The Eugene Weekly’s promotion of Senator Merkley to be a presidential candidate (cover story, 8/30) omitted key facts.
Merkley supported Trump when Congress met to ratify the Electoral College.
Congress, not the voters, makes the formal determination of who is president. When they met to ratify the result on Jan. 6, 2017, a few on the House side spoke in opposition to confirming the alleged electors due to suppression of minority voters (gregpalast.com) and voting machine tabulators that flipped the results in key swing states.
No senator, not even Merkley nor Wyden, dared join the dissidents on the House side and therefore no debate on Trump’s illegitimacy was permitted. Therefore, Democratic senators share responsibility for the loser of the election being installed as the president.
Sen. Merkley, like the rest of the Oregon Congressional delegation, supported the Obama administration’s $226-million subsidy of NuScale corporation, our local nuclear power startup. Since there is no “solution” to nuclear waste, generating more is a crime against future generations of all species.
“President Merkley” seems like wishful thinking. He is probably not enough of a militarist for the Pentagon and CIA to support. (Obama had a CIA background and escalated military interventions, including drone warfare.)
The last U.S. president who called for an end to militarism was extra-judicially removed from office on Nov. 22, 1963. No president since Kennedy has dared challenge the Empire in a meaningful way. Authentic political “change” would require honesty and courage about our predicaments.
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene