Elections have consequences. But did any of us really appreciate how dire the consequences would be for American values with the election of Donald Trump?

Did we really expect that our immigration policy would devolve into the forcible separation of mothers and their children? A policy that evangelical leader Franklin Graham, and a prominent Trump supporter, described as “disgraceful." That Cardinal Dolan said was “unAmerican” and “unbiblical.” That is opposed by all four living former First Ladies.

Leonard Lance continues to be a silent enabler of Russia’s foreign policy aims. His refusal to denounce President Trump’s trade agenda is just the most recent example of his pandering to a base that won’t acknowledge that, willingly or unwittingly, the President is playing stooge to Putin and his kleptocracy.

When Fact Meets Fable:  “The Ass and its Purchaser.”

Aesop’s Fable, “The Ass and its Purchaser,” is the source of the aphorism that you can tell the character of a man by the company that he keeps.  Our Congressman, who said that “Donald Trump will have my enthusiastic support,” should read it. He has embraced an administration that has become a byword for venality and corruption.  What does that say about the enthusiastic supporter?

Trump never separated himself from his business, managed day-to-day by his adult sons, with whom he is in regular contact and who also work as leading members of his political operation.  Trump doubled the fee for admission to membership of his private club at Mar-a-Lago, where the wealthy can lobby for his support and simultaneously create a cash cow for the President. And when the Republican National Committee hosts fund-raisers at Mar-a-Lago, his supporters’ political donations are also transformed into revenue for his business. 

Leonard Lance is a self-described “principled conservative,” a conservative through devotion to small government and traditional morality. But the party he joined does not exist any more.  There is no governing ideology behind Donald Trump. He is devoted only to bringing himself glory and defeating his perceived enemies.

What must Leonard Lance, an avowed fiscal conservative who mooted a balanced budget amendment, think when he sees a tax plan his party created add at least $1.4 trillion to the deficit?  And what must he think of his party leadership when they stuck NJ with the SALT liability?