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Regarding your “Rule of Law or Mob Rule” column, come on man! Your lack of self-awareness and proportionality is simply stunning. Such myopic shrillness and clumsy stereotyping of Republicans is truly beneath a publication that portends to be competent and inclusive. You are better than that.

Democracy and the rule of law are indeed under great threat in our country. But a reasonable argument can be made that these threats are much more resident in the ongoing mayhem released upon the American citizenry by Democrats’ embrace of open borders, destructive police reform and progressive district attorneys that openly refuse to prosecute entire categories of crimes than from a singular despicable riot in the U.S. Capitol eighteen months ago.

Many of the January 6th rioters have been arrested and aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and rightly so (you know, that rule of law thing). Similarly aggressive prosecution of crimes on the border and in major urban areas would be a great place to start in renewing broader faith in the rule of law, no?

I am a proud Republican that spent over 27 years in the Air Force special operations community putting it all on the line because I did and still do believe our country and all of its citizens, regardless of political affiliation, are truly special and worthy of defending. I am tired of having my political affiliation routinely maligned, hectored and simplistically caricatured by sanctimonious progressives, especially those that seem to deny basic realities that surround us all in favor of preferred narratives and rigid leftist ideology.

So to echo the absurdities in your original column, go ahead Ken, continue to believe that Republicans are evil authoritarian gun-clingers helplessly mesmerized by the all-powerful Orange Man. Hang on to that until the day you die. Hate Republicans. But do not confuse the Republican Party with the demise of democracy itself or the erosion of the rule of law. There is plenty of blame for that to be laid at the feet of Democrats as well.

The question for all citizens moving forward is, “what are we going to do about it?”

Cheers,

John Cline

Shelter Bay