No, now is not the time for healing
On Jan. 6, patriotic Americans watched in horror as a mob of right-wing extremists attacked the U.S. Congress. This mob was created by and funded through Republican sources. Tea Party Patriots, Turning Point Action, Stop The Steal, and the Republican Attorney Generals Association were instrumental in financing and planning this insurrection.
Several Republican congressmen supported and participated in this attempted coup. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Paul Gosar and Andy Beggs of Arizona helped plan, organize and encourage this attack on our free and fair elections. Lauren Boebert of Colorado aided and abetted the insurrectionist during the riot. Donald Trump and Republican senators incited the riot and created the context with their lies about the election's outcome.
The Republican party has become the sanctuary for QAnon insurrectionists, White Supremists, Nazis, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. These extremists spearheaded the attack on our country. All of these traitors must be held to account before we can start reconciliation.
Republicans are pleading for us to "move on," to forgive and forget about this attempted coup. But everyone who participated in this odious enterprise must face justice from the lowest most deplorable militiaman to Donald Trump.
Terry Stulce
Ooltewah
Trump knew why he lost well before Jan. 6
It was helpful to see the Feb. 3 Free Press editorial page draw out some of the implications of the polling data compiled for outgoing President Trump in the aftermath of his November election defeat.
The Washington Post story, which was itself dependent on reporting done by Politico and data compiled by Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, indeed identified trustworthiness and the handling of the pandemic as issues at the forefront of voters' thinking. But there are additional implications worth drawing out, of which three can be named.
First, these interpretations of his electoral defeat were in the hands of President Trump and his associates in December, i.e., in the period when he was still claiming to have been denied victory by a stolen election. Second, these interpretations of his electoral defeat were in his hands even as he, in that period, proceeded to raise in excess of $250 million, ostensibly to assist in legal challenges against massive voter fraud. Third, the president was in possession of these findings, explaining his defeat, even as he harangued the Washington demonstrators on Jan. 6, just before the storming of the capital.
The outgoing president's conduct and actions in this period were therefore at clear variance with information already in his possession, the compiling of which he had authorized.
Kenneth Stewart
Lookout Mountain, Georgia