The virtue of disloyalty

To the Editor:

Is loyalty a virtue, or is the virtue of loyalty dependent upon the circumstance? You can be loyal out of love, out of fear, or because you benefit from your loyalty. One of the reasons I have a problem with the Trump presidency is that the fear and benefit aspects of loyalty are what he totally relies upon. In my opinion, the only person he truly loves is himself.

Trump uses fear to punish those whom he deems disloyal in a variety of ways. He will use his power to fire advisors if they are not sufficiently loyal. He has threatened law firms, media lawmakers and anyone else who has the audacity to call him out on the things that he has done that are blatantly illegal or immoral. The threats take the form of either job or money loss all the way up to putting people on trial for treason, with the end game being a death sentence.

He rewards loyalty by giving people money, power, or forgiveness that many times they don’t deserve. Not all the January 6 insurrectionist rioters deserved pardons. His cabinet members were not chosen based on merit, but strictly on loyalty, especially the second time around. This has resulted in cabinet members making or defending policies that make no sense. It certainly is not, as FDR called his cabinet, a “Brain Trust.” Paul Walczak got a full pardon after he stole millions from the Social Security fund. Not only did he get a “Get out of jail card,” but since it was a full pardon, he got to keep the money, all because his mother gave the Trump Campaign a million dollar campaign contribution.

I suppose that if you truly love everything about Donald Trump and that you would stand by him through thick and thin, then maybe you are showing virtue. Love doesn’t always make sense. Fritz Hippler was a Nazi film maker who, when interviewed 40 years after WWII, still felt that Hitler was a great leader, and that someday people will come around to appreciate the things that he stood for. Even though his films, including “The Eternal Jew” were extremely anti-Semitic, he was never found guilty of war crimes, because he was not found to be directly responsible for the Holocaust. Other Nazis were not so lucky.

There are times when the virtuous thing to do is to be disloyal. I also understand that that can be a challenge when either extreme threats are being thrown at people for being disloyal, or extreme rewards are being offered to people to get or maintain their loyalty. My hope for this country is that there are enough people that have the moral strength to do in their hearts what they know is right, As it stands now, I have some fears about where we are heading under the current administration. I also have found hope in the fact that there are more and more people who are willing to stand up for both their convictions and for the people who have been hurt by Trump and his loyalists. 

Frank Siedschlag

Rhinelander