Editor,

I’m wondering where those dyed-in-the-wool conservatives who couldn’t countenance big government or public debt went. Those folk who believed in state’s rights. The ones who wanted government out of their private lives. Are they all hiding under rocks somewhere?

And the libertarians so enamored of Ayn Rand who thought themselves strong enough to survive on their own. So self-sufficient, weren’t they? The guys who want “Republicans out of your bedroom and Democrats out of your pockets, so that they can make their own choices.” Free markets where government takes stakes in Nvidia and trade is circumscribed by whimsical tariffs. Yay, survival of the most obsequious.

Then there were the don’t-mess-with-me bad boys. You remember them from January 6th. They wanted their open-carry rights to own whatever weapons of choice they preferred, unhindered by pesky red flag laws or background checks. They liked to police protesters, but didn’t fancy it themselves.

Evidently those people have all misplaced their principles or had their fondest dreams realized.

And so here we are, about to lose the country we grew up in and were proud to claim. Abandon it to a corrupt extortionist who can’t surround himself with enough gold to convince himself of his worth. Who can’t maunder on about his greatness long enough to dissuade himself of his baseness. A truly empty man whose obsequious yes-men will never fill his ego.

Too bad for us. Too bad.

Linda Beeman

Clinton