Letter: Young, Braun lack leadership

To the Editor:

Hooray! Finally, someone in Indiana recognizes and reports their opinion that Republican Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun “lack leadership”. This was a reprint of an opinion by the Terre Haute Tribune Star published in the May 2 edition of the Daily Journal. This coupled with a letter to the editor by Lisa Voiles (Whiteland) addressing the issue of “the enemy within our own country” in the March 25 edition of the Daily Journal paints a bleak picture of politics in current day Indiana.

Both Young and Braun throughout their terms have consistently elected to follow blind partisanship first before our country’s wellbeing. Both disgustingly elected not to convict former President Donald Trump of leading right-wing extremist on the attack of our U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Young and Braun favored the president as he led a rabid group from the White House to the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes. During the attack several police officers were injured and four people died.

It was Trump’s attempt to overtake our country based on his continuous lies that the election results were illegitimate. For his action, he should have been barred from running for any federal office again and convicted as a traitor.

But no. Braun, Young and other Republicans saved him. Braun should have known better but for Young, there is no excuse. A former Marine who took an oath to defend his country violated that oath when he neglected his country’s wellbeing and supported a habitual liar.

That was not the end. Next came the lack of leadership in ignoring the testimony by Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to be nominated for the United States Supreme Court. Their vote was “no”. Was it “no” because she was a woman? Or was it “no” because she was black? Probably neither. More than likely it was “no” because most other Republicans voted “no” and they did not have the courage to vote against the Trump base in the Senate.

Throughout their terms both Young and Braun have not voted in support of their constituents, they voted in favor of what Trump wanted and what was best for them. Time and again they showed no courage. Young is up for re-election in November. To my knowledge he will be running unopposed. Indiana and America losses again!

Richard DeTorre

Greenwood