To the Editor:
December 7, 1941 and January 6, 2021 are days that will “Live in Infamy.” One was a clear sneak attack by a foreign power; one was a home-grown attack on our democracy by a delusional, misguided group of domestic terrorists trying to discount and nullify the votes of millions of Americans in numerous states and overthrow our government.
As I write this, Washington, D.C. has become an armed camp of thousands of National Guard troops and police sent to protect the peaceful transfer of power when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in on January 20, 2021.
How did America get to this point in history, where millions of American citizens believed the lies told by President Trump that the election was stolen? Beliefs so twisted and absent of facts that thousands trashed the Capitol building, some looking for Vice President Pence and other elected officials to assassinate? History will not look kindly on those public officials that were complicit.
It should now be patently clear to most, and the election has revealed, that the U.S. voting population is largely divided into two broad competing ideological camps!
People associated with Camp A tend to believe the election was rigged, tainted with illegal votes, ballot tampering, and generally illegal activities performed by some of the election officials and volunteers. They believe, without any certified and accurate evidence, that President-elect Joe Biden and Democrats stole the election. They believe the judges, who have thrown out the 60+ lawsuits the President Trump team has filed to overturn the votes in those states, are complicit in this deceit. They have contributed more than $250,000,000 to the soon-to-be private citizen Trump to continue supporting those lawsuits…and presumably his planned run in the 2024 Presidential Election. In short, they don’t believe in the basic tenets and institutions of our Republic and American Democracy—that all are created equal; that all have an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream; that there are certifiable truths and scientific facts that can guide our decisions in life and our political policies.
People in Camp B believe in and support our Bill of Rights, our U.S. Constitution, our legal and civic institutions and traditions, the ability to legally modify and shape our institutions without violence in order to actually achieve “that more perfect union.” They are not fooled by the appeals of grifters and charlatans. They understand, as history has shown us, democracy is fragile and can be destroyed by propaganda, lies, and attacks on community values.
Regardless of how the Senate votes in Trump’s second, unprecedented Impeachment, the looming question is, how can we now help get more Camp A adherents moved into the values and beliefs of Camp B in order to save our democracy? With the help of patriotic Americans, that will be President Elect Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ main challenge. Are you up to that challenge?
Herb Moyer
Exeter, N.H.
Herb:
Knowing of no credible evidence that it is true, we have deleted from your first paragraph the assertion that the attack of September 11, 2001 “is thought to have been executed by both domestic and foreign conspirators.”
The Editor