Dear Editor:
There will no doubt be much commentary about the Jan. 6 events in D.C.
These events should not come as a total surprise. This country has a long vein of bigotry that bubbles up to the surface periodically going back at least to the Know-Nothing movement of the 1850’s. In more recent times you can trace it from Father Coughlin (of the 1930s) to Joe McCarthy to George Wallace to Pat Buchanan to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. All featured attacks on people of color. All were anti Semites. All were misogynists.
Intersecting this is the fact that no longer are all the places at the table reserved for white heterosexual males. This removed the white privilege for many mediocre white males and the trend of a diverse table is only getting bigger and creating insecurity in some elements of the white male population.
At the same time there has been massive dis-investment in many parts of the country, mostly rural and medium-sized locales. This has created an understandable anger and insecurity. Nobody wants to be thought of as living in “fly over” country.
These 3 trends must be recognized when both trying to explain Trump and trying to heal the country. As far as the terrorists of Jan. 6 are concerned, they must be prosecuted as much as possible and, with new emphasis on domestic terrorism from the DOJ, be driven back under the rocks from whence they crawled out.
Rick Saunders, Chincoteague
