Musk power grab a betrayal to American voters

I’m about to turn 85 and have lived through Watergate and other serious betrayals of our democratic system, but never ever have I seen what is currently happening.

Unelected Musk and his young tech cronies are systematically gaining access to America’s financial and personal information by seizing control of the government’s technology systems and positioning themselves to direct the flow of government spending.

This is a coup. They are operating outside the checks and balances that protect our nation. Under the Constitution, Congress authorizes how taxpayer money is spent and only Congress can decide what programs to cut or reduce.

This is a power grab, sanctioned by Trump, and we all should recognize it as such and do everything in our power to expose it and stop it.

Wendy Ross,
Wiscasset

An open letter to Sen. Susan Collins

Sen. Collins,

As your president and his henchmen continue the process of staging a coup on the American Constitution, I urge you to stand up for the common good. He himself is of little consequence in the fullness of time, an arrested development child with a lack of conscience. But his band of loyal followers and the opportunistic sycophants riding the incoming tide are an extraordinary threat to civil society.

I wonder if the 32% who voted for Trump and the 38% who didn’t vote at all are happy now. We need someone with political courage to stand up to the moral bankruptcy of the current Republican Party.

Perhaps you will be running for governor of Maine when Janet Mills terms out. If so, earn your place. On June 1, 1950, your political predecessor, Margaret Chase Smith, delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” on the floor of the Senate. Her opposition to McCarthyism initiated the necessary course correction for the America of her time.

You already voted no on Hegseth. Patel, Gabbard, Kennedy? Yikes! Tariff trade wars, firing dedicated civil servants, de-appropriating essential services and humanitarian aid. Will you just stand by as sociopaths lay waste the country on the Revenge Tour? Do the right thing, Sen. Collins. Persuade your fellow Republicans to resist this idiocy. Stop the decline and fall of America. Please, please, please.

Sincerely,

Paul E. Plumer,
Topsham

Stand up and be counted

Our democracy is in a fragile state and for good reason. For decades, both Democrats and Republicans have facilitated the movement of vast amounts of wealth to the richest in the land. Middle class wages, living standards and job security have all been eroded. Poverty has steadily risen. Tens of millions in this, the richest country in the world, live in slum housing or no housing at all, and go hungry every day. We have failed major sections of the population.

President Trump is taking advantage of this weakened system to crash through constitutional and legal guardrails. He has given billionaire Elon Musk the keys to the Treasury. In Congress, the Republican Party, the one organization with the capacity to rein him in, is President Trump’s principal enabler. The Supreme Court has set President Trump above the law. The checks and balances envisaged by the Framers of the Constitution are, at least temporarily, disabled.

We think we are immune to the social disintegration that has torn apart the fabric of other societies, but history shows us how fragile democracies can be. Now more than ever we need congressional representatives, judges and law enforcement officers to uphold the primacy of the Constitution and the rule of law. In the face of Trump’s vendetta against all who oppose him, many will not do this if we do not help them find the necessary courage. We, too, need to stand up and be counted.

Nigel Calder,
Newcastle