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LETTER: Time to move forward

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Inauguration Day dawns in America, and our seat of government, once the safest and freest on the planet, is locked down and as militarized as Guantanamo Bay. Apparently this is the result of four years of making America great again. A blue-ribbon winner for irony when that slogan is juxtaposed against the current reality of our nation and like the virus that is on course to claim a half a million American lives, there is no end in sight.

On Tuesday’s opinion page of the Observer-Reporter, Pat Buchanan offered yet another perfect example of ignoring easily observable reality to defend and defer responsibility for the attempted coup that resulted in the murder of a police officer and four other deaths. Donald Trump warned that if Joe Biden were elected there would be violent anarchy. I guess he didn’t feel like waiting.

The former Nixon administration official states that Trump “defiantly refused to recognize that his defeat was fairly accomplished.” Clearly, since the president is on tape pressuring government officials to commit voter fraud in order to prove voter fraud.

Buchanan served in government long enough to recognize the naive absurdity of a vast conspiracy among government employees to rig an election. “Bob, we’re going to manipulate millions of ballots across multiple states to fix an election, and we’re going to need your help.” “OK … but you’re gonna have to call me on Monday. I’m burning a comp day tomorrow.”

It’s human nature to prefer the whimsical over the mundane. It’s more fun to believe in leprechauns and vampires and tarot card readers than to accept that dedicated civil servants ran a free and fair election. There was adolescent joy in “owning the libs” and celebrating the Trump brand, which frankly isn’t very good – he’s the Mr. Pibb of Dr. Pepper-centric drinks – but that all came to a tragic end on Jan. 6. It is now well past time to accept that when that fire extinguisher made contact with that officer’s head, all of this should have ended.

Joe Manning

Washington

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