Sycophants, men of straw

Before he was beheaded on July 6, 1535 as ordered by king Henry the 8th, Sir Thomas More's last words were said to be, "I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first." There were no other principled men in king Henry's court where the practice of fine art of sycophancy ensured their safety and security.

Nearly 500 years after the above tragic event, we are witnessing a similar situation in the White House. In this "court," surrounded by sycophants and men of straw, clueless about America's democratic traditions and pretending to be a monarch, president Trump demands absolute loyalty to him personally from people who had sworn their allegiance only to the Constitution of the United States of America.

What is equally dangerous to American democracy is the deafening silence of Republicans whose loyalty is to their party and the erratic and uneducated president, and not to the nation and its Constitution. Choosing to ignore the fact that the president's dictatorial behavior undermines the very foundation of American democracy, they are hoping to exploit his ignorance to the fullest extent to promote their own ideological agendas.

Can Americans depend on Democrats to rise to the occasion? Hardly. We hear their shrill voices protesting the degradation of democracy right before our eyes. Who, then, can we depend on to save America from "leaders" who have chosen to shift their loyalty from the nation and its Constitution to their party and their "boy president?"

We the People.

K.P.S. KAMATH, Cape Girardeau