To the editor,

Life is loaded with surprises, but who would have thought Americans would ever trust our presidency to a person already twice impeached, who lies indiscriminately about matters both petty and vital, compares himself to Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus Christ, and describes himself not as our inspiration but our “retribution,” whose idea of demonstrating patriotism is to make a show of kissing and stroking the American flag? Who, in an apparent effort to show some measure of human compassion, tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Rican people who had lost everything to a hurricane (and is currently doing his best to defame the president whose response to our most recent weather crisis actually won the public praise of Republican governors in affected states?)

A career con man has now conned nearly half of the American electorate. Did you ever think you would vote for a person who used his political status to try to sell us $100,000 watches and gold high top sneakers, to mock those who don’t support him by calling them childish nicknames and perhaps even sic others on them by lying about them? This billionaire has apparently won the trust of many people for whom the system isn’t working so well. They must not have been listening to an interview last week in which he laughingly boasted about years of denying overtime pay to people who worked for him by bringing in more workers instead.

In spite of his personal history of sexual assault, repeated financial failure and corruption, and even his open admiration for dictators in other countries, an ignorant bully has actually made himself seem smart and strong (“a stable genius”) to far too many voters. In reality, as things sit today, he is facing two starkly different possibilities, occupying a jail cell or the Oval Office.

Maybe just last week you witnessed his true appreciation for the rule of law and quality law enforcement when he suggested that we allow “one rough hour…and I mean VERY rough”…that is, the use of extreme physical force by police… on suspected shoplifters. Donald Trump’s suggested solutions for everything from cathedral fires to Covid, when they are not ridiculous, are cruel, unethical, and sometimes illegal.

Finally, if you remain uncertain of what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, you have only to watch the video available online. You will see windows being kicked in, police officers being crushed in the doors, sprayed in the face, rammed with flag poles by people Donald Trump now calls “patriots” and “hostages,” the people you elected to the US Senate fleeing the building. All pretense of valuing our Constitution dissolved that day. And now the Republican vice presidential candidate is assuring us that he would not have safeguarded our republic as Mike Pence did.

Donald Trump’s rallying cry has always stirred fear and hatred. All of us are fearful at times, and hateful too, but if we recall those times in our own lives when we let those emotions rule us, I think we must admit that the consequences were nothing to be proud of later.

Let the election of 2024 not be one of those times.

Vicki Cobian

River Falls