Never Forget!

If there are two things that we must never let those who voted for Trump and his supporters forget, it’s the twin atrocities of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and his unconscionable handling of the coronavirus pandemic. They may be able to make excuses and downplay his other actions, but these two actions clearly expose the truth about him and many Republican officials.

We watched the storming of the Capitol on television as it unfolded. We witnessed its violence, saw the Trump and Confederate flags flying and heard the voices of the assailants as they spoke that fateful day. We saw the damage to the building and the carnage. We saw the makeshift gallows and read the slogans and signs brandished by the crowd. Since then we have learned much about the intent of the pro-Trump conspirators and watched new and more damning videos of the violence. We knew then and we know now, it was an orchestrated attempt to abort the election, to stop the certification of the electoral votes —in short it was an attempt at a coup d’etat, the first ever in American political history. It was sedition!

Presently, the Covid 19 pandemic appears to be subsiding and that’s wonderful news. To date, over 700,000 Americans have died from the virus, 200,000 of them since the availability of vaccines. This is one of the highest rates of death in the world and clearly is related to the denial and malevolent handling of the crisis by the Trump administration.

We all remember listening to the former president go on about how it was not a big deal, that it would pass quickly, that the media was at fault for hyping it and that it was the fault of the Democrats. These denials were followed by efforts to discourage wearing masks, stop social distancing and the refusal to take prudent actions by restricting activities that clearly helped spread the virus. How many Americans would still be alive today if the former president had supported the counsel of medical authorities and promoted sensible precautions such as wearing masks? We might also ask how many of the 200,000 who’ve died since the availability of vaccines might be alive if they had not been discouraged from taking the vaccine that the Trump administration had successfully brought online.

How can honest Republicans continue to support the former president and those who continue to push his politics of hate and division? Are conservative goals such as deregulation, smaller government and lower taxes really worth that? Wouldn’t it be better to support someone like John Kasich, Mitt Romney or Larry Hogan for president?