Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as a day American democracy was changed forever and not in a good way. President Donald Trump ran on the slogan “Make America Great Again.” Even today, Trump continues to claim the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and that his reelection was stolen from him. The violent takeover of the Capitol is despicable. Five people died while our House of Congress was vandalized. Every Trump supporter including the likes of senators Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Ron Portman and other sycophant Republicans are guilty of sedition as they stoke the flames of civil war. The years of silence of all the Republicans including Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Mike Garcia and numerous others is deafening. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take lives around the country while wreaking havoc on our medical facilities and pushing our first responders to the brink of collapse, numerous Republicans are challenging the secure, free, and fair election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
Stuart Stevens wrote, “In the Trump years, Republicans have sent a message that lying is useful and productive, racism is acceptable, the press is the enemy, and a strong-man authoritarian head of government is ideal.” Stevens, a successful, long-time Republican operative, offers a very personal devastating account of a party that has lost its moral and political bearings. “For me, much of this is personal. I helped elect so many who now support Donald Trump, and I know, because I know these men and women well, that they find Trump repulsive and a degradation of their life’s work and espoused values. And yet they support him, on some level that it is damaging to every civic value they have previously held.”
According to Trump, America needs saving and only he can do it! Trump recorded a video in which he continued to claim that his reelection was stolen from him while suggesting the mob simply go home. Instead of saving America, Trump continues to destroy America.
David Limbaugh, a conservative writer, tweeted, “I’ve been working and didn’t even see the insanity but let me say that we all should condemn this violence. This is not what we do; this is not who we are. This is what we oppose. The framers crafted our system to prevent mobocracy. I pray our side didn’t instigate.” Note Mr. Limbaugh refers to himself and those who agree with him as “our side.”
Trump continues to forcefully and more importantly falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was a fraud, which according to Republican Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of Homeland Security, was the most secure, free, and fair election in our nation’s history. Limbaugh continues, “The 2020 presidential and congressional elections could determine whether this country heads permanently down the dark road of socialism, cultural Marxism, and eventually totalitarianism, or returns to its founding freedom tradition. We must work for the reelection of President Trump and congressional conservatives to reverse this leftist assault on America.” I don’t believe there were any leftists in the mob that assaulted the Capitol.
Mr. Limbaugh suggests that anyone who disagrees with him must be a socialist who wants to destroy our democracy. Mr. Limbaugh, the rioters who wish to destroy our democracy and to install Trump as king are neither left nor right leaning. They’re ignorant, brainwashed militants who believe the lies propagated by Trump, numerous Republican politicians and right-wing commentators such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram as well as yourself and your brother Rush Limbaugh.
America needs leaders of all colors, creeds, cultures and political affiliations to come together to solve our problems. Unlike Mr. Limbaugh, we need America to be more inclusive rather than exclusive. According to Limbaugh, “Unless we fight back more effectively on both fronts — political and cultural — we won’t be able to save America.” Why does the right feel only they can save America? The right claims to believe in science yet Limbaugh writes, “Nor are conservatives hostile to science, but we oppose its politicization and reject the notion that science can answer all of man’s questions or resolve all his problems.” Limbaugh and the conservative right forget that Trump politicized the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which Dr. Anthony Fauci and other leading physicians championed.
As Trump attacks the election of Biden and Congress debates the validity of some of the electors from a handful of states Trump lost, thousands of Americans are dying every day. Many businesses struggle while others collapse because of the uncontrolled surge of the coronavirus. Citizens across the country wait hours to be tested for COVID-19 at makeshift testing sites while others wait in long lines to receive food from their local food pantries to feed their families.
According to the Washington Post (as of this writing), 2.06 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed to California; however, only 486,087 doses have been administered (approximately 1.2% of the state’s population). In L.A. County, vaccine distribution quickly deteriorated as officials administering Moderna shots allowed some people who are not health care workers to skip to the front of the line. While most of us wait for the opportunity to be vaccinated, vaccines are readily available to politicians. Why are politicians skipping to the front of the line? How many more Americans must die before we overcome the inept, incompetent and in my opinion, the criminally neglectful response of the White House to the coronavirus? When will we start solving problems rather than creating them?
Rudolph Fillinger
Valencia
