Party above country
The recent disgusting riots and bloodshed by "American" terrorists attacking the United States Capitol for the first time in history is a reflection of politicians placing loyalty to power and a human being over loyalty to the Constitution.
I'm nearly 75 and served 31 years in uniform alongside brave and competent soldiers of every color and religion. The racism and hatred manifested in this attack and the way law enforcement responded to it as compared to the BLM protests is stunning. Who teaches these people these civic values? Do parents, schools, churches?
We are a nation of ugliness, disrespect and violence ... I am ashamed.
BILL RUSSELL
Maumelle
Correct terminology
Regarding the events of Jan. 6, instead of the proper moniker "putsch," I read instead the misnomers "coup" and "anarchy." So: A coup is a violent overthrow of an established government, but one that has been organized by military or police agencies. School of the Americas graduates, being military officers from their home countries, have organized and executed a generous number of coups throughout Latin America. The storming of Congress was not organized by actors from the U.S. armed forces, but sprouted instead from an online ecosystem of right-wing forums and chat-rooms, whose violent eruption was consciously stoked by the president and his aides.
Now, "anarchy" is a global political ideology which seeks the eradication of exploitative state power relations (be they capitalist or "communist"), to be supplanted by the totally free association of human beings in a plurality of cooperatively owned and operated democratic councils and communes. It seems our native white supremacist son who dropped his boots on Pelosi's desk sought not the demise of racist institutions in the USA; rather, he and his compatriots seek the perpetuation of a racist state-dictatorship headed by an openly racist president.
A putsch--a violent attempt to overthrow an established government--is exactly what the president and his mob are undertaking. This is a known move in the fascist playbook--take some time to read about the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, which ended with the arrest of Hitler and the Nazi Party's transition to legal, legislative means of power-grabbing. Please read Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism" so that you can more readily recognize the existential threat posed by QAnon and Trumpism. Please believe your local anarchists when they tell you that political gradualism, liberalism, and conservatism will not save us. We need local democratic peoples' councils, not rule by Little Rock and Washington.
LIAM McMAHON
Prairie Grove
Condemnation absent
While the violent siege and invasion of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., by Trump supporters was abhorrent, so were the attacks, destruction, and looting by Antifa and Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis, Portland, Kenosha, etc. The media and the left are excoriating Trump supporters, but where is the condemnation by them of Antifa and Black Lives Matter? Their silence is deafening!
BARBARA GAROT
Little Rock
Door needs its hinges
Every time I hear Speaker Pelosi call President Trump unhinged, all I can think of is Pelosi ripping up President Trump's State of the Union address behind him on national TV. It looked like something a 5-year-old child would do. The president might be unhinged, but then Speaker Pelosi is the unhinged bottom hinge on that door.
PHILLIP BASINGER
Conway
On actual leadership
Suppose you knew Mr. X watched for several hours while Mr. Y abused a dog. Finally, Mr. Y did something so horrific that Mr. X objected aloud and Mr. Y stopped. Would you consider Mr. X brave and heroic for having spoken up? Or might you wonder why he waited? I would.
Apparently the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette actually finds such behavior praiseworthy. In its Friday editorial, "Leadership in action," it lauded our congressional Captains Courageous for having, finally, accepted the Electoral College results of the November election, even at the risk of a negative presidential tweet. (Oh, the horror!) It only took our six Mr. X's two months to openly accept the will of the people. If that's leadership action, I shudder to think what leadership inaction would look like. Probably much like the prior four years.
Where were these six stalwarts when President Trump was using congressionally authorized aid as a bribe for a foreign leader to produce dirt on a political opponent? Where were they when the president was separating children from parents in the name of border security? Or when he continually lined his pockets at government (our) expense? Where have they been over the last four years as the president repeatedly took actions antithetical to democracy and the rule of law?
Leaders lead. They don't step in after the dog has been beaten for many hours and claim victory. They should always put country before party. They also, despite the Democrat-Gazette's position, should give doing the right thing priority over getting re-elected. You've done neither. Shame on the lot of you, both politicians and newspaper.
There's still time, though. Speak up now on the issue of removing the president immediately. Lead. Really lead rather than waiting until the United States dies of its wounds.
DENNIS BARRY
Little Rock
Resignation needed
The editorial "Resignations all around" was spot-on. A less hypocritical editorial position might have titled the editorial "Trump resignation imperative."
CHARLEY PENIX
Little Rock