In the first paragraph of Thomas Paine’s second “The American Crisis” pamphlet, he stated that, “he that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defense of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to ‘Defender of the Faith,’ than George the Third.”
Here we can substitute former President Donald Trump for George III. It seems to me that all reasonable persons repulsed and opposed to Trump’s attempts to overturn the last election can see that he interfered to change the results of a free and fair election. He longs to be a tyrant like the leaders he idolizes: Vladimir Putin of Russia, Kim-Jong un of North Korea and Xi Jinping of China.
Those opposed to reason by still believing the last election was stolen and wrought with fraud may never come to the realization that they are the victims of “The Big Lie” and never accept the results of a loss in any future election. If Trump is held accountable, along with his co-conspirators, it will affirm Paine’s assertion that “the sword of justice is the best scourge of tyrants.”
Meanwhile, denial that Joe Biden is the legitimate, duly elected, president defies all proof of fact and sound reason. Until Jan. 6, I really thought that we could and should resolve to work in a reasonable, bipartisan manner to solve our problems and resolve our disagreements. However, Republicans care nothing about being reasonable. They are only concerned about restricting voting rights, blocking sensible gun laws, overturning Roe v. Wade and covering the behinds of anyone that had anything to do with the Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol building.
Can reason and sanity prevail, or will lies, obstructionism and fealty to a lost cause turn this country into something inconceivable?
Stan Zabierek
New Ipswich