Longacre: Do your homework before voting

Politics in a democracy is not a spectator sport. You have a duty to perform to keep our democracy functioning. If you are at least 18 and a citizen, then you have a duty to register to vote and then to vote, not only in national elections but in state and local elections, as well. Equally important, you have a duty to be an informed voter, to educate yourself and to use your common sense when it comes to all the misinformation and crank theories out there. If you make an ill-informed choice, you have only yourself to blame.

This election is of special importance because the stakes are so high and the choices so stark. Today, I will concentrate only on the presidential election and only on Donald Trump, the guy the Republican Party has now seemingly given the title of “Boss.” He is the one who decides where the GOP stands on any and all issues, and that stance seems to depend on how he feels at any given time. So, we are left with nothing to talk about except Trump’s character. The central question becomes: “Is Donald Trump the kind of person who should have access to the nuclear codes?”

A good place to start looking for an answer to that question is “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” edited by Dr. Bandy Lee in 2019. One quote from this volume should whet your appetite to read more: “Trump is bad, mad, and getting worse. He evinces the most destructive and dangerous collection of psychiatric symptoms possible for a leader” — John D. Gartner, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, p.101.

Frederick Longacre

Hockessin

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