In “January 6th and January 13th” published Jan. 12, the author continues to look to the past instead of the present regarding our shared national affairs.

A driver who focuses only on the rear view mirror ends up crashing – hurting people. The focus on Trump rather than Biden reflects an unwillingness to admit to an unfolding American tragedy as our nation disintegrates before our eyes under the leadership of a “stable, sober, experienced Washington veteran” and his legislative majorities – but back to the present in a moment.

As for the past, the author continues to refer to Jan 6 as an attempted coup. Only the most hysterical interpretation of J6 events would suggest that. There has not been a single conviction, after more than a year, of anything that looks like sedition.

The author relies almost exclusively on Adam Schiff’s book to formulate this article. Yes, the same Adam Schiff who claimed he had abundant and incontrovertible evidence that Trump had conspired with the Russians … tick tock, tick tock, we are still waiting Mr. Schiff!

The author can’t even cite the correct Biden son with Ukrainian connections – it was Hunter not Beau.

He accuses supporters of the former president of “not understanding that living in an autocracy would mean the end of many freedoms…”. So as usual, the author essentially calls those 74 million supporters stupid. I challenge the author to identify the evidence of the autocracy he refers to – good luck.

Ironically, the evidence of the autocracy of the last 12 months is manifest. One of the reliable tools of totalitarianism is to accuse your opponents of what you are doing.

Now let’s return to the present. The current president promised to shut down the virus, test for free from home, make COVID treatments widely available and open schools. He insisted that inflation wasn’t a problem, supply chains clogs were not his fault, illegal immigration was simply a seasonal issue, that he’d get tough on China and Russia. He pledged to get Americans and our Afghan allies home safely and that he’d hunt down ISIS and make them pay – he promptly bombed a house in Kabul and killed seven children and an aid worker – no apologies. He has continually overestimated his legislative influence (BBB, voting rights), overstepped executive power (mandates) and insulted, even rhetorically, criminalized political opponents (Trump supporters, parents, the unvaxxed ) – layer upon layer of failure.

Perhaps the author should consider opining on some of these clear and present dangers rather than jousting with windmills of the past.

Brian DiNeilli

Enumclaw