Letters

U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin’s credentials include being an attorney, a member of Congress, an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve — and, now, what is likely to be his most memorable achievement, an elected official who formally supported conspiring in a coup to overturn an American election.

We are now witness to the dangerous effects of allowing a sitting president, supported by members of Congress like Lee Zeldin, telling his base — for 10 months — that corruption will occur during this election, without providing leadership in support of our election, or providing credible evidence of fraud that could be upheld in court.

As a result, over 50 post-election court cases have been lost by the GOP — yet they still ask their supporters to overturn an American election. This sounds like something that might happen in Venezuela.

While Zeldin is not alone in his moral drought, I believe he makes an excellent example of the systemic failure of our current leaders to abide by their sacred oath to our Constitution.

As a reminder, members of Congress take an oath to defend America against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Argue for or against Lee Zeldin’s policies all you wish, but, understand, as a member of Congress, it is Lee Zeldin’s primary duty to protect our Constitution — not cave to a tyrannical-wannabe president in an effort to support Zeldin’s own selfish political ambitions.

Donald Trump and his supporters recently filed a barrage of post-election lawsuits aimed squarely at overturning our election. Now, I am no genius, but even I know when similar arguments fail over 50 times in court, it’s likely these arguments are weak, without merit and perhaps even corrupt.

Yet, here we are, witness to President Trump’s lame last-ditch effort to skip straight to the Supreme Court in hopes that they, too, might assist in his coup. Amazingly, 126 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congressmen Zeldin, formally supported Trump’s attempt to undermine America’s election integrity, instead of upholding their congressional oath.

Unlike many other countries in the world struggling to maintain their democracies, our great American institutions have protected us from allowing an incumbent president to alter the results of an election that did not end in his favor. We must remember that, at the last minute, when our democracy needed our leaders the most, members like Lee Zeldin chose to support Trump’s efforts to destroy our rule of law for his own personal gain.

We do not need to “Make America Great Again,” because our Constitution’s ability to handle tyrants like Donald Trump is what makes this country great now. We are patriots, and we love this country — so let’s do our part to protect it.

David Steiber

Southampton