Letters to the Editor

Amateurs Run Amok

February 11, 2026

Editor,

The amateur performances in DC would be laughable if people were not being killed, lives ruined, world order disrupted and science ignored at inestimable human cost. We now have incontrovertible evidence that leadership which prioritizes personal interests over the public good brings death and chaos to cities, disrupts world order, and misdirects attention away from security and the common good toward revenge and personal advantage. What a shame that we didn’t learn more from Naziism.

“I don’t care for the person, but I like the policies” has become an excuse that is corrupting our values and eroding our democracy. The “policies” have elevated serving an aberrant personality above serving our nation. The “policies” have destroyed valuable government organizations with no consideration of unintended consequences, caused unnecessary civilian deaths, compromised disease prevention, made the US an embarrassing international pariah, increased negative environmental impacts, unfairly attacked perceived political enemies, brought massive increases in wealth to select insiders and, perhaps worst, have shredded our traditional American allegiance to truth.

When amateurs run amok, others must become the adults in the room. This will stop when enough of us withdraw our “consent of the governed.”

Keith Porter

Grass Valley

Featured Articles

← Back to home