We deserve better leadership than this
To the Editor:
This Easter season — a time for moral reflection and renewal — I feel compelled to speak to the direction of our national leadership. We face a moment where economic manipulation and constitutional neglect are becoming normalized, with grave consequences for all Americans.
Recent tariff announcements by the administration have triggered predictable market chaos. Following just one such announcement, hedge funds and speculators reportedly shorted over $40 billion in equities, profiting by billions as markets fell. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans — retirees, savers and pension holders — saw their financial security shaken.
This is not economic stewardship. It’s profiteering made possible by reckless policy — an intentional asset transfer from the American public to the privileged and powerful.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has warned that tariff-driven uncertainty is suppressing business investment and fueling inflation — problems beyond the Fed’s capacity to offset. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has echoed these concerns, estimating that GDP growth could fall by up to a full percentage point annually. Both call this what it is: a crisis of politi-cal choice, not economic necessity.
Even more disturbing is the erosion of our constitutional protections. Recent incidents involving the wrongful detention —or even abduction — of legal U.S. residents, visitors and in some cases citizens by federal authorities raise urgent questions about the state of due process and habeas corpus in this country. Agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice must be subject to serious remedial oversight, and those responsible for such illegal actions held accountable under the law.
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These issues reflect moral and leadership failures that directly affect the lives and liberties of real people right here in Western North Carolina and across this country.
Easter reminds us that truth, sacrifice and accountability to our highest ideals still matter. Our elected officials, including Senators Tillis and Budd and Congressman Chuck Edwards among others, must demonstrate the moral leadership to challenge these abuses and re-store integrity to both our economic system and constitutional democracy. We, the people, deserve nothing less.
J. Fripp
Clyde
