Editor, Times-Union:

After a disastrous first year of the Biden administration, the Democrats like to use the January 6 "insurrection" like a battering ram against Republicans. I've heard media people describe the insurrection as the worst attack against democracy since 9/11, the Civil War, and the attack on Washington, D.C., in 1814.

But the beginning of the insurrection started last year when the Democrats used the pandemic to illegally change election laws throughout the nation to help Joe Biden win the election. If Nancy Pelosi wants to see the person most responsible for what she considers an insurrection, she needs to look in a mirror.  

The real attack on Democracy began before Donald Trump was sworn into office. Democrats and the media considered him illegitimate even though he won the election fair and square. They plotted to overthrow him and install Hillary as president even though she paid for the Steele Dossier that lied about him. The media had as much proof of Trump being an agent of Putin as they did of the existence of Santa Claus. But it didn't stop them from saying Trump colluded with the Russians to win. I think it was because of that joke Trump said on the campaign trail about wanting the Russians to find the lost emails from Hillary's laptop she had deleted. As I always say: Democrats can't take a joke; they can only vote for them.  

The media still calls the insurrection the deadly insurrection even though only one person died in the protest and she wasn't even armed. In severity, the January 6 insurrection was more of a protest than an attack on democracy while the riots throughout the country were more of a war against society. That insurrection continues despite reporters foolishly calling it mainly peaceful. Every time we see a smash and grab on TV when gangs invade stores and grab merchandise we witness an insurrection against law and order.  But Congress is too busy going after people that are more like your next door neighbor than anarchists.  

Democrats fear they will lose power in Congress in November and want the insurrection investigation to go on to be used against Republicans. But they won't release video footage that would exonerate many of the ones that were at the Capitol Building. In 2024 the battle cry against Trump might be REMEMBER JANUARY 6. But if the Republicans win overwhelmingly in November and Biden is impeached and thrown out of the White House, it won't be the death of democracy. It could be the rebirth of a democratic republic and the end of a banana republic which America has seemed like for too long.  

Rick Badman

Warsaw, via email