MY TURN: Response to Regan
Response to Brent Regan’s Opinion on Friday, Aug. 11:
America’s strength is tied directly to its equity and diversity. Equality of opportunity does not exist without equity. If you doubt this, consider the struggle that women continue to have had for equity in this county. A people cannot easily be unified toward a singular goal when great disparities exist — sex, education, income, ethnicities, race, societal and social standing, creed, et al. Recognizing and celebrating our differences makes all Americans stronger, not fractured groups as Mr. Regan would lead us to believe.
Our civilization does, indeed, depend on a justice system and rule of law. However, Mr. Regan projects progressives as seeing (and using) rules and laws “… only when they comport to a quest for power.” Gaslight much, Mr. Regan? This certainly would describe Donald J. Trump, who has demonstrated again and again his contempt for our Constitution, laws and rules unless they can be used to forward his authoritarian agenda to make America his private dictatorship. Mr. Regan’s use of the terms “fascism” and Marxism” are interesting, but flawed. If Mr. Trump were to regain power in 2024, we’ll all experience his corrupt misapplication of laws and rules that govern our country and ensure our freedoms so that his quest for power is absolute. We then will experience a dictator’s state power and control over the people of the USA.
The latest indictment of Mr. Trump's is not “…an egregious example …” of the unfair application of laws or preferential treatments, as Mr. Regan states. Had Mr. Trump not been indicted, disregard for our laws and rules and preferential treatment would blatantly exist. Mr. Trump was told by many knowledgeable and professional people on his staff that he lost the 2020 election, which has been determined to be one of the most accurate elections to date. Mr. Trump had nearly 60 court cases rejected due to lack of any evidence regarding the 2020 election and his claims of irregularities. Most stable, sane and sensible people would ascertain, from this fact alone, that their claims of a stolen election had been proven false. Several of the key states spent millions of dollars doing numerous recounts to certify the election results. I’m not sure where Mr. Regan gets his information, but numerous sources have repeatedly advised that voting irregularities, where they existed at all, were not of significant numbers to have any impact on the 2020 election outcome. No significant election issues existed. Biden won. Perhaps Mr. Regan should read more broadly and watch something other than far-right propaganda channels?
Mr. Trump’s third indictment is not “… an attempt at political assassination of an opponent …” as Mr. Regan states. A group of regular citizens (like you and me) met as a grand jury and made the decision to indict Mr. Trump based on the evidence they had. This indictment is an attempt to bring Mr. Trump to justice, not political assassination. Mr. Trump has accomplished more than anyone I know to divide this country and catastrophically harm our justice system and corrupt the rule of law. Obviously, Mr. Trump’s freedom of speech has not been impacted at all, as he continues to denigrate and malign the FBI, DOJ, the judge assigned to this case and everyone else who doesn’t bow to kiss his golden ring in absolute loyalty. Mr. Trump has demonstrated his obvious disregard for the rule of law in his many illegal acts, including the theft of secret and top secret national documents and his apparent conspiracy to withhold information and retain these stolen documents. Mr. Trump would like nothing more than to squash due process to gain authoritarian power over the American people. We Americans have not truly experienced fascism in our country yet, but we may well have to face it under another Trump reign.
The violence of Jan. 6, 2021, was not leveraged to strip anyone’s rights or to intimidate millions. Justice prevailed when these rioters where prosecuted for their crimes. People died. People were gravely wounded. Our elected representatives were threatened with death. This incident was a violent attack on our very way of life to stop the electoral count. To think otherwise is to be delusional. Violence is not the answer. Searching out truth and acquiring a broad knowledge is the answer, as is being open to listening, hearing and discussion of ideas and thoughts that are different from our own. In other words, civility in a civilized world. Now that’s real common sense!
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Candice Ford is a Hayden resident.