Tim O'Mara
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
As a Democratic voter for the past four decades, I truly miss the reasonable discourse I used to be able to have with many of my Republican friends. (And most of my family.) I'm not going to recycle all the left-wing comments about why Trump is/was bad for America. I will state that the Republican Party's leaders are letting its constituency down. They did not even bother coming up with a new platform for the 2020 election; they just left standing the one from 2016 as if nothing had changed over the past four years.
The ultimate letdown is the refusal of the Republican leaders - as of Nov. 18 when I wrote this letter - to acknowledge the fact that Trump lost the national election and Joe Biden is the president-elect. This is not only boot-licking at its most flagrant, it is dangerous to our country. Refusing to allow the beginning of a peaceful transition - which used to be one of the enviable hallmarks of the American system - during the coronavirus and international turmoil is beyond reckless.
Humoring the outgoing president by stoking his narcissistic fantasy of "winning big," may earn some Republican leaders points with a portion of their supporters. What it's really doing is putting our great country at higher risk and allowing other countries around the world - I know you can hear me Russia, Belarus and Turkey - to look to us and say, "See, if America can do it, we are right to do so as well."
Regardless of when Trump and his minions finally concede - and I do hope it's before this letter gets printed - it took too long. I look forward to speaking again with true conservative Republicans with whom I can respectfully disagree. (Including conversations of why many of them voted for Trump.) I cannot have those same conversations with those who - like Trump - willingly do not acknowledge reality.