MY TURN: Insurrectionists, not Patriots

Imagine my surprise when I read my Cd'A Press of Friday, Dec. 16, and found out from Brent Regan that there can be differences of opinion on the Jan. 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol building. With the attacks on law enforcement officers, calls to hang the vice president and hunting around for senators and representatives to harm, and with many of these people already convicted of these crimes and many more to come, you can see why someone who claims to be a patriot would say such a thing.

The attack on the Capitol that day and the calls for harm to come to our elected officials were criminal acts, perpetrated by traitors to this country. To use the word patriots or concerned citizens in connection with this domestic terrorist attack is unconscionable. We should all recall the video footage in real time, and afterward, of these people climbing up the sides of the Capitol building. Honestly, they looked like the orcs in "The Lord of the Rings." It was sickening. It was a violent attempt to cast aside the results of a free and fair election and NOT "patriotic Americans with serious concerns about the integrity of the election." (Quotation from Mr. Regan's column).

To hear them calling for the hanging of the vice president and calling out in their threatening manner for the speaker of the House was chilling. Even more disgusting was the retraction after the fact of the responsibility of the former president and his associates by the Republican senators and representatives who called for help and were worried about their own safety on that day. Every one of these elected officials swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States when they took office, and claiming that in a free and fair election that there was election fraud and the wrong person was going to take the oath of office on Jan. 20 was, of course, ridiculous, but also completely in opposition to this oath and the values that true patriots hold dear.

The people who attacked the Capitol that day could claim ignorance, I suppose, or that they were led astray, but if someone broke into their home and tried to attack them, would they accept that defense from the perpetrators? In a free and fair election, which is what took place in November 2020, it is not fraud that your candidate lost. Your candidate did not get enough votes to win. Next time, support a candidate that the majority of the voters in the country want.

There is absolutely no way to view the attack on the Capitol in an opinion-based way. It is a fact, supported by video, testimony and, ironically, by the social media postings of the attackers, who were so proud of what they were doing that they just had to share it with the world.

Our country has been divided in a way that it has not been in my living memory and I am 68 years old. We have the former president, his associates and his followers to thank for that. It was not divided this way during Watergate, because sensible Republicans and Democrats worked together to support the rule of law. No one is above the law.

Please spare us any more columns from Mr. Regan which state yet more falsehoods, perpetrating these "alternative facts" (there is an oxymoron for you!) Opinion pieces must actually be about topics upon which people can have opinions. The attack on the Capitol is not one of them.

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Valerie Hodge is a Hayden Lake resident.