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| David Collins |
Columnist and Staff Writer of The Day David Collins has invited Republicans and Democrats running for office in Connecticut to submit to his paper a couple of lines in praise or condemnation of the much belabored President Donald Trump.
There has been in the Day, editors of the paper surely will
note, a cataract of critical articles on Trump. Nearly all Associated Press,
Washington Post and New York Times stories on Trump have been fiercely
oppositional. Stories on Trump’s Democrat competitor in the presidential race,
Hunter Biden’s father Joe, have been soft-shoe criticisms.
So called “moderate” Republicans in Connecticut who are not
predisposed against Trump might, for very good reasons, decline the Collins
invitation.
In his invite, Collins brashly flourishes his own anti-Trump
flag: “Alas, the president, now fresh from what he calls a miracle cure of
COVID-19, has been doing his best all year to undermine confidence in the process
and the outcome of the election, trying to kick another leg out from under our
democracy, accelerating attacks on our institutions and allies.”
Collins has not solicited two sentences about the head of
the Democrat ticket – Why soil the pages of the Day with praise or condemnation
of the Democrat presidential nominee and former Vice President under President
Barack Obama? – because “Biden hasn't been a norm-breaking president for three
years. Even Trump supporters will admit their candidate has changed the
presidency. He's a phenomenon of American politics who has brought us to a new
brink, good or bad, depending on whether you plan to vote for him and his
remake of the Republican Party.”
Not every Republican will agree that Trump has “remade” the
Republican Party. Trump’s economic policies mirror those of former President
John Kennedy. See Kennedy’s speech to the New York Economics Club.
National Review, a reliable barometer of Republican
conservative opinion, operates more or less on the assumption that the
Republican Party may well survive even two Trump terms in office.
The notion that the walls of the Republic could not survive
eight years of a Trump presidency is, largely, Democrat Party campaign fodder.
The Republic survived the Civil War, a test, in the words of President Abraham
Lincoln, of the durability of constitutional liberty. The Republic and both
major parties survived largely Democrat Jim Crow laws, the rise of the Klu Klux
Klan following Reconstruction in the post-Civil War South, two brutal World
Wars, Vietnam, Abby Hoffman, Jane Fonda and Senator John Kerry, the “Winter
Soldier” from Massachusetts.
An invitation from Collins to Connecticut editorial writers
to submit to the Day two lines in praise of Trump might have been more
instructive and entertaining.
“Please,” Collin’s writes, “if you are on the ballot here in
eastern Connecticut, send along two sentences with your thoughts about four more
years of Trump.
“Kindly keep it short and sweet, about 14 words in all. Two
sentences should allow room for making separate points. Devote one to Biden if
you like. Send them along by Monday.
“We'll publish them all, as long as they are within the
newspaper's guidelines for suitability for family reading.”
Collins understands that Republican candidates for office
“are generally reluctant to comment about the candidate at the head of their
ticket” and, in what amounts to a call to arms, he adds, “If you are a
Republican voter, don't let them get away with this,” i.e. the failure of
Republican candidates for office to respond to the Day’s invitation. “If you
are [a] Trump supporter, demand that the candidates say what they think about a
second Trump term.”
In previous columns, Collins has said plainly what he thinks
about Trump’s first and possible second term in office. Last July Collins wrote that he had
“given up on finding Connecticut Republicans on the ballot this fall who might
renounce the divisive hater at the head of their ticket…There’s still a lot of
campaign time left for Connecticut Republican candidates to explain their
support of the racist, divisive, mean-spirited candidate at the head of their
ticket, a president who seems more interested in his own reelection than
safeguarding America, from our enemies abroad or the virus consuming us at
home.
“Any of you who are finally ready to renounce, call me.”
Two comments published below in response to Collins’ most
recent op-ed may help explain why Republican candidates for office may be a
little reluctant to place their necks on the chopping block. One commentator
writes: “Vote every (R) out of office at the local, state and federal level for
their complicity in supporting 45 without ever condemning his racist,
misogynistic, traitorous crime syndicate,” and another “Anyone who hasn't
denounced the Madman already is complicit.”
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