Letter: No one who stormed Capitol on Jan. 6 can be called a patriot

To the Editor.

I find it totally astonishing that one man almost destroyed our democracy. Our disgraced, twice-impeached, liar-in-chief, ex-President Donald J. Trump, with his Big Lie that there was widespread fraud in the last election (there was not) and that the election was stolen (which it wasn’t, other than Trump trying to steal it from Biden). And now they are coming up with a new lie, that the Trump rioters who on Jan. 6 stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and doors, and defacing our beautiful capitol building weren’t insurrectionists: “No, no, they were patriots!” What? Give me a break. We watched it with our own eyes. They were traitors! They should be treated as such. Every single one of them should be arrested and put in jail. First the Republicans didn’t even want a bi-partisan investigation into the insurrection on our Capitol to try to overturn a free and fair election. Now they are trying to block it in every way they can. What are they afraid of? It seems that the Republican Party only embraces sedition, violence, and white supremacy. Now they are planning a new rally on Sept. 18 in favor of the “political prisoners,” as they call the insurrectionists! Where, oh where, is our country heading? The lies, anger, hate and fear that has pulled us apart will not win in the end. After four years of Trump our civil society has eroded, but it is not dead. Biden is bringing us out of the nihilistic nightmare of the Trump era. Trump uses menace and swagger to cover his mental and moral impotence. Come on America, wake up and smell the dictator wannabe, Donald J. Trump.

Kathryn Bonnell, Amboy