Letters

The murder of Alexei Navalny by Vladimir Putin exposes the bestiality of power unchecked. Putin pushes his murders into the political faces of nations freer than his. He sends his assassins, armed with his signature poison, to violate political sovereignty and hard-won laws respectful of human life and political dissidence.

Putin: a little bureaucratic functionary puffed up by lies, corruption, servility and unquestioned power. Putin: freed up to kill, wage territorial wars, create chaos. Putin: venerated by Donald Trump. Putin: a war monger publicly lauded by a former president of this country.

Donald Trump: ignoramus and American psychopath, basking in his orange glow, blares his support for his hero and his murderous acts, pulling his MAGA-herd right along with him. Ranting and schmoozing, he paints paranoid cartoons about persecution and spits out swill about apocalypse and redemption, while all the while whoring for funds. Which he gets in record amounts.

Is there any doubt remaining that he will Putin/Orban-ize the foundation and checks and balance faltering now in the face of his criminality, and grab for unprecedented powers should he win or steal the election? The Republican cesspool shamelessly backs him with the same cynical self-interest uber alles manifest in their Russian counterparts and have handily killed the Congress and lowered the American political “brand” abroad.

The Supreme Court is degraded by right-wing, hand-placed Heritage Society puppets and besmirched by the Honorable Clarence Thomas’s corruption, and his craven wife’s influencing from the rear.

The Fourth Estate — or those we rely on to challenge the lies of government and politicians? Unfortunately, they are in the entertainment/ratings business now. They are addicted to the spectacle provided by the orange-glowing MAGA monster and continue, much as they try to self-medicate, to give him the air time which he feeds on.

Make no mistake, the Putin-esque Trump and the forces behind him, which he is not even dimly aware of, are an unmitigated disaster for what is left of this country. Where is our Navalny, speaking truth in the wind, opposing heinous power, dreaming of Mandela and waiting to be assassinated?

It falls to you and me — against impossible odds — to counter the Trump disease: by education, learning our history, protecting what is fundamental to our freedom. As individuals, speak out, forge solidarity, protest, bolster our institutions, fight for justice to end division, and vote.

After all, we don’t yet have the easy solution of state-sanctioned assassination to whisk away political aberration. And, anyway, history proves that it is only the right-wing and power-crazed that assassinate.

Frances Genovese

Southampton