Burwen letter: Donald Trump

I think President Trump is doing irreparable harm to our democracy in four key ways:

▪  He denigrates and undermines the legitimate free press and the judiciary.

▪  He condones and promotes political corruption, by ignoring conflicts of interest that enrich himself, through his businesses, cronyism and legislative efforts that favor the rich at the expense of the poor.

▪  He condones and “normalizes” hatred, intolerance and scapegoating.

▪  He deliberately appoints unqualified people for government positions, raising the level of incompetence in the functioning of government, so that the failure of government to deal with pressing issues becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Once these kinds of behavior are accepted as norms in our civil society, our democracy is in deep, deep trouble.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Burwen letter: Donald Trump."