Closure of the federal government is a third-grade temper tantrum accompanied by an attitude of “let me make touchdowns or I’m taking my ball home.” President Donald Trump and Congress are obsequiously prostrating before their political bases.

Such amoral, self-serving behavior fixated on re-election, not the national good, shames both parties in the real national “crisis of the heart and soul,” not the imagined one manufactured by spin-masters in Trump’s media posturing.

Republicans must hold their nose supporting a president, who’s probably lied thousands of times; demands loyalty to himself, not the Constitution; and praises dictators while alienating long-term allies. They cheer a president creating narratives to justify separating asylum-seeking families illegally at the border and imprisoning their children to appease his base, which considers presidential lies to only be hyperbole and believes only “alternate facts” that support their beliefs.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell won’t fulfill his constitutional oversight responsibility as he waits for a presidential scratch behind the ears. Republican committee chairs rush closed-door congressional witness testimony to Trump to manufacture “alternate facts” that undermine objective investigations.

Democrats gave us President Barack Obama, who backed down on his ultimatums and created a no-consequences climate that facilitated heinous human rights abuses by Syrian and other dictators. Democrats also gave us presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose main attributes were towering arrogance, purchasing the Democratic primary to ensure her candidacy and diplomatic failures to contain the Syrian dictator’s war crimes on his own people.

Democrats have given us two obstinate, over-the-hill leaders in Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They accomplish little while gleefully planning to impeach Trump and fighting their personal obsolescence as the party moves further left.

Fix this real crisis of heart and soul with a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits and reboot America.

— Richard Sorensen

Salisbury