To the Editor:
So, the state of Texas hosted the Conservative Political Action Conferences – aka “C-PAC” recently and their headliner at the end was former president Donald Trump. Of course, it was.
Trump instructed them that the issues to campaign non-stop on would be the border, lawlessness and inflation. Oh, such wisdom. And such sheer unmitigated hypocrisy by the conservatives.
A former sitting president very clearly responsible for inciting a violent insurrection against our government on the steps of our Capitol where people were killed as a result, has about as much business telling people to campaign on the lawlessness in this country as a convicted murder sitting on death row. The very fact that he could not bring himself to condemn the violence on January 6th shows the level to which Donald Trump is comfortable with absolute lawlessness.
Every single P.T. Barnum-style campaign rally was designed and guaranteed to stir up violent leaning tendencies and outrage over everything that annoyed and irritated those in the crowd about living in a nation as big and diversified as the United States. And they used social media sites to amply their messages. Trump and Steve Bannon, and the far-right conservative faction of the Republican Party, wanted there to be anger and they didn’t care what they unleashed on this nation with their non-stop agitating rhetoric. Hitler did the same thing in Germany and just like then, many innocent people died violent and needless deaths.
We are a more violent society because of Donald Trump and nothing the conservatives come up with will erase that fact. How fundamentally morally bankrupt do you have to be to allow one man to lead the nation on a path of heightened violence for four straight years and then listen to him tell you to campaign against the lawlessness he and they helped create? To use that lawlessness as a weapon to advance a party’s political goals. Violence is working for a large faction of the Republican Party and those who deny it, should open their eyes and be honest. Under Trump, the GOP deliberately allied themselves with many violent factions in order to gain and keep political seats.
It bears repeating; this nation was never as bleak, or as in bad of shape as Trump and Bannon went around convincing everyone that it was. But we sure as heck aren’t in better shape on those fronts with Trump’s handling of “lawlessness.” The question is this – are there going to be that many decent, fair-minded moderate citizens who once again will hold their noses and silently gag while this low-scale level of political grease continues to erode our country and safety? Perhaps it is time for a great majority of us to commit to finding and forcing better alternatives all around for our elected officials. Ones that first and foremost don’t put our lives in harm’s way to satisfy their political agenda.
Lisa Voiles
Whiteland
