Letters

To Phil Keith: First, let me say that I generally approve of your December 3 column [“Too Close For Comfort,” Mostly Right, Opinion]. However, I think that you don’t go far enough.

It is a truism that we need a person of character and integrity in the White House, and that the Republican Party needs to be reconstructed as a real center-right party from its present condition as a spineless Trump cult.

The Trump era has revealed weaknesses in our institutions, however, that need to be addressed for the safety of our future polity. Recall that our party system itself grew up outside the constitutional structure, which has proven inadequate to deal with it: If the president’s party controls the House, he can’t be impeached, and if it controls the Senate, he can’t be convicted and removed from office. Aside from waiting until the end of his term, we have no way of getting rid of a catastrophically unfit president.

We need to reestablish the independence of the Department of Justice. We need to make sure that inspectors-general can’t be fired. We need to protect honest whistleblowers — think Colonel Alexander Vindman — from retribution. We need a way of enforcing congressional subpoena powers. We need a Senate that behaves honorably in its responsibility to advise and consent to judicial appointments.

We need to end various means of voter suppression. We need to eliminate the winner-take-all system of apportioning presidential electors so that candidates couldn’t ignore any state. And, of course — tip of the hat to you and your colleagues — we need, more than ever, in the era of social media, to preserve the independence of the free press and vigilantly oppose those who call reporters and newspapers “enemies of the people.”

We also need to dial back the level of vitriol in public debate: Seventy million-plus people voted for Trump, and it doesn’t help to call them all morons. If we really want to preserve our democracy, we all need to consider that decent and honest people may just see things differently.

For Mr. Biden and all his successors, there’s a lot to be done.

Geoffrey Basson

Water Mill and New York City