Commissioners misplace their allegiance

It was shocking to read in The Daily World on Jan. 9 that our two newly-elected Grays Harbor County Commissioners were unable to acknowledge how Trump had inspired a terrorist attack on the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

Both Jill Warne and Kevin Pine are propagating the conspiratorial lies that have been spread by Trump and his sycophants. Warne at least acknowledged the violence while Pine suggests that it may not have even happened — “(My brother) said he never saw any violence. People were upset as to what was going on, but there was no talk of burning, rioting or looting at the Capitol.”

It is obvious to any honest person who has been paying attention that Trump has been preparing his loyalists for an insurrection to try to install him as a dictator. This attack on the Capitol was treason pure and simple. The word to describe this attempted overthrow of the US government is autogolpe — a coup initiated or abetted by a country’s elected leader.

This recent violent anti-government movement traces its roots from Sagebrush Rebellion in the Reagan years through the Bundy armed assaults on public property during Obama’s term and now to Trump’s attempted coup d’état. Trump has been grooming his supporters for this violence with 25,000 lies in his four years in office. To try to rationalize this assault on our Capitol with lies about the election being stolen is the height of irresponsibility. It has been repeatedly rebuffed by the state election boards and in the courts.

Pine’s statement that ”Seventy-some million people demanded that something was wrong here …” is without foundation. Perhaps he meant to say that 74 million votes were cast for Trump and 81 million were cast for Biden. Or, is he saying that those 81 million Americans don’t count?

For Pine and Warne to place their allegiance with an autocrat above devotion to their country is a disgrace and their attempt to rationalize this dangerous and illegal behavior by Trump’s racist lynch mob is despicable. Kim Jung-un would be pleased to have such servile lackies.

David Linn

Ocean Shores