Letter: Why did we entrust our nation to a demagogue?

Back in November of 2015, when the prospect of a Trump presidency seemed a nightmare fantasy, I watched video of one of his rallies in which, holding his right hand at an awkward angle, he jerked and gyrated in an hideous mockery of a disabled reporter, Serge Kovaleski. I was repulsed.

Kovaleski had the audacity to contradict Trump’s charge that “thousands and thousands” of people cheered in Jersey City as the Twin Towers collapsed. Like so many of Mr. Trump’s incendiary claims about immigrants and minorities, that claim was false.

Subsequently, Trump demonstrated over and over again that he was untrustworthy, and intellectually and temperamentally unfit to hold the presidency. He continues to do that to this day.

So much has already been written about why Donald Trump won the election, from the decline of the middle class, to the xenophobia created by Trump and his allies. But what I question, and what distresses me most — besides the prospect of a Trump presidency— is why almost 60 percent of my neighbors here in Benton County voted for Trump.

Were we so afraid of “others” that we willingly abandoned our values and entrusted our nation to such an odious demagogue?

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 4:15 AM with the headline "Letter: Why did we entrust our nation to a demagogue?."