To Sen. Sullivan:

This letter is in response to your address to the Alaska State Legislature and to a recent letter from your office.

It is clear from your celebratory remarks to the Legislature that you are all in favor of the policies of the Trump administration. I question why you, as an elected official of the United States Congress, so easily have abdicated your constitutional power to the executive branch. The congressional power to establish or dismantle agencies of the federal government and to allocate funds has been stolen by President Trump with no protest from you.

In your letter you state concern for a “new axis of authoritarian aggressors in Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang” yet you are enabling an aggressive president. Your approval or silence has sanctioned his assuming of congressional power, defying the Constitution, breaking the law, defying court orders and allowing for a person who is neither elected nor congressionally approved to access government databases and personal information of U.S. citizens. These are the actions of an autocrat.

Why have you decided to abandon one of the most fundamental principles of our democratic government, the separation of powers that insures protection from abuse of authority? Do you truly believe that your role as an elected senator for all Alaskans is to merely rubber stamp what a dictator decrees? What other conclusion are we to draw from your actions/inactions to date?

Alaskans want a senator who fights for their welfare and a democratic government based on the U.S. Constitution. No one voted to establish a dictatorship. No one voted for the United States to look like China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.

With grave concern for our country.

Diane DeSloover

Juneau