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To the editor:

For the first time in American history we have not had a peaceful transfer of power after a presidential election.

Because on Jan. 6, 2021, a career conman, who, to our lasting shame, happens to be president of the United States, attempted his biggest con – reversing the outcome of an election he lost convincingly.

Even with the help of his lap dogs in the administration and Congress, with the endless stream of lies on Fox News, talk radio, and far-right websites, with the power of social media platforms to spread these lies far and wide, he failed.

And when he couldn’t win in any state recount, or in any of the 61 lawsuits he filed, he turned to the streets, inciting a mob of supporters to march on the Capitol and force the election results to be thrown out.

Here too he failed.

But people died in his failed attempt at insurrection, and both our country and the idea of democracy itself have been diminished and stained by his actions.

More than 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, including members of my own family. Most felt they had good reasons for doing so. But the events of last week should cause them to reconsider that decision. It is way past time to recognize that Donald Trump is and always has been a conman and wannabe mob boss. He cares exclusively about himself and getting away with his con of the moment. He doesn’t care about you or me or Mike Pence or the people he sent on the march to the Capitol. He doesn’t know or care about America. To benefit himself, he simply makes promises to us marks with no thought of keeping them. Here are a few of the things the conman-in-chief promised:

· we’d get tired of all the winning

· he’d build the wall, Mexico would pay for it

· the Mexican children separated from their parents at the border would get great treatment, like at summer camp

· he’d bring back manufacturing, steelmaking, and coal mining

· he’d spend trillions on infrastructure, creating more great jobs

· he’d shut down North Korea’s nuclear bomb program

· COVID was under control, only 15 people were infected, it would disappear like magic, by Easter

· COVID was a hoax by Democrats to hurt his re-election chances

· hydroxychloroquine was a great treatment for COVID, bleach too

· his big donor and new Postmaster General was making the Post Office more efficient ahead of the election, although most mail-in ballots would be fraudulent

· his election was stolen, the Republican governors and election officials, and the scores of Republican judges who rejected his lies were all corrupt weaklings

· he’d march alongside his fellow patriots to the Capitol to take back the country

· he’d take no responsibility at all. This promise he kept.

Jim Airy

La Conner