The attack on the U.S. Capitol by the Trump supporters based on the assumption that the election was stolen exposes some important considerations.

Given the controversy over the 2016 election, there probably hasn’t been a more closely scrutinized election than the 2020 election. Even though there were recounts after recounts, several court challenges, all of which Trump lost, and Trump’s overt publicly exposed attempt to cheat by strongarming Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to “find the votes,” a few thousand of his followers attacked the Capitol, and 62 percent of Republican legislators rejected the election results and participated in his seditious and treasonous attempts to maintain power.

If there is any question as to whether Trump instigated the assault on the Capitol, his tweets are a dead give-a-way. Trump tweeted, “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.” He called his political opponents “bad people and the enemy of the people.” At his rally in Georgia, Trump said, “If we don’t do something fast, there will never be another free election and the United States will succumb to communism,” the big bugaboo scare tactic that Republicans usually use to keep their followers scared.

Donald J. Trump Jr. contributed: “We’re coming for you, and were going to have a good time doing it,” along with Rudy Giuliani’s war cry, “Let’s have a trial by combat.”

If that isn’t inciting a riot, what is?

The level of ignorance is appalling! These events expose how dangerous ignorance can be. In this case, ignorance of our Constitution, the separation of powers, and the basics of how our form of democracy works are what precipitated this. It’s bad enough that a large portion of our population has no clue, but it is downright tragic when government officials, who pledged to abide by the Constitution and protect our democracy have no clue.

It’s alarming that eight of those complicit legislators are House Representatives from Pennsylvania. They are: Mike Kelley, District 16; Guy Reschenthaler, District 14; Glenn Thompson, District 15; John Joyce, District 13; Fred Keller, District 12; Lloyd Smucker, District 11; Scott Perry, District 10, and Dan Meuser, District 9.

Trump’s a lunatic, in my opinion, but Congress has something important to learn too. People are disgusted with a do-nothing government that hasn’t represented ordinary people in decades. Politicians are all about tax cuts for the rich and big corporations in return for big campaign contributions while cutting health care and education funding, letting the country’s infrastructure rot, and failing to support a clean environment and a fair and just society.

The more money that gets sucked out of the economy and goes to the top one percent, the more ordinary people’s social status declines, and the more resentful they become toward government. Their disenchantment drives them to side with a tyrant like I believe Trump to be in hopes of breaking the good-old-boy system. If you don’t want a repeat of history with people storming the Bastille, so to speak, the government had better start representing us.

Seeing people like Trump tramp all over the law and get away with it makes them more hostile yet. Trump must not be allowed to pardon himself and his cronies. He must be impeached or removed via Article 25 in the Constitution immediately. Justice must be served swiftly, or justice will be a synonym for complicity.

RICHARD WHITEFORD

West Chester

Submitted via Virtual Newsroom