LETTER: Trump set the stage and GOP follows script written in lies

To Ozaukee Press:

I’m trying to understand the mindset that created the great divide in this nation which escalated with Donald Trump’s rise to power, fired up over the pandemic and then, blew up into “the big lie” about the 2020 election.

When Donald Trump announced his first presidential bid, he stoked fear of asylum-seekers at the southern border by pointedly declaring “some are rapists.” Trump rose to power using fear, inherited money and his bombastic know-it-all pop-culture celebrity. He’s like the wimpy wizard behind the curtain pulling levers to scare people.

His inflammatory rhetoric inspired the recently convicted men who plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan. He called the radicalized to Washington, D.C., and privately relished when they violently broke into the U.S. Capitol. His constant lying ushered in the recently-elected Republican New York  congressman sometimes going by the name George Santos. That man’s entire identity is a lie, and yet, in Congress, Kevin McCarthy is silent, worried about power as he desperately claws for “leadership.”

What disturbs me most is how Republican voters and their party collude with all of this. I’m now represented in a newly-drawn Assembly district by Republican Dan Knodl, who reinforced the big lie by signing a letter asking Vice President Pence not to certify the 2020 election. Knodl was recently re-elected with the help of gerrymandering over the super-qualified Democratic candidate, Bob Tatterson. Now, Knodl is running to be my Wisconsin senator.

Republicans won’t legislate for a woman’s right to choose, while a clear majority of citizens want women to have full access to health care. Nearly 90% of Americans want common sense gun regulation, which Republican legislators will not touch. I wish I understood endorsing lies and lying by putting Republicans into office. The Republican Party and the conservative cause have become too extreme.    

Nancy Camden

Mequon