ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

This is an open letter to congressional Republicans, and therefore by extension to voters who supported them. The short question is "When is enough enough for you?"

This is not your garden-variety "anti-Trump" message. Things have gone far beyond a partisan rant. Grifting is small-scale swindling. This has gone far beyond that. When will you stand up and be counted saying what’s happening in the White House (what’s left of it) is criminal?

You’ve been quiet through the Epstein files fiasco. Before the election Trump was clear in calling for the release of all the files. Now the whole thing is a hoax? Is it because many of you know your name might appear that you no longer want the files released? Statutory rape is the crime of having sex with a minor. That’d look bad on your re-election material.

You’ve been on the sidelines as Trump expresses a moral equivalency between one of the world’s most vile authoritarian dictators and the president of a close ally. Do you remember seeing the images of miles and miles of weaponry as it was staged outside of Ukraine prior to the invasion? Putin messaged clearly his intent – two years into the killing Trump rolled out a red carpet for him. You were not outraged when Ukrainian president Zelensky was greeted in the White House being scolded for not wearing a suit. And you are not outraged watching the murder of innocents who are simply protecting their country from invasion?

In 1930 the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was enacted, raising the cost of imported goods by an average of 20%.  That triggered the worsening of our economic downturn and resulted in a global trade war. What followed was World War II. George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.� You have watched Trump impose confiscatory tariffs on virtually every country in the world, creating havoc in the stock market each time he announces another round and alienating our friends internationally. It is your constituents who are now paying higher prices for basic necessities. You don’t care now — you might begin caring during your re-election campaign.

And you sit silently by while Trump announces that he will have his own personal lawyers look into the legality of paying him $230 million of your dollars in what he feels are reparations due him. He will approve the transaction (theft?) whereby his own coffers are filled with taxpayer dollars based on the judgment of his own hand-picked sycophantic attorneys. And you’re ok with that, even on the heels of the gutting of thousands of government programs by co-president Musk, and in the midst of a government shutdown where thousands of government employees are working for free.

All of that boils the blood of fair-minded people throughout the world. But not our Republican congressional delegation, or the people who put them into office?

Is this enough? Now he has demolished the entire East Wing of the people’s house. Why? Because Trump knows nobody will ever build a monument to him, so he destroys a significant piece of the nation's history so he can build a 90,000-square-foot, $300 million dollar ballroom that will forever be the monument he will never earn. Understand that the White House itself is 55,000 square feet, 35,000 square feet smaller than the ballroom. The White House was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800. The east wing was added in 1942. Trump has demolished a significant piece of our nation’s history without any public process, no architectural review, no nothin’ – and no outrage from congressional Republicans or the people who put them into office.

Quoting Joseph Welch speaking to Senator Joe McCarthy – have you no shame?

Epstein, Ukraine, tariffs, $230 million in personal reparations – all of that is the drip, drip, drip of an autocrat running amok with no guardrails imposed by Congress or the judiciary. Those guardrails are called separation of powers in our founding documents. They’re being shredded. But the demolition of the White House to enable Trump to build his own monument is a leap well past the politics of those other issues.

Are congressional Republicans and their supporters too stupid to understand that pendulums swing and at some point these grievous acts may be inflicted on them? They have no sense of the long game, much less a sense for the ethically depraved nature of these acts in the immediate.

Locally we care about our history. Hundreds of us protested the demolition of over 100 historic properties when the RTA proposed to demolish them along Broadway. The majority were preserved as a result of public pressure. And when the redevelopment of the Benedictine Monastery was proposed we as a community worked for its preservation. Coincidentally, the Benedictine was being built at the same time the East Wing of the White House was constructed. In Tucson we understand that once a wrecking ball does its work, history is lost. The wrecking ball that has now razed the East Wing of our White House proves without doubt that congressional Republicans and those who put them into office have no true north when it comes to moral sensibilities.

If stealing our history isn’t enough to cause Trump's ego-stroking followers to stand up and demand he be reined in, what will be? When is enough enough for this group?