Letters

I wish I could say I was surprised when Lee Zeldin chose to sign on to the amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out hundreds of thousands of votes and, in effect, overturn an election Donald Trump lost by over 7 million votes [“Reality Check,” Editorial, December 17].

This filing was not, in reality, about an issue of alleged fraud. There has not been one single case of significant fraud impacting a state’s election results that has held up in courts around the country.

This case was built on the premise of whether state officials had the right under their own election laws to change procedures in light of the worst pandemic in 100 years. The challenge was only made to those states Trump lost and not to states he won, where some of the congressmen party to the brief were reelected. If they thought there was something inappropriate about those actions, the time to fight it was before the election, not after the outcome is known and your side loses.

The reason they didn’t is that they knew it would have ticked off a lot of voters as highly insensitive and probably cost some of them reelection — maybe even Mr. Zeldin. They also have the right to fight these election procedure changes in state legislatures in January for future elections.

What they chose, however, is an action that borders on sedition, in that it tried to overthrow a duly elected president using the Supreme Court as the conduit. It is hard to think of a more traitorous action since the Civil War.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saved our democracy this time, but these congressmen will go down on the ash heap of history for their actions.

Seventy Republican congressmen recognized the inappropriateness of this action to interfere in another state’s election and chose not to take part in it, despite tremendous political pressure from Trump and others. These are true profiles in courage.

Unfortunately, Lee Zeldin wasn’t one of them. He still hasn’t learned that patriotism looks much different once you take off a uniform and walk the halls of Congress, having taken an oath to defend the Constitution. Once again, he has chosen, at the very least, to engage in an act of political cowardice to stay in Donald Trump’s good graces at very real risk to our system of government. Perhaps he’s hoping for some plum appointment, as he’ll never win election to higher office in New York with his track record.

At its worst, this is a seditious act that should forfeit his eligibility to be seated in the next Congress, or cost him his ability to practice law in the state of New York.

Ron Schaefer

Hampton Bays