Regarding the U.S. midterm elections and the wide Democratic Party gains that emerged as late ballot counts came in, voters electing a new Democratic-majority House of Representatives proves that American democracy is still alive, despite Congress' toadying cowardice before the boorish, bumbling, babbling wannabe Henry VIII who lurches anachronistically around the Oval Office.
So far, Donald Trump has been coddled by a nursemaid Republican-held Congress that has licked his baby shoes and lapped up his spittle dotingly. The sheer nonsense Republican members have spouted to excuse Trump's puerile instincts and fatuous ineptitude has been like that of an over-indulgent parent whose toddler throws a temper tantrum in church: He's just an excitable boy, and we don't want to squash his natural baby impulses.
With his proven contempt for coequal branches, fawning adoration of despots, sociopathic ability to lie, reptilian lack of empathy and abhorrence of the free press, Trump spits squarely in the face of basic democratic principles. By disgracefully ignoring this inconvenient truth, Congress has empowered an oddly adolescent septuagenarian who places "Me the President" above "We the People" consistently and unapologetically.
After 22 months, the House can finally return to one of its essential roles: putting a check on executive power rather than allowing a miscreant with the maturity of an 11-year-old playground bully and the insecurity of a 16-year-old prom queen to run amok in the White House and on the international stage.
Mercifully, a Democratic House will provide balance to Trump's weapons-grade incompetence and manifestly autocratic compulsions. Most importantly, new members must avoid the fatal mistake made by existing ones: wading neck-deep into the divisive, vulgar politics of anger, fear, ignorance, grievance, prejudice, hatred and insult that have dominated every nanosecond of President Maladroit's ignominious, amateur-hour administration.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.