To the Editor:
Second Opinion
Now we know. The vast majority of the Republican Senate/Senators (RS) doesn’t care if a president of their Party violates every administrative and democratic standard of high office and every oath he has taken, going so far as to incite to riot against Congress as it performed its Constitutional duties.
The house managers did a good job of showing the Senate and history what actually happened on January 6, which the defense deemed “incendiary” since the facts were against them. The majority of the RS twirled and showed their knickers. The former president’s lawyers then took a bow and lawyers everywhere averted their eyes from the embarrassing spectacle.
When the verdict acquitted Trump, McConnell took to the podium and confirmed that "everything they said about him is true." He agreed Trump was guilty. It was lack of jurisdiction he had relied upon to acquit, even though the senate had established jurisdiction on a vote several days before. Past bad presidents refrained from like conduct because they knew it would not be overlooked, excused, or tolerated. Until last Saturday. If this Republican defection from duty emboldens white nationalists and milita fringe groups, remember: you broke it, you own it.
The GOP can no longer profess that they represent “conservative values.” They can no longer decry violence, or even riots, anywhere by anyone; the president advocated it. Engendering violence against Congress is permissible. The marauding mob who accepted Trump’s invitation to get “wild’ at the capitol? They will surely be punished to the full extent for the violence they delivered on Congress. But what of the guy who urged them to “Save the day of January 6” and threw gasoline on their heavily armed, already-smoking impulses to “save their country” by “fighting like hell” and by specifically targeting his own VP? He’s already gone from “loving” them as patriots to sharing his disappointment at how “low-class” they looked.
Why does the RS defend and protect such an emotionally-crippled, unprincipled person for whom the door of loyalty swings only one way? They do it because they desperately want the Republican base votes at any cost. So, they will endure his abuse and pretend they are doing it for the country. We were given opposable thumbs and relatively large brains, presumably so that we could use them.
In his last editorial, Martin said that, as Editor, he was being “generous with me” in printing my LTTEs. I think I might have said that in my Christmas letter; that extra Pimms Cup may be the culprit. A better way to put it, I think, is that Martin upholds the high standards of the ideal press, to print information, if reliable, from all points of view. “Fair and balanced,” if that rings a bell. For that, I am respectful.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore