt.

You mentioned Trump willingly left office. You must be kidding! He was defeated in the election and our Constitution provides that he must leave.

You mentioned hyperinflation, and I agree it may be in the future. Don’t you see the parallels to Germany in the early 1930s?

You mentioned people frightened into not taking the vaccine. Who was the man who turned mask-wearing into a political statement?

Yes, John, our democracy is threatened, but everyone needs to search for the TRUTH and work for the common good. Don’t be a divider, be a uniter. Follow the Constitution, and respect our precious flag.

Our obligation is to honor the Constitution, follow the rule of law and respect our precious flag.

Your friend,

Ralph Fedele

North East

Searching for law, order and accountability

Law and order require that we hold Donald Trump accountable for the insurrection on Jan. 6.

When removal from office under Amendment XXV to the Constitution did not occur, impeachment in the House of Representatives on Jan. 13 was clearly correct.

Donald Trump is no longer president, and conviction in the Senate will not remove him from office.

Donald Trump should never be president again.

Both the Constitution and existing criminal law bar Trump from holding federal office again because he engaged in insurrection.

Section 3 of Amendment XIV to the Constitution is explicit. In relevant part: “No person shall ... hold any office ... under the United States ... who, having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same ....” 

Section 2383 of Title 18 of the Federal Criminal Code is equally clear: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” Section 2383 is current law.

Both Section 3 and Section 2383 reach the same result: Trump is disqualified from office irrespective of the result of the impeachment trial in the Senate. The criminal law also provides for fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years.

Section 5 of Amendment XIV gives Congress the power to enforce Section 3 through appropriate legislation which requires only a majority of both houses of Congress. Congress can pass legislation to bar Trump from future office because he engaged in insurrection.

Criminal prosecution is in the discretion of the Department of Justice, and the president has the power to pardon. The DOJ will clearly prosecute members of the mob who stormed the Capitol. In the absence of a pardon of Trump, how, in all fairness, can the DOJ prosecute individual mob members but not Trump himself? 

A Senate trial on impeachment will be disruptive, distracting, acrimonious, divisive, unlikely to get two thirds vote, and unnecessary now that Trump is out of office.

How to proceed? How about:

1. Slow down the Senate trial on impeachment

2. Pass legislation in both houses of Congress that bars Trump from future office because he engaged in insurrection.

3. A limited presidential pardon to Trump from fines and imprisonment for engaging in  insurrection but not from the constitutional and two statutory prohibitions against holding future office.

4. Terminate Senate impeachment trial after legislation and presidential pardon are in place.

The combination of new legislation to bar future office, a limited presidential pardon from fines and imprisonment and terminating the impeachment trial would be law, order, and a step towards healing. This approach would be preferable to prosecution under existing criminal law.

We need to move forward together on other matters of critical importance.

G. A. Mudge

Sharon