Give me an I … give me an M … we can cheer on our government when it functions as the founders of our country intended. Ethics and morals are what seperate us from the barbarians of old.

When there exist no morals or ethics in an individual to guide them to appropriate behavior, there must at least be rules to obey. It is finally time to apply those rules. It’s not really something to celebrate, though — the fact that a president of the United States has behaved so unethically that the rules must be resorted to in order to hold him accountable to the laws that were set down in our constitution.

It is sad that our country has reached a point where its electorate has somehow (with outside interference) chosen an individual whose lawlessness and corruption has to be checked. It is sad that there are others who helped him to power and who use him for their own advantages.

It is sad that the Republican members of Congress have allowed it to get this far, ignoring and excusing his behavior, so they could realize their agendas; primarily cutting taxes for the rich donors and abolishing the Affordable Care Act.

It is sad that many of the government officials who may still have shreds of decency have left the building in the interest of preserving what is left of their dignity, rather than stand up for what is right.

It is sad that the courts have seen installed many new judges with questionable ethics appointed by this administration, helping ignorance of the law to gain a foothold. Ignorance in the sense of willfully ignoring the law, not being ignorant of the law. The Supreme Court itself has been tainted by this POTUS and his Senate enablers. The Kavanaugh controversies continue.

But maybe we have reason to be hopeful. When confronted with all this, people are beginning to understand what democracy is. It is government of the people, by the people and for the people.

There is no mention of government of the president, or by the bureaucrats, or for the rich corporations. The election of 2018 showed that people are beginning to see that it has come down to us, many of our representatives have failed us. Trump said during his campaign, “I alone can fix it.”

If we want a dictator telling us what to do, then, OK. But is that what we want? “We the people … do ordain and establish…” the Constitution and we the people must see that it is maintained by holding our elected officials accountable to it.

It was the voice of the people in 2018 that gave the House of Representatives the Democratic majority and led to its proceeding with lawful oversight of the executive branch. The Republican representatives of course fell in line with their Senate counterparts and 180’d everything critical they ever said about Trump before his election shocked the world. Before and After videos can be very telling. Never one to question his boss, our representative Tom Reed sees no “smoking gun” in the phone call which documents Trump putting pressure on a foreign leader to help him win in 2020.

On the contrary, it appears that the whistleblower has actually given us the key to the entire gun cabinet. He believes the will of the people was fulfilled by the election of Trump and shouldn’t be overturned. That will happens to have been amended in 2018. Reed and his Republican collegues need to update their references. It will be interesting to see how their moral compasses will turn when more and more evidence of executive wrongdoing finds its way to the people.

It is sad that a president of the United States would resort to soliciting election help from foreign adversaries such as Russia or allies who are depending on our support such as the Ukraine.

Do we, then, have anything to celebrate? We can celebrate that our system of checks and balances may be holding on, protecting our democracy. We can celebrate that we still have some ethical lawmakers. We can celebrate that our current corrupt POTUS has his own deep throat who is brave enough to do what is right. We can celebrate that thanks to that whistleblower we have what could be Trump’s “Watergate tapes.” We can celebrate that we can go to a polling place on election day (or an early voting day) and make a free choice. We can celebrate that we still have news reporters who are able to ferret out and expose what is happening in our government and offer transparency that is being attacked as “fake news.” We can celebrate that we can be audience to public hearings. Representative Nunes calls public hearings “spectacles.”

Simply put by one of our founding fathers, Gouverneur Morris, author of the preamble containing the very first words of the Constitution “We the People,” “The magistrate is not the king … the people are the king.”

Trump, however, believes and has managed to convince supporters that he, personally, and the country are one in the same. This is demagoguery. Trump is the reason for the impeachment clause.

Article II Section 4 is the play call that is needed now from the Constitutional play book. We should be cheering on Congress in support for their difficult task to uphold the law of the land and make sure our government officials, especially the president, are accountable for their actions.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com