Appeasement never works

Most of us are ashamed of the violent attack on our nation’s Capitol and our due processes of democracy. The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, admits that Trump bears “some responsibility” for the attack. Our representative, CMR, also accepts “some responsibility for not speaking out against the departing president” (Spokesman-Review, Jan. 14). However, most Republicans now use McCarthy’s argument that impeachment will only “fan the flames of partisan division” and further divide a divided nation.

History and simple human psychology tell us this false. Appeasement always encourages more bullying (e.g., letting Hitler seize part of Czechoslovakia, 1937). Dan Newhouse, the staunch Republican in the district next door, is right: “The more people take a stand against what’s going on in our country right now, the sooner we will heal as a nation.” The more we appease the extremists, the more violence we’ll see – especially from the far right, which is heavily armed and relishes their intimidation of others. If we placate that constituency, we’ll get more of the same. What we see is what we’ll get.

Grant Smith

Cheney