Letters to the Editor

Perspective from D.C.

I lived and worked in Washington D.C. back in 1989-1990 during the Bush/Quayle years. As a bicycle courier I witnessed first – hand many things. Capitol hill, K. Street, Georgetown, Downtown, all day – every day. The Capitol itself, along with the senate and house office buildings are stunning examples of neo classical architecture. Please go and check them out sometime. To me, D.C. isn’t far from being a swamp. I saw many protests, more than I can recount here. Never, however have I seen anything like the angry mob that desecrated the peoples house on January 6th. These were clearly Trump’s supporters. They were white supremacists, Q-Amon followers, and lots of souls from the bottom of the right-wing barrel. Folks will try and paper over these ugly truths, or try and make false equivalence arguments about BLM or Anti fa. The election was fair, Trump lost. Its as simple as that. There was no wide-spread election fraud. Its longer 1954. Blacks and whites, ALL Americans have equal rights as outlined in the constitution. I love America too, even when she looks ugly. Our country is also my country. I Voted! My vote counts, Thank God.

Derek Jones

– Ritzville

Reflecting on Newhouse

I first met Republican U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse in his office about 15 years ago when he was my Washington State Representative and I was advocating for funding of afterschool programs. Although I often disagreed with him, he always did his homework—he thoroughly read my emails prior to meeting with me. In this he stood out from my other Republican State Representatives at the time. I still subscribe to Newhouse’s newsletter emails.

I always found Newhouse very well-informed, straightforward, principled, and honest. Thus I was not surprised by his decision to vote for impeachment of former president Trump. As argued by some of Newhouse’s unhappy constituents (Spokesman-Review, 1/26/12), U.S. Representatives do have an obligation to represent their constituents; however, they have a much higher obligation to follow the Constitution.

Our country needs a legitimate Republican Party willing to make fact-based and courageous actions such as the recent one by Newhouse. Otherwise, the Republican Party will either be destroyed or will remain vulnerable to any lying, bigoted, intimidating and aspiring dictator, as has characterized the behavior of most Congressional Republicans, including our state’s Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the past four years.

Norm Luther

– Spokane