The orthodoxy of today’s GOP is that President Biden is a long-time evil-doer, hell-bent on enriching his family. His imputed dastardly acts include, but aren’t limited to, allowing in millions of illegal immigrants to gain Democratic votes, using public health interventions to rob Americans of their liberties, directing the justice department to round up and mistreat the January 6th “tourists,” encouraging liberal educators in “government” schools to indoctrinate our children about America’s checkered history, insisting that the defense department allow a very broad swath of citizens into their ranks, and “weaponizing” the federal government against his detractors. This is a short list. But even this list paints Mr. Biden as a formidable, crafty, and successful evil-doer who must be stopped lest he destroy the very fabric of America and the entire underpinning of the American Dream. Quite a narrative.

But wait. The GOP has another narrative about President Biden. This other narrative is that the “illegitimate” President Biden is weak and frail with greatly diminished mental capacity. Every paused word from this former stutterer displays his cerebral deterioration. Every slight stumble shows his physical unfitness. Every legislative compromise highlights his lack of principle. Every nomination of a well-qualified minority citizen shows him easily manipulated by the “libs” who hate America.

Yes, sir. These narratives seem at war with one another. Which one is it? Is he too strong or too weak? Well, consider this. Perhaps today’s GOP leaders have so little respect for us voters, and so much certainty that we ignore facts, that they use any old narrative, willy-nilly, to fit their needs. What disregard for the truth. What cynicism!

Their alternative? A venal man unable to place the nation’s interests above his own. A careless man who treats classified national security papers like tottering stacks of old paperbacks. A nasty man who uses vile language and threats against any person who opposes him for any reason. And, yes, a shallow man who loves power and uses people. Our country has better and deserves better. To allow Donald Trump to further sully American jurisprudence and America’s standing in the world would be lunacy, a type of orthodoxy we might do well to avoid.

Will Newman

Tiverton