Letters Feb. 17, 2022

Il Duce not wanted here

It’s not enough that the conspiracy-flogging traitors among us have to promote their racial insanity in our country. No, now they have to spread their anti-democratic poison over the border into our friendly ally, and join similar bigots and idiots in Ottawa, protesting masking mandates there. I’d say “Send in the Mounties,” but the cooler head of Prime Minister Trudeau doesn’t want to spark the verdamnt war these knuckle-dusting thugs crave.
It’s not American values being demonstrated by these white-power gunslingers, who act as if democracy only belongs to white folks. One of our own malcontents, Sen. Ted Cruz, calls these Confederate flag-waving, Nazi regalia-brandishing demonstrators “heroes and patriots.” My late father was a staunch patriot, and he would have called Mr. Cruz a “brush ape.” But he keeps getting reelected, doesn’t he?
Some folks are saying that with all the things going on around us, we’re looking at the looming end of our democracy. Maybe so, I can’t tell. But until our loser ex-president (who agrees with Ted Cruz) is called to account for his disloyal crimes, I’m going to worry about that too. We’ve lost so much ground already to un-democratic right-wing ambition. Maybe right now the confused public wants to see an Il Duce-type strong man to get the trains running on time. It is not a future I wish to see. Democracy only works when you make it work.

Ray Allard
Duluth, Minnesota