The Republican Party‘s relentless march toward repressive, divisive, bigoted policies began with the Tea Party movement and found its ultimate success with the rise of an unhinged, immoral cult leader.
Donald Trump and his lily-livered, hypocritical apologists have transformed the party creed from one that celebrated private freedom, social responsibility, and fiscal temperance into one that defines personal freedom based on their narrow white Christian lens, demeans the value of helping those less fortunate, and dismantles policies that grow economic opportunities in order to satisfy the avarice of wealthy people and institutions seeking to minimize taxes and limitations on their pursuits.
As with previous Republican administrations, Trump’s policies are bound to send our economy into a tailspin and hurt the aggrieved working class who helped put him in office.
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Trump’s second term will demonstrate the existential danger of the Republican Party he leads. Words, facts, and appeals to long-held values and moral codes have had little or no impact on this drift into tyranny. The pain of promised punishment of Trump’s detractors, rising inequality, international disgrace, and deteriorating communities, environment, and living circumstances that follow may be the only cure for the mindless angry fervor that has gripped half of the American voting public.
Louise A. Venden
Cambridge
The Republicans will not ‘fix it.’ But they’re sure to blame the Democrats.
So, the big question now is: How, in the not-too-distant future, are Donald Trump and the Republicans going to spin the devastation of our economy, the Earth’s climate, and our international relationships so as to blame the Democrats?
Unfortunately, the spin will probably work. More than half of the country has fallen for Trump’s lies already.
Speeches should end no longer with “God bless the United States of America” but, rather, with “Please God, save the United States of America.”
Mike Potsaid
Townsend
Already looking ahead to the midterms, with a glimmer of hope
OK, we warned you what he would do — heck, he told you what he would do — and you voted for him anyway. Don’t come crying to us when you get buyer’s remorse.
Oh, we’ll still fight the good fight to try to minimize the damage until the midterms, when we can hopefully see a Blue Wave to put the brakes on Donald Trump and his administration.
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Maybe we’ll still have a democracy to elect a Democratic president in 2028, to once again try to repair the damage caused by a Republican president.
Steven Brooks
Whitman
Nov. 5, 2024, will live in infamy
The outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election prompted me to think about the 10 most tragic days in America’s last 100 years (or so). This is my list, so it’s subjective. It also does not include weather events or other “natural” disasters.
May 31, 1921: the Tulsa race massacre.
Oct. 29, 1929: the stock market crash leading to the Great Depression.
Dec. 7, 1941: Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Feb. 19, 1942: FDR’s Executive Order 9066 creating the Japanese American internment camps.
Nov. 22, 1963: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
March 16, 1968: the My Lai massacre, the mass murder of as many as 500 Vietnamese men, women, and children by American troops.
April 4, 1968: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
June 6, 1968: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Sept. 11, 2001: the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States.
Jan. 6, 2021: the insurrection at the US Capitol.
Sadly, the election of Donald Trump to another term as president of the United States adds an 11th day to this horrible list. But unlike all the other days, we did this last one to ourselves. Shame on us.
Michael Knosp
Melrose
A message from our blue state
Given President-elect Donald Trump’s oft-stated plans to use the military to pursue his perceived enemies, to pardon those convicted of crimes for attacking the nation’s Capitol in an effort to disrupt the election process, to help fulfill Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s plan to take over Ukraine, to increase prices through huge tariffs, to decrease taxes on the wealthy, and to continue expressing praise for the world’s dictators, I think it’s time to dust off those old 1972 “Don’t Blame Me! I’m From Massachusetts” bumper stickers.
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Robert Doyle
Franklin
This result is what most Americans wanted
Like it or not, most Americans were in the mood for John Wayne movies. Democrats offered “Sesame Street” episodes instead. Therein hangs the tale — and the election.
Richard Chait
Belmont
Shame
Today I am ashamed to be an American. Period.
Judy Sands
North Reading