Archived Opinion

Reality still eludes Trump’s base

Reality still eludes Trump’s base

To the Editor:

This is a reply to the September 20 letter to the editor titled, “Rule of law proven a farce amid corruption.”

 

The writer starts by saying that the Jan. 6 insurrection was, “... a legitimate protest of a very unusual appearing election, to say the least ….”

Mr. Trump and his allies lost over 60 court cases in claiming the election of 2020 was rigged. Most were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Homeland Security swore there was no election malfeasance. Sixteen federal prosecutors who monitored the election concluded there were no widespread irregularities. Election deniers were repeatedly asked for evidence to back up their claims over the next two years and never presented any.

By this time, most people would have slunk away in acute embarrassment. Not his true believers. They were practicing the art of repetition learned at the knee of their glorious leader, who learned at the knee of dirty trickster Roy Cohn, Esquire, in the belief that repetition of a lie would beat the truth any day of the week. Straight out of the autocrat’s guidebook.

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When Trump called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” on Jan. 6, a line was crossed from legitimate protest to insurrection, which has torn our country asunder.

Legitimate protest doesn’t include breaking into a restricted government area to stop a critical transition of power, loss of life, destruction of property and murderous violence against law enforcement officers who were guarding the Capitol. Legitimate protest implies reasoned debate, including bringing cases to courts (which they had already done).

In a civilized society, that’s when it was time to wrap it up and go home. Simply “complaining” as you claim was all they were doing would have been fine. People would have called you all sore losers, but heh, nobody would have been facing long jail sentences. But bullies, sociopaths, and those who think the rules don’t apply to them just don’t want to take “no” for an answer.  The former president acted like an overgrown 4-year-old child and that looked so tempting to his supporters that they gleefully followed his example.

This poster also claimed that, “Nancy Pelosi and others engineered a trap for the J6 protesters by refusing President Trump’s request for National Guard troops and by keeping the Capitol Police in the dark by not sharing relevant information.”

Au contraire, Speaker Pelosi spent much of that terrifying afternoon frantically calling any official who should have been there protecting our congressional members. The sordid details of that monumental fail by Trump’s hand-picked and unconfirmed “acting” government officials has yet to be fully explained. Perhaps, during one of Trump’s many trials, the truth will be revealed and those traitors will receive justice.

I look forward to a time when the lies and hate are far behind us and we can return to building a just, equitable and peaceful world.

Caryl Brt

Waynesville

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