Arrogance and Power

Editor,

Arrogant people who acquire power exercise their power arrogantly, but arrogance does not inhere in power, and there are important figures in history who have wielded power not in their own self-interest but for a higher good.

George Washington had more power in his day than any other American, and he dedicated himself to subordinating that power to the principles upon which our democracy was founded. Abraham Lincoln used his power to preserve our republic and to end slavery in the United States. FDR established institutions Americans have relied on for more than half a century to promote the dignity of work and the dignity of Man. And LBJ, a man of extraordinary power, leaving aside his having been manipulated by Westmoreland and McNamara into persisting in Vietnam, invested himself passionately in extending social justice in this country with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The criminals who have installed themselves now in positions of power throughout the federal government feel entitled, not as a consequence of their power but as a matter of principle, to lie, steal, torture, and kill to advance their own interests. They hold humanity, democracy, and liberty in contempt, because all they care about is themselves, and the only project they feel worth pursuing is to eliminate whatever obstacles impede their own aggrandizement.

Please don't spread the myth that power corrupts, because power can be and has been used for good. Power is not the problem with this nation. The problem is the people who have it.