Letter: The grand old disgrace

Only a fool passes a law that is impossible to enforce, and only a scoundrel passes one for which there is absolutely no need save political propaganda.

Real enforcement in North Carolina would require guards at every public bathroom door and all entering therein to carry a birth certificate. The president of the United States, who according to Republicans does not have a valid birth certificate, could not relieve himself in the state.

North Carolina is one of the truly great states of our Union, but its government is a shameful embarrassment to its institutions and to its people.

It is hard to blame them when in this same country the duly elected Senate refuses to do its Constitutional duty by ignoring a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court, and an old and respected party — the party of Lincoln — had as its frontrunners a senator that even Republicans cannot abide and their probable nominee — a man who campaigns by insulting good Americans — women, Latinos, Muslims, whoever — and who proposes policies that are unconstitutional or virtually insane (e.g., nuclear proliferation, exiting NATO) and sometimes both.

To paraphrase Cicero, when campaigning against the Trump of his time, “Quo usque tandem abutere, Republicana, patientia nostra?” — “How long, Republicans, will you go on abusing our patience?”

O tempora, O mores, indeed — “What times, what customs!”

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Letter: The grand old disgrace."