21 hours Ago
In his letter of Nov. 23, frequent Donald Trump apologist Robert BonAnno uses the tired, old, worn-out phrase “Trump derangement syndrome” to characterize those of us who see the president-elect differently than he does, those of us who have been resolute in doing what we can to protect our country from the division and hatred that Trump models: “Chaos follows him” as former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley noted. Citing all of the things that Trump has said and done which conflict with traditional American values, the law, and the Constitution, and noting the ways in which his life has been defined by immorality would fill volumes, and what he promises to do in a second term is chilling.
He has said that he will use his term to misuse government resources in order to get revenge on those who have crossed him, to transform the Department of Justice and the FBI, purging career civil servants from the federal government, and installing loyal Trump lackeys in their place. He wants to see former Wyoming U.S.
Rep. Liz Cheney court-martialed and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, executed.
He has both explicitly and implicitly endorsed violence against those he sees as “the enemies of the people”, “human scum”, “lowlifes” and “vermin”. Trump’s definition of treason is the actions of anyone who has attempted to hold him accountable for criminal activity. Well before he was elected president for the first time, we clearly saw Trump’s nature as he perpetrated a years-long racist birther hoax, asserting that the man he loves to deride as “Barack HUSSEIN Obama.
” was born in Kenya, something which would invalidate him as a candidate for U.S. president.
Trump told us that his “investigators” could not believe what they were finding in chasing this dead end. There were no investigators and nothing was found, and Trump eventually had to acknowledge that Obama was born in Hawaii as he always said he was, and as he proved through the presentation of his birth certificate. The birther scam was consistent with the contempt for minorities and immigrants that Trump has consistently displayed.
BonAnno cites the actions of a few extremists in saying that Trump supporters do not want to abolish the police. Neither do the vast majority of Kamala Harris voters, and President Biden said, “Fund the police.” He says that Trump will protect women from being the victim of crime committed by “someone who shouldn’t be here,”, an apparent reference to the tragic murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant.
I doubt that any Trump supporter citing that case will acknowledge the tragic and massive toll of victims who were shot to death in a country most of which, including Pennsylvania, refuses to enact common-sense gun laws, including the enabling of an 18-year-old man/boy who cannot purchase cigarettes or liquor, and who cannot enter a casino, to amass a stash of weapons designed to mow down human beings in rapid succession. BonAnno ignores the fact that violent crime has receded within the presidency of Joe Biden. Saying that ours is a crime-infested country again and again does not make it so.
Perhaps the act for which Trump should be most reviled is not only his unwillingness to accept the result of elections that he loses, but his instigation of a violent mob to attack, ransack, and desecrate the Capitol, beating police officers, and causing the deaths of many, including Trump supporters, all in a bid to nullify the votes of 81 million Americans. The Trump mantra is “I love the blue, except when they are defending the Capitol and democracy, in which case, they are persona non grata and deserve to be pummeled.” Hundreds of the assailants and criminal trespassers have been held accountable for their actions, but the promoter of the attack has gotten off scot-free.
Trump lauds the criminals as “great patriots”, “hostages”, and promises to pardon them. His assertion that Jan. 6, 2021 was “a day of love” indicates that he resides in a different world.
Trump took a personal interest in the Laken Riley murder in Georgia, commenting upon the conviction of the perpetrator and referencing him as a monster. He has taken no such interest in the Jan. 6, 2021 police officers who suffered so much physical and emotional trauma as to render them unable to continue to serve.
He has not uttered the names of the officers who committed suicide in the days following the attack of democracy that he cheered. As those of us who have challenged Trump’s efforts to make our country unrecognizable, causing us to be considered deranged, is there no derangement in those who support a man who tramples upon our country’s tenets and all that every religion holds dear? What kind of patriots would we be if we did not use every opportunity to resist the transformation of our country? For us, “making America great again” does not entail turning back the clock to the era in which white Christian males dominated and racial and religious minorities, gay men and women, were relegated to the closet. Oren Spiegler is a Peters Township resident.
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