DEAR REPRESENTATIVE McADAMS: PLEASE LEAVE THE BETRAYALS TO SENATOR LEE AND THE REST OF THE UTAH DELEGATION*

Untitled, Oil on Panel, 18" x 24", Richard J Van Wagoner, Circa 1990, Courtesy Marilyn Jones**

Word is you are thinking of voting against Articles of Impeachment and angling instead for a censure. If you vote against impeaching Mr. Trump, Utah’s Washington delegation will be unanimous, likely, in greenlighting the worst possible crimes a United States president can commit against the citizens he purports to serve, and all lesser-included offenses. The only remaining hope that Utah could be heard in any meaningful dissent would be Senator Romney. A vote against impeachment would be tantamount to the same moral cowardice and gas-lighting that was on embarrassing display by Mr. Stewart. [And I thought Utah could never live down Chaffetz.]

Impeaching a president is among the most consequential events that occurs in the United States. How each person in the House and Senate votes, how you vote, matters, regardless of outcome. It matters for fidelity to one’s oath, for personal conscience and integrity, for precedent and posterity. And it matters more than being re-elected.

The party affiliation of Utah’s Washington delegation — five Republicans and one Democrat — is disproportionate to Utah’s population and electorate. Moreover, Utah’s two GOP Senators have outsized influence due to Utah’s comparatively small population.

There was, and is, no principled or meaningful defense for Mr. Trump. Any self-respecting person knows it.

Please give Utah that voice.

*My brother the very talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner and https://lastamendment.com

**Richard’s list of honors, awards and professional associations is extensive. He was Professor Emeritus (Painting and Drawing), Weber State University, having served three Appointments as Chair of the Department of Visual Arts there. He guest-lectured and instructed at many universities and juried numerous shows and exhibitions. He was invited to submit his work as part of many shows and exhibitions, and his work was exhibited in a number of traveling shows domestically and internationally. My daughter Angela Moore, a professional photographer, photographed more than 500 pieces of my father’s work. On behalf of the Van Wagoner Family Trust, she is in the process of compiling a collection of his art work. The photographs of my father’s art reproduced in https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner and https://lastamendment.com are hers