Dear Sen. Romney,
We are writing to you as a group of students at Brigham Young University. We are a coalition of progressives, moderates and conservatives fighting to help restore decency to the White House through the election of Joseph R. Biden.
This week America mourns the passing of the legendary U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg was a well-respected progressive and champion for women’s rights and equality. She will certainly be missed.
Ginsburg’s dying wish was that she wouldn’t be replaced until after the election. We are pleading with you and all other senators with a conscience to wait until after the election to decide on the appointment of her replacement. We are only six weeks away from the election, so it is a clear decision to wait until the American people decide if Donald Trump deserves another Supreme Court nomination.
We call on you and other principled senators to denounce Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s hypocrisy. In 2016, McConnell refused to even hold hearings on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. His justification? “To wait until after the election to let the American people decide.”
That was nine months before the election, not a mere six weeks. Attempting to push through Trump’s appointee as quickly as possible is an obvious sign of hypocrisy and disregard for the welfare of Americans. It is a power move, plain and simple.
We also implore you to publicly support Joe Biden. He is a kind and decent man. He will lead with compassion, always seeking the benefit of all and not to empower himself. We know you will disagree with him on many points of policy, but we also know you can agree that he is the right leader for our time. We are confident that Biden’s Supreme Court nominations will be good, professional choices that progressives and conservatives alike will feel comfortable with.
Many Utahns are seeking leadership in the presidential election and don’t know if they should support Biden. With your leadership and support, Utahns can feel comfortable voting against Trump’s demagoguery and divisiveness and voting for Biden’s compassion and leadership.
We trust you to do the right thing. We know you are a man of action, courage and morality. Please, stand up to McConnell’s hypocrisy and Trump’s divisiveness. Thousands of Utahns are counting on you to do the right thing.
Broderik S. Craig | BYU Students for Biden
Broderik S. Craig, Provo, is spokesperson for BYU Students for Biden.