Clubby collegialism has its place in political life.
Republican democracy demands that our leaders engage with one another respectfully and seek common ground among vast differences of perspective. Everything within public life, however, has limits.
The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol featured hundreds of traitors from across the country flaunting their contempt for the United States of America. In their shameless entitlement, they broadcast their desecration across a wide spectrum of media and the appropriate law enforcement agencies will track them to their own property soon enough.
For now, we need to attend to the 147 Republican lawmakers who went on record in support of these terrorist aims: 147 congressional Republicans who stuck with their plan to block the lawful election of Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States.
For Long Islanders, one name jumps out among the seditionists.
Congressman Lee Zeldin has played the Trump toadie for years now, bowing to every thuggish outrage of the past four years. That’s his choice and his constituents have re-elected him. That’s on them.
But the endorsement of the disinformation charade, deference to unconstitutional authoritarianism, and traitorous rejection of our entire democratic system is a crime so grave that it becomes a stain on our entire community.
Lee Zeldin is a traitor. He proved this by persisting in the effort to block congressional acceptance of the results of the November election. This is nothing but feeding the lie that spurned the attack in the first place.
Zeldin did this before the terrorists stormed into the Capitol, and he failed to reconsider this grandstanding atrocity even after the consequences of his lies had left the halls of congress strewn with blood and shattered glass.
He still tried to block the results of the election while the Nazis were celebrating across Washington. Being dumb is one thing, but the incapacity to learn makes you unfit for office.
Zeldin went to congress at the request of his voters. Congress should send him back. This should begin with the rest of the Long Island delegation standing up for decency in our community. Representatives Kathleen Rice, Tom Suozzi, and newcomer Andrew Garbarino must demand Zeldin’s expulsion. They should do so publicly and immediately.
The stakes are too high to brush off Zeldin’s actions. There can be no common ground with treason.
Rebecca Hughes Parker
Douglas Parker
Port Washington
