Letters to the Editor | Jan. 31, 2025

I commend the Editorial Board’s recent piece criticizing Sen. Dave McCormick’s vote confirming Pete Hegseth, a most unqualified candidate for defense secretary. With that vote, McCormick did fail his oath of office. Alarmingly, he was not alone, as 49 of 52 Senate Republicans also failed the test. The vote was never about qualifications, but about the cynical flexing of power, all a snub to constitutional norms and our damaged democracy.

Growing up in post-World War II America, fresh off our massive contribution to the defeat of fascist totalitarianism, we were told that “it can’t happen here.” Why not? Because the United States is exceptional: We have a durable Constitution, strong institutions, checks and balances, and the rule of law. Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “A republic, if you can keep it.” What did he know? He knew the main risks to our democracy were not any inherent institutional weaknesses, but rather the potential for cynical, disingenuous, and dishonest people to abuse the power given to them.

With the blitzkrieg of executive orders since Jan. 20, many blatantly unconstitutional, most disruptive, and all designed to cause uncertainty and instill fear, Americans are now seeing that it can, and is, happening here. It’s happening not because our Constitution or institutions are failing us, but because the people we have given power to are.

Robert Boucher, Philadelphia

The Inquirer article on Sen. Dave McCormick’s vote supporting Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense had a section labeled, “Why Hegseth is controversial,” which mentioned only his alleged drinking and treatment of women. It failed to mention that he completely lacks managerial experience other than mismanaging two tiny nonprofits over a decade ago, his foreign policy experience consists entirely of being an opinionated host of a weekend talk show, and that he advocated pardoning war criminals convicted by U.S. military courts for killing prisoners and civilians, and expressed disdain for the Geneva Convention and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

McCormick’s support for such an unqualified candidate is particularly appalling given the senator is a U.S. Military Academy graduate. The Inquirer should get him to explain how Hegseth represents the qualities and values he was taught. Would the senator take a 20-something out of his parents’ basement and make him an Army captain in charge of a bunch of West Point grads because he played Call of Duty a lot? I suspect McCormick wants to appease the far-right so he can run for president in 2028.

Robert S. Porter, Chadds Ford

Will Bunch’s recent column on the “children of the 1960s” seeing their history “erased” in a second Trump administration speaks in overly sweeping generational terms. He mentions “progressive victories that sustained my generation” being stripped away, but boomers are getting what they consistently voted for. Exit polls measure by age group rather than demographic generation, but the numbers from Cornell’s Roper Center suggest a majority of boomers voted for every Republican president elected since Ronald Reagan in 1980 (the sole exception being a near split in 2024).

Moreover, a majority of boomers also voted for the Republican nominees in 2020 (Donald Trump) and 2012 (Mitt Romney). Bunch’s column extols boomers as the virtuous actors of the 1960s, reduced to thwarted victimhood by the new administration. Neither monolithic portrayal is true, and other generations might find the lack of nuance frustrating. Boomers were not alone in building the policies Bunch understandably eulogizes, just as they participated in eliminating them. His line about boomers being an “increasingly demoralized generation” (join the club) when boomers are by far the best-off generation in America speaks at least partially to the emergence of that grossly dismissive but evocative phrase, “OK, boomer.”

Max Young, Wayne

Donald Trump is himself the child of immigrants and is married to an immigrant. His paternal grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth Trump, came to the United States from Germany in the 1880s. His mother emigrated to the U.S. from Scotland in 1930. His father, Frederick Trump, spoke German at home until he was 10 years old. Fred went to considerable pains to conceal his German ancestry during World War II, claiming to be Swedish.

Melania Trump immigrated to the U.S. in 1996 on a tourist visa. She worked, probably illegally, as a model before her visa was, somehow, changed to a category that permitted her to work. One of Trump’s executive orders calls immigration at our southern border an invasion. Unarmed people who seek to enter the U.S. with no intention other than to live in the country and find their livelihood are put into the same class as Hamas terrorists. Now we need the U.S. Army to protect us. Trump’s grandparents, his mother, and his wife — all would be subject to arrest and deportation under the policies he has put in place. When throwing stones, watch out for falling glass.

Arno Vosk, Williamsport

Thank you to The Inquirer for the article on the resignation of Towamencin Township Supervisor Laura Smith. It gives me hope that individuals can bring light in these dark times. It is good that this small township did the right thing and insisted on her resignation. I wonder if anyone in her family ever served or sacrificed for their country? My guess is probably not. Shame on her for embarrassing herself like that. I was outraged that Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute — not once, “awkwardly,” but twice. This is what happens when Americans did nothing when Donald Trump denigrated John McCain and again when he denigrated our bravest at Normandy. This coming from a weak draft dodger. Both my parents as well as nearly all my uncles and aunts served in World War II. The weakness of our leaders is sickening.

H. Tunney, Huntingdon Valley

Trudy Rubin’s Sunday column spells out clearly the path to authoritarian rule, one taken by current strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Viktor Orbán. Those of us who read about them and see the parallels to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin tried to warn about the similar path Donald Trump was taking. But the one inconvenient fact Rubin and I have ignored is that a plurality of voters actually want a dictator — one with simple answers and overwhelming power. One who dispenses retribution on those who cross him, much like they want retribution visited on those they feel have crossed them.

The implication of American voters’ propensity to vote for strongmen and their facile answers is clear. Like with Germany and Italy and Russia, it could well take a societal collapse — a deep depression — to convince voters to abandon this fatal illusion. Unfortunately, it will not be just delusional MAGA voters who will suffer the consequences, but millions who were guilty only of not paying close enough attention. When oligarchs finally see their billions evaporate in a worldwide financial collapse, and lines form for bread that is no longer available, let us hope we as a people do not embrace solutions like those visited upon the “enemies within” that was the goal for the Nazis, whose rhetoric is now being resurrected by some so-called patriots like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and such. The warning lights have been flashing for years now. What will it take for us to pay attention?

Joe Sundeen, Yardley

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