Once again Barbara Comstock’s silence is deafening. It should be remembered that Representative Comstock failed to speak up quickly in the wake of President Trump’s ill-thought out and discriminatory Muslim Ban. These past few weeks, Comstock similarly has failed in her duty to represent not only her district but the values that should guide and limit American policy. Separating kids, including babies, toddlers, and others who cannot possibly understand such separation, is unbelievably cruel. Separating children and then detaining them is reminiscent of some of the lowest moments in our history. Although hard-liners justify such actions using the language of national security and even, in the case of Jeff Sessions, the Bible, we have done similar things in the past, such Japanese internment, to our shame. Republicans finally are joining Democrats in calling for an end to this cruelty. Just this week Laura Bush wrote a powerful op-ed highlighting the “immoral” nature of Trump’s family separation policy. I suspect Comstock eventually will go on record opposing these policies—the power of images of kids ripped out of their parents’ arms, trapped behind chain-link fencing, and relegated to sleeping on the floor of former Wal-Mart spaces or in tents in the Texas heat is just too great to be denied politically—perhaps even before this letter is published. But the fact that Comstock simply waits, that she lacks courage and conviction even in the face of obvious evils done by the Trump administration should not be lost on voters.
Regardless of one’s feelings about immigration, we should expect more from our representatives.
Ezra Rosser
Great Falls