{"id":40559,"date":"2024-07-03T09:16:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T13:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=40559"},"modified":"2024-07-03T09:17:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T13:17:01","slug":"letter-silent-conservatives-need-to-speak-out-or-death-of-democracy-will-be-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=40559","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Silent conservatives need to speak out or death of democracy will be on you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>To The Editor:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-19677\" src=\"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Letters1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"140\" \/>This is not about Donald Trump. \u00a0It\u2019s not even about the sad souls seduced by him. \u00a0The insurrectionists who stormed the Capital to prevent the peaceful transfer of power were primarily guilty of being gullible. \u00a0They fell for the big fraud. \u00a0They did not do the defrauding. \u00a0Many have been held accountable for their actions. \u00a0Most of the ones who fooled them have not. \u00a0Yet.<\/p>\n<p>I refer to Republican Party leaders who cashed in their moral courage to ride a demagogue\u2019s coattails to power. \u00a0They learned from their adored leader how to spew out coded calls to mob mentalities eager to vent their resentments. \u00a0I used to believe people had to be taught to hate. \u00a0Donald taught us you only have to invite people to hate. \u00a0Let them know it\u2019s OK. \u00a0Normal. \u00a0Join the gang. \u00a0Have some fun.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Who would you like to hate? \u00a0It doesn\u2019t have to be a race, religion, or immigration status. \u00a0People really want to hate \u201cElites.\u201d \u00a0Who are elites? \u00a0Anyone who may know more than they do. \u00a0People want to feel like they know more science than scientists; feel more righteous than the devout. \u00a0What better leader could they have than one who tells them what they want to hear. \u00a0Someone who claims to \u201cknow more about the military than all the generals.\u201d \u00a0That injecting bleach might cure Covid. \u00a0Forget evidence. \u00a0Forget knowledge. \u00a0Too time consuming. \u00a0Too boring. \u00a0All you have to do is what Donald does. \u00a0Just \u201cfeel\u201d you\u2019re right. \u00a0Personally, I\u2019d rather lose with honesty than to win with lies.<\/p>\n<p>They call themselves something they are not: \u201cConservatives.\u201d \u00a0True Conservatives value character, civility, and intelligence. \u00a0Trump-pets reward arrogance, anger, and self-delusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlternative facts\u201d is an oxymoron. \u00a0Except in the minds of those who can\u2019t face an uncomfortable truth. \u00a0They\u2019re just opinions masquerading as facts. \u00a0Using partial truths is not just a way to fool others. \u00a0It\u2019s how we fool ourselves. \u00a0If you embrace Donald, you embrace his lies and self-delusions. \u00a0You become what he is: a fraud. \u00a0You\u2019ll make excuses, find scapegoats, and rationalizations. \u00a0But in the end, you will be a mere follower of a pathetic, narcissistic bully. \u00a0I would rather be dead than that.<\/p>\n<p>If you are one of those silent conservatives who still respect the Constitution, Democracy, and the rule of law, but allow yourself to be intimidated by Trump Trolls, the death of our democracy will be on you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>James Tweed,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Ocean City, NJ<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To The Editor: This is not about Donald Trump. \u00a0It\u2019s not even about the sad souls seduced by him. \u00a0The insurrectionists who stormed the Capital to prevent the peaceful transfer of power were primarily guilty of being gullible. \u00a0They fell for the big fraud. \u00a0They did not do the defrauding. \u00a0Many have been held accountable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14905,9226,1862,506,7888],"class_list":["post-40559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-conservatives","tag-letter","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40560,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40559\/revisions\/40560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}