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It's sad. It's scary.
The political power base of this country has shifted, but the difference this time is politicians, big tech and corporations are aligned to change the structure and meaning of our country.
It's sad initiatives that produced a 3-percent unemployment rate, record employment of Blacks, a reduced wealth gap between the wealthy and poor, tax reform benefitting 85 percent of income brackets, energy independence, improved trade policies, criminal justice reform, safer borders, reduced immigration chaos and a Mideast peace alliance are dismissed because of who pushed them.
It's scary that 75 million people who liked them are deemed cult followers requiring deprogramming, with suggestions that eliminating "domestic terrorism" that lives within them should be a national priority.
You would think the Proud Boys were a dominant force rather than a tiny splinter group with much less destructive power than, say, antifa.
There is censoring, silencing or shaming on social media of anyone who dares to suggest the new President's inauguration speech and campaign theme of unity carry no weight when he signs 19 resolutions the first day that will result in loss of an estimated 70,000 jobs.
Most of the people caught up in the sickening chaos of Jan. 6 were not there because an election was lost. They were there because they believe it was lost illegimately.
A CNN poll on election day revealed 38 percent of Americans identify as conservative, 38 percent as moderate and 24 percent as liberal. So, 76 percent of those polled lean center to varying degrees of the right.
In the past year they have seen a worldwide pandemic transported from China and used to change our voting system in ways that invite mistrust.
Courts dismissed election appeals without hearing from thousands of people behind affidavits, forfeiting the opportunity to hear sworn testimony regarding election questions.
In the past year, we have seen legitimate racial justice demonstrations against police interactions turned into anarchist violence in our cities, costing lives, destroying businesses, property and neighborhoods and toppling statues that are part of our heritage. The same people decrying the Capitol violence were apologists for that chaos, most of it from people with no attachment to racial justice.
We have watched a corporate/political embrace of Black Lives Matter, an organization with openly Marxist leaders whose manifesto calls for destruction of the nuclear family. If you embrace the sentiment but not the organization and question its leaders and funding accountability, that is labeled white privilege and racism.
We have watched big tech companies neuter First Amendment rights. While they are private companies, their power derives from special exemptions granted by a Congress whose Big Brother tendencies grow daily.
By contrast, National Public Radio, funded by your tax dollars, says questionable business ties to Communist China of the President's son are not worth covering. Twitter censored the story from the New York Post, the nation's oldest newspaper. Post-election, it was disclosed Hunter Biden has been under FBI investigation for those ties for 18 months.
Is it any wonder most people in Washington on Jan. 6 are scared of what our nation's relationship with China will be in the next four years?
If the President is serious about uniting us, he can start listening to people with ideas that support our foundations, stand up to those who don't have the nation's principles at heart and resist the urge to dismiss effective policies.
We should listen to calls for racial justice and police reforms, and revisit the plan set forth by black Republican Sen. Tim Scott. We should tune out anyone calling to defund police and overturn the basis of our justice system.
We need to vaccinate the country against the coronavirus, give credit where credit is due for a vaccine produced in record time and stop using COVID as a political tool.
We need to remove protections that allow Twitter, Facebook and other big tech entities to censor free speech without legal reprisal.
We don't need 52 states, 13 Supreme Court justices, abolishment of the electoral college, and a nationwide effort to bury our heritage and culture. We need improvement on what we have.
And in all 50 states, legislatures must reform election systems to assure voting restores faith in our system.
That faith has been severely damaged and Jan. 6 will be repeated if it is not restored, no matter who wins or which political party benefits.
That's sad. That's scary.
David F. Troisi is retired as editor of the Sun-Gazette.