The affairs of the past few days are scary. I have lost a lot of my respect for Trump in the last month. Even if there was fraud and wrongdoing in the election it was likely never going to be proven and certainly not in sufficient amount to overturn the election in those states he was complaining about. When the handwriting was on the wall, he should have been the bigger person, conceded and told Republicans to be the loyal opposition and work harder for the next election.
The final straw for me was his speech to the protesters. He should have never encouraged their actions but instead welcomed the people, acknowledged their peaceful protests and right to be heard but distinguished conservatives from liberals by pointing out conservatives peacefully assemble, speak, and make their views known and then clean up the area and go home peacefully. He failed miserably and if he did not know violence was likely he should have. That he would be so obtuse is unlikely. Once it became violent, he should have immediately spoke out, condemned it, and told the crowd to disperse and go home. Instead, he stated that the election had been stolen and then told them to be peaceful. He threw gas on the fire and then tried to tamp it down. Shame on him.
Lastly his refusal to attend the inauguration of Biden is, in my opinion, classless. Why can’t he be the bigger person occasionally? Instead, he has dramatically diminished his place in history. Despite having done so many good things for our country I fear he will not get credit for that and instead will be looked at as a petty, thin skinned jerk.
And, of course, the riot was exactly what liberals had pleasurable dreams about. It gives them, and their media and tech friends, perfect excuses to exert greater restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly; all in the name of national security.
Sadly, the Democrats cannot bring themselves to accept they won the election and still want a pound of flesh. In 11 days, Trump will be gone and yet they still wish to impeach. They are at least as classless as Trump. Maybe they were all meant for each other.
Like the British, I hope, we will just muddle through.
—John Lengemann,
Imlay City
