To the editor:

President Joe Biden, in an attempt to control a raging epidemic, announced  requirements for vaccination or testing in, among other groups, businesses with over 100 employees. Our  Kansas Republican representatives responded.

On the surface they raise a valid philosophical and constitutional issue; namely, how should power be divided between the executive and the judicial branches of the federal government and between federal and local governments? Specifically, what power does the president have to issue directives, rules, policies?  If that were their actual concern I would applaud a possible rational examination of how our government works and how it should work. However, the hyperbole and inflammatory language in which their “philosophical” objections were stated  made clear that these politicians were not so much interested in protection of the Constitution as protection of their position in coming elections.   

U.S. Sen. Marshall expresses alarm at the “terrifying glimpse of the new Marxist Dem Party.” Rep. Ron Estes refers to the president’s “bully tactics” in his attempt to control the onslaught of hospitalizations and deaths. Others condemn Biden’s “attack” on small business. This self-serving, divisive rhetoric simply helps to maintain the political gulf that has cost so many lives since the pandemic began. From the beginning President Donald Trump and others in his party made the epidemic a political issue and settled on positions that defined loyalty to Trump rather than a united effort to stop this devastating disease. Our Republican representatives are doing their best to continue this partisan practice.

Joe Douglas,

Lawrence