This letter makes two points: one for the sake of truthfulness and the other as an ominous warning. First, a much-repeated must be dispelled – the reckless spending done by Joe Biden. During his presidency Donald Trump spent six trillion plus; President Biden has spent two trillion plus. Trump is the biggest presidential spender since 1923.

The other point is a terrifying reality. Our legislators can and do disagree on things like tax policy, farm issues, abortion, education and countless other issues. But they have always been unified when the issue was protecting our country. Not now. They are so mired by political stunts, fights, and upmanship that they are using democracy as a bargaining chip. That should never, ever happen.

They are putting aid to Ukraine in limbo in order to get border security. They have given joy to Putin, a thief, murderer and communist dictator. He and, unfortunately, the rest of the world — both allies and enemies alike, now see a weak America — divided and lacking the backbone and grit to continue the fight. The lesson to our allies is that they cannot trust and rely on America to stand tall and fight with them for as long as it takes to defeat our enemies. The lesson to our enemies is, if they persist, America will lose interest and fold. ChinaÕs wish to take Taiwan must seem much more feasible now.

Like Putin, Hitler started small with one country and then took Europe. Nobody can be naive enough to believe that if Putin is successful here, he will be satisfied with Ukraine. We are protecting our democracy when we protect democracy wherever it is threatened. We can do this by aiding Ukraine.

Our legislators need to address the border. They can certainly do this, but it is imperative that they come to the obvious realization that they should never, ever put democracy anywhere at risk. They need a much different bargaining chip. Tyranny must be defeated anywhere. Ukrainians know democracy is a fragile thing. They are dying to keep it. We need to help.