Mostly at the national level, Democrats have lost their minds. The case in point is the ballroom being constructed that led to the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, a rather undistinguished 1942 addition originally constructed to camouflage a World War II bomb shelter. In later years a portion was converted into a movie theater and later housed the office of the First Lady and her staff.

A review of White House history shows that many changes and additions have been made to the Executive Mansion. During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the North Portico was added. Teddy Roosevelt added the West Wing in 1902 as a temporary structure which President Taft made permanent. In 1948 with the mansion on the verge of collapse President Harry S. Truman ordered its complete reconstruction preserving only the exterior walls.

As is the case with just about everything President Donald Trump does, the demolition of the East Wing brought forth outrage from Democrats. Hilary Clinton, seemingly on the verge of hysteria, cried “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he is destroying it.” Her daughter Chelsea, said Trump was taking a “wrecking ball to our heritage.”  Over at MSNBC Fernand Amandi declared that Russian President Putin was watching the greatest triumph of his life.

Sen. Jeffery Merkley (D-Ore.) is known for his recent 22-hour speech on the Senate floor protesting authoritarianism. Democratic senators incorporated the teardown photos into Sen. Merkley’s speech with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) showing Merkley a picture of the demolished East Wing and asking the Oregon senator to describe what he saw and the significance of it.

Merkley said, “Here we have evidence of the president tearing down a symbol of our Republic and building a symbol that is really a symbol about authoritarian power, about a government that serves the rich.” Symbol of our Republic? Come on Senator, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are symbols of our Republic not the East Wing.

Not surprisingly Senate Minority leader and instigator of the government shutdown Sen. “Chuck” Schumer (D-NY) sought to tie the president’s work on the East Wing to the current government shutdown, saying that Trump was not focused on dealing with the issue of threatened health care coverage for millions of Americans but on “vanity projects like this one that don’t do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.” Schumer, it was your inflated ego and the fear that AOC would primary you that brought on the shutdown.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, who was policy director for former first lady Michelle Obama, said the demolition was a “symbolic blow” to the East Wing’s legacy as a place where women made history. Ms. O’Mara Vignarajah, First Ladies and other women have been making history and will continue doing so, with or without the East Wing.

So much for East Wing insanity. Next we move on to the insanity over ICE’s effort to remove the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals from our streets and nation. Representative Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) has announced that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee would launch a “master Ice tracker” on their website to monitor the activities of ICE officers nationwide. Now protesters and others will have more immediate information on where to direct their efforts making an already dangerous job more dangerous.

What are these Democrats thinking? This is a violation of 18 U.S. Code 372 (Conspiracy to impede or injure an officer carrying out their duties).

It is actions like this along with Democratic rhetoric likening Trump to a king or dictator and other Republicans to fascists and Nazis that encouraged a confused boy to assassinate Charlie Kirk and the reason several administration officials and their families are living in military housing after threats on their lives.

Next there is the insanity of the “Schumer Shutdown” which was precipitated by the senator when he supported a previous continuing resolution bringing him under fire from the radical left with the threat of being primaried by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Democrats are now using the current shutdown as leverage to continue Obama Care subsidies that if approved would cost a total of $383 billion in the next decade. These subsidies are the result of the usual government inefficiency that have caused Obama Care costs to rise perceptively while inflating the cost of healthcare and health insurance generally.

I also want to rebut a few spurious charges by Democrats. First the claim that the freak typhoon that struck recently in Alaska doing much damage was not forecast because of the shutdown is false. Despite the shutdown, weather forecasting continues. Check out the Weather Service website for proof. Also, the claim that meat and food inspections have stopped because of the shutdown is also false. Our food is safe. Further the holding centers for illegal aliens like the one in Florida are airconditioned, sanitary, provide sufficient food and water, medical care, and prisoners are not regularly beaten despite what I would charitably call Democrat misstatements.

Finally, to several Democratic politicians who made their reputations with politically motivated indictments against Trump and have been indicted or maybe indicted I remind them of that old adage that “what goes around comes around.” Should they be found guilty of crimes they should receive due process but know that “no one is above the law” as New York Attorney General Leticia James keeps repeating.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.