Rick Barker (Oct. 28) wrote a piece that criticized my letter (Sept. 30) on the lack of critical thinking without ever mentioning critical thinking. Instead, he defended the actions on Jan. 6 by his favorite politician, Mike Garcia. As for the title of his piece, “Beating the Same Drum,” it was appropriate. He devotes himself to promoting Mike Garcia in almost every one of his writings.
Barker states that Garcia was actually in the Capitol on Jan. 6 and “immediately condemned the violence and the people committing it.” No mention of those who were responsible for planning the insurrection. Even Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell criticized Donald Trump for instigating the attempted coup. McCarthy then flew to Mar-a-Lago to beg for forgiveness. Garcia was silent.
Later that Jan. 6 evening, Garcia voted, along with 146 other Republicans, not to accept the electoral college votes from two states. This was an attempt to delay the certification of the election results and install Donald Trump as president. Barker admits that the courts ruled that these votes were indeed legitimate. Garcia and others neglected the 60 courts that had previously ruled the 2020 election results were legitimate.
Barker defends Republican rejection of election results because Democrats have also contested voting in the past. However, these objections were decided in the courts, where they are legitimately contested. House Republicans had a different approach. Garcia needs to finally explain himself and apologize to his constituency.
And I have never described Rep. Garcia as “dishonest or a wacko right-wing hack” on these pages. That is dishonest.
Thomas Oatway
Valencia
