Editor,

The Trump campaign has now gone largely non-partisan with the abandonment of many of the GOP leadership. As such any normative constraints of civility on his campaign are lost and the Republican party has been dangerously, morally compromised. And most tragically, the self respect of our entire nation, both internally and abroad, is ever more dishonored and ashamed. We can expect political discourse to stretch truth in favor of a candidate’s position, but stretching the truth is quite different from mostly outright lies for the purpose of self promotion and fear mongering. The country is not in dire crisis. The government is nowhere near a disaster. We still hold to a resilient constitutional process, albeit challenged by political and cultural divisions.

Hillary Clinton is not evil personified, and whatever differences we may have with her message or personality, she does not warrant the level of threat and vilification she receives. None of us learns from these kinds of lies. We are left only with a sense of sadness and betrayal of what I consider essential, respectful, communitarian values we uphold pretty well on Whidbey Island.

So when I drive up Island and see the Trump signs mingled in among our own Republican candidates’ signs I feel a certain sense of dishonor, not only for the Republican candidates themselves, but for all of us. I personally know Dave Hayes, Norma Smith and Barbara Bailey, and, although I may disagree with some of their positions, I find them to be much better people than to be associated with the tenor and style of Donald Trump. I do not know why they allow this association, but I would hope they would find some way to at least express publicly a sincere concern about the type of proposed leadership Trump represents.

We need to be assured, amidst all the anxiety we already feel about this election cycle, that they do not condone his behavior or his frighteningly authoritarian understanding of presidency, and, better yet, separate themselves from it.

Respectfully submitted,

TOM EWELL

Clinton